male betta died

had him and a female in a 10 gal. for about 6 weeks. yesterday he started
looking lethargic and this morning just kinda drifted off and died.

everything for the tank is normal except that the temperature runs about 78
F at night and 84-86 F during the day (no air conditioning in our house).
been keeping the lights off on all the tanks, lids open, water circulating,
air in the house circulating, everyone else is fine and the larger tanks
fluctuate less in temperature than the 10 gallon.

preceding his death he was acting normal, flaring, chasing the female,
building bubble nests, eating, etc. only other abnormality in the tank was
the african dwarf frogs perching on the plants at the surface rather than
hanging out on the bottom, this was about three days ago and was the only
time they did it.

other occupants of the tank; 4 ADF's, 1 female betta (who is doing fine), 4
danios (these were feeder fish that my wife kinda likes so we've kept them),
and 2 ghost shrimp. (as a side note; i'm trying to convince my wife that
*she* needs a bigger tank to keep all these guys in)

as i mentioned, all the parameters are normal, no changes in the chemistry,
2 gallon water change per week refilled with 2.5 gallons (evaporation), i do
a w/c in this tank every week because of the higher load, only thing off is
the fluctuation of the temperature.

idea's or suggestions?

thanks,
tedd.

sounds like it could be an oxygenation problem in the water....just a guess
though
from the behaviour.

"Jim Brown" wrote in message
news
Sounds like a natural death.
Presuming that there were no obvious signs of disease or damage.
Your danios are active so that sort of says water conditions are good.
The
temperature fluctuation is not too bad, at least not bad enough to be the
cause.
The only problem I see is that 'excursion' by the frogs. It's a behaviour
I
haven't read about or seen yet. Perhaps they were being nipped by the
fish
and used the upper levels to escape?? Maybe, since they were at the
surface, the Betta took a munch or two from their skin, and had a bad
reaction?? Just guesswork.


yes, the danio's are quite active. one of the frogs had recently (within the
last week) shed his skin.

the wife is going to stop off today and pick out a new male betta, i asked
her to take a look at the bigger tanks too.

thanks jim!

tedd.