I think we're losing another fish

[Piper2]

We did have a beautiful male betta back before Christmas. Then when we went down to visit all the grandparents for the holidays, even though we left a time-release food pellet in the aquarium, we had that sudden ice storm right then, and the temperatures got so cold that the fish was dead when we got home (no surprise to us, but there was nothing we could do without having the heat run the whole week we were gone). After that, we bought 2 peach-colored danios and another fish called a sunburst-something. "Sunny" died a couple of weeks ago, and now "Nio" (the other two are "Dan" and "Nio" -- danios...get it? ;)) is sitting on the bottom of the aquarium not swimming around, just acting like he's got the hiccups or something. Both fish were fine when I fed them this morning, and we cleaned the tank out just last night. :/ "Dan" keeps circling around him, but "Nio" still just sits there looking around and moving his fins every once in awhile, so something's obviously wrong.

I figure "Nio" will probably be dead by the time DH gets home from work this afternoon. :sad2 I'm not emotionally attached to the fish, but I don't like them dying either. And the fact that Kevin doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to them, either, makes me wonder why in the world we have them in the first place. He liked "Max", his betta, but he'll hardly acknowledge the fish we got since then. I'd just as soon not have to worry about feeding and keeping the tank clean if nobody in the family really wants fish, KWIM? It almost seems like too much time and effort for something that's just going to die in a few weeks or months for no apparent reason (and we're not paying a vet $80 to look at a $1.99 fish! :eek).

Maybe when Kevin gets older (and we get a house with a bigger yard), we'll get a dog. They live longer, are more fun to play with, and usually give you plenty of warning if they don't feel good.

[kcasmama]

We have cichlids. One died yesterday. I called dh at work and told him to come home and get him out of the tank. He didn't. I didn't even want to be in the same room with the tank. I know what you mean-- I am not attached to my fish, but one dying in the house is pretty awful whether you like em or not. We have two dogs. I much prefer the four-legged earth creatures.

If you get rid of your tank-- I'll get rid of mine :D

[flowermama]

(((hugs)))

I'm guessing you probably know to use drops to get the chlorine out of the water when you put in fresh water? I used to have goldfish that died rather quickly before I found that out, so I thought I'd mention that just in case. and of course never use soap when washing their bowl/tank. (you've now heard just about all the knowledge I have about taking care of fish ;))

Poor fishies... their lives can be so fragile. We once had a fish die because we kept it near the window in the summer... it got too hot. :eek

My dd had two goldfish who were buddies and one died and the other one was swimming around trying to push it up and make it swim. That was sad to see.

I'm not emotionally attached to the fish, but I don't like them dying either.

I know what you mean. :( :hug

[Piper2]

Yeah, Jeri, we have those drops we put in the water every time we change it. And we just rinse and wipe out the tank and rinse out the gravel in a colander (that's about the extent of my knowledge, too ;)).

We keep the aquarium (it's just a little 1-gal one) on the ledge between the kitchen and the living room (hard to explain without you showing you a pictures), which is nowhere near any windows. I know about not keeping them near windows...my ex-h used to have an aquarium full of more expensive fish (glass fish and things like that). He had a car wreck (this was before we were dating) and was in the hospital for several weeks, and had a friend go to his apartment and feed his fish, water plants, etc. She didn't think about the aquarium being so close to the window and left the drapes open for a day or so. This was in late summer, so he basically wound up with a tank full of boiled fish. :eek

[kcasmama]

Not sure if you empty all the water. It is a good idea not to empty more than half-- there is good bacteria in there that the fishies benefit from. Don't know anything about Danios. Are they territorial? Cichlids are-- mine just got picked on so much by the others that he up and died. We only have 7 in a 75 gal tank, but I guess even that is not enough space for territorial fish.

[skylarsmom2000]

We have cichlids too. About a week ago they went crazy and one started attacking all the others. We had I think six in a 75 gal, but now only have two

[boonpnutsmom]

In our bedroom we have one Oranda, Randy, and outside in the turtle tank we have 3 HUGE comets (they were the $.30 feeders that nobody caught for food and now they are bigger than the turtles. We have 7 Plecostomus, and about 40 guppies.

The thing I have found the best that is a great stress reliever for any and all of them....AQUARIUM salt.

[Piper2]

OK, so this is weird...the fish is still alive. It sat down in the corner all afternoon yesterday, but then I decided to put a little flake of food in there just to see what happened, and it was like somebody flipped a switch. Then a few minutes later, it was back down in its corner. The same thing happened when I fed them last night after we got back from the movie and then this morning.

When it does swim around, the other fish chases it around like crazy. DH is wondering if "Nio" might actually be more like a "Nina" and "she" might be laying eggs or something. How can you tell if a fish is a boy or a girl? :shrug

[boonpnutsmom]

What I have been told, the females have a stripe down the underside of them from the bottom of their mouths to the beginning of their tale fins, not sure if true or not.