Freak Magnet Dave

Last night I gave my cute litte Betta the royal flush.

Since the move, all of the little fish have been doing great. Even through all of the scooping, bagging, moving and changing over to a new municipality's water (different pH, chlorine, etc.), everyone seemed to be fine.

So what happened? Who knows? Two days ago I noticed the Betta spending more time at the bottom of the tank which was a bit strange for him. However, he still managed to swim up to the top, wagging his flowing tail, to greet me whenever I walked into the room. Yesterday I walked in to find his little body stuck to the intake grill of the filter. The suction isn't too strong, so I knew he was very weak to not be able to avoid being sucked against it. I turned off the filter and he swam off and then drifted to the bottom of the tank again. Being very pressed for time I scooped a few pails of water, and replaced them with some fresh de-chlorinated water hoping that might help matters if the ammonia level was high. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do a full test of the water, so I was only guessing what the cause was. I kept my fingers crossed and headed out to work.

When I got home last night I found him dead at the bottom of the tank. So scoop and flush I did. I'm a bit bummed out about it. I'll miss the way he would always excitedly swim to the surface when I came near (ya, I know, it was only for the food....but maybe not). Tonight I'm going home to test the water, and if all is well, I'm off to the pet store to spend $3.99 and pick up another new buddy.