Fish cruelty! Betta et al.
hlth., rant 4/13/08
Hi! My Betta is very VERY sick to the point where I am contemplating ending
its life... I knew truly nothing of Betta fish when I bought it as I believed
what people around me told me about them (the usual stuff like that they only
need tiny cups and no care blablabla....which all ended up being useless crap ).
It lived in a .5 gallon for a while, I realized it seemed to want more space and
gave it a 2 gallon (I had from when I was a kid) afterwards and it seemed much
happier. I took great care of it, keeping the water at 77-83, very calculated
careful feeding of dried blood worms, frequent water changes etc, and he was
always very active and had bright colors....until a month ago! :(I sometimes
have to travel to another town in order to see family, friends and boyfriend and
it takes 4 hours to get there so I decided it was better to leave my roomie take
care of my fish....WRONG! :SI knew they did not take good care of it, as when I
would come back the tank was FILTHY LIKE HELL!!!!! After only 2 days and a half
she managed to overfeed like CRAZY!!!! :(I told them many times to not overfeed
and change the water....which they did...perhaps 1 in the many times she "cared"
for it.... the major problem was when I had to leave for a week....When I came
back the water stenched as hell, rotten bloodworms were EVERYWHERE in the tank
and no water had been changed....and my fish was not very well-looking! :(She
even placed the tank near the window for the whole freakin week when it was
freaking cold and snowy outside!!! :SI finally discovered it had velvet! :It has
been very sick for a long time and I was not there to care for it so the disease
was pretty advanced when I diagnosed it! Its got a heavy patch of gold dust
behind one of its fin, it does not eat, stays hidden, lays at the bottom of its
tank all the time and barely ever goes to the surface to breathe! :( It has had
velvet for about a month (did not eat for a month) and a week now. After 2 weeks
of intensive care (salt baths, salt in aquarium, darkness, warm water and copper
medicine) I managed to get him healthy-looking again, he finally started eating
again, would swim normally and flare! :) He looked happy again, the gold
vanished, and he became curious and colorful again! :D He was fine for 3
days....until I had to leave again for urgent reasons....with no possibility to
take him with me! :(I really had NO other choice than leaving my pets behind,
and though I felt bad about this I though that my OTHER roomie was a responsible
person....WRONG!!! :She could not tell a dead fish from a thriving one! :She
overfed....NO water changes, took him away from his heat source and near the
FREAKIN OPEN WINDOW (guess she did not feel like keeping the tank and all on her
desk! :( )She did not even feed my Amano shrimp, which is kept in a separate
tank because of the copper treatment (I don't know what the hell she thought I
had put the shrimp in her room for???!)I came back...3 days later and the fish
is sicker than ever! :(I have tried everything again and he is just getting
worst and worst now! I guess it was too much for him! His colors are fading like
never, a dark blotch appeared on his ventral fin, his scales seem to be falling
of at some areas of the head! :( The gold splotches are on his fins again and he
looks so miserable! :(Is there any chances of it getting better now? :( I got a
5 gallon with filter and all so that my fish could stay the weekends in my room
from now on, warm, with acceptable water parameters, and FAR from my roomies...
but I don't even feel its worth it anymore! :*( He looks so bad now and I know
he has been suffering for SOOOO long! :(Should I keep on trying or try a
painless way to end his life? Will the gill damage from a month and 2 weeks of
velvet attack ever recover?
<Possibly>
:(Thanks for taking the time to read and answer me! :)Oh and I was wondering as
well....You see, my two roomies each purchased a purple passion Danio fish
(almost a month ago), and one of them has a small male Amano shrimp of 1 inch
long with that. Each animal is in a separate.... 1 litre tank! :( Actually... 1
litre would be generous as there is a thick layer of very bad quality (rusting)
gravel in the bottom, the water stops at a good 2 inch from reaching the top,
and the tanks all contain java moss, which takes up pretty much all of the
space! :I'm amazed the fish survived so long! Especially considering the water
is scarcely changed and they overfeed! :O How long do you believe that purple
passion Danios can survive in these conditions?
<Not long>
:(How long can the Amano shrimp survive like that? Can it?
<No>
:One of the Danio looks like its on speed, always rushing in the tank side and
swimming at a furious rate, while the other stays lethargic at the bottom and
always try to behind the java moss. The shrimp also looks pretty lethargic! :O I
REALLY want to let them read your answer because they don't believe me when I
tell them that they are torturing the poor animals, and thus professional advice
might wake them up a little! My roomie with the lethargic one does not even
think the fish is sick because quote: "it moves! See!", (yeah when she shakes
the tank it moves...for about 2 seconds before laying to the bottom again!) and
she thinks he lays like that all the time because quote: "he is just sleeping,
when you sleep you don't move duh". Well...one of them at least, the other does
not care and always says "its just a fish who cares", but the other girl gets
defensive when I tell her that her fish looks sick, so I think she might care a
little! :O I hope your response can make these fish discover a slightly better
life! (for now I am making sure that they don't get any new pets! one of them
wants a salamander....)
<... don't know what you're looking for here... My advice, either hire someone
to come in to take care of your pets while you're away for days time, or take
them into a shop to have them do the same. Bob Fenner>
