Why Do My Betta Fish Keep Dying? (10 Reasons Your Betta Fish Died)

Bettas are one of the most popular fish in the aquarium world, and every aquarist love to house a betta in their tank.

However, in our fish-keeping journey, there comes a day when we lose our fish. Sometimes we know the reason, and sometimes, we can’t find the exact reason for our betta death.

In this article, we will discover all the possible reasons betta fish died. So, Why do my betta fish keep dying? Let us find out.

Poor water conditions, stress, and inadequate water parameters are the primary cause behind your betta fish dying. Other reasons include illness and injury. Feed your betta fish regularly with high-quality food and ensure ideal living conditions to prevent such issues.

Also, we will discuss how to prevent our betta fish from dying and how we can provide our betta fish with perfect living conditions. So, let us get into it.

10 reasons your betta fish died.

These are the ten reasons behind your betta fish died:

Your betta fish was living in poor water conditions.
The water parameters of your betta fish tank were not adequate.
Your betta was not getting fed adequately.
Your betta fish was under stress.
Your betta fish was suffering from some illness.
Your betta fish was suffering from injury.
Your betta fish was old.
The living environment of your betta fish was not ideal.
Your betta fish health was already bad from the start.
Your betta fish was living with incompatible mates.

Poor water conditions

Poor water conditions can be the primary reason behind your betta fish dying.

Betta fish are tropical freshwater fish and require clean water conditions to thrive.

Living in bad water conditions stresses out your betta fish, and they become vulnerable to various diseases and parasites.

Your betta fish will lose its appetite due to stress and stop eating.

All these things will make your betta fish weak, and they will pass away.

Inadequate water parameters

Inadequate water parameters can also be the primary reason behind your betta fish dying.

Bettas are known to be hardy fish but are very delicate when it comes to water parameters.

Inadequate water parameters will make your betta fish come under stress in no time, and they will become weak and vulnerable to diseases.

Your betta fish will stop eating and even can pass away.

Poor feeding

Not feeding your betta fish on a regular basis makes your betta fish weak.

Also, overfeeding your betta fish can make them suffer.

Bettas require a small portion of food two to three times daily to ensure enough feed.

Feeding your betta fish with poor quality food and irregularly will stress them out and weaken them.

When it continues, your betta fish can pass away.

Stress

Stress is the major factor behind the passing away of fish.

Stress makes the fish weak and vulnerable to diseases and parasites.

Your betta starts avoiding food and becomes lethargic and weak.

There can be multiple reasons behind stress in your betta fish, and some of them are:

Poor water conditions
Inadequate water parameters
Presence of incompatible tank mates.
Small size tank
Lack of hiding spots
Illness

Illness

It is also possible that your betta fish was suffering from some illness.

There are some common illnesses that your betta fish can suffer. Some are fin rot, swim bladder disorder, dropsy, and constipation.

Now, there can be various reasons behind your betta fish suffering from such illness, and the primary factors are poor water conditions, inadequate water parameters and overfeeding.

Betta fish suffering from such issues and not getting treatment will be at a high risk of dying.

I had a betta, was fully healthy, regularly ate, and had no issues.

One day I saw it lying on the bottom of the tank and appearing white. It seemed like the skin of the betta was peeling off.

I immediately started to find the reason for such issues by following the water test and seeing if the water parameters were adequate and if there was ammonia in my tank.

I learned that ammonia was in my tank, so I quickly changed the water.

However, it was too late, and my betta passed away the next morning.

So, it is necessary to regularly check your betta fish and ensure that they are not having any issues.

If they are suffering from any issues, make sure to eliminate the problem at the early stages.

Injury

A betta fish suffering from physical injury can also pass away due to severe pain and stress.

Now, bettas can hurt themselves by hitting on hard or sharp objects.

Sometimes, they can try to fight with their reflection and hurt themselves by banging on the aquarium glass.

It is wise not to keep any sharp objects like decors with sharp edges in your fish aquarium as your fish can harm themselves by hitting on that objects.

Old betta

A betta fish have a lifespan of 2-5 years in captivity.

So, if your betta fish was older than 2-3 years, the reason behind dying can be old age.

However, you can do nothing about it as it is natural.

Providing your betta fish with ideal living conditions and high-grade food is the only thing you can do to ensure their longer lifespan.

Inadequate living conditions

Your betta fish can also die if you keep them in a tank with inadequate living conditions.

Betta fish require a well-heated and filtered tank to thrive.

The condition in which they live in the wild makes us think that they can live anyhow in the tank with not much care.

However, it is not true, and we should provide a well-heated tank with a good filtration system to our betta fish to ensure their longer lifespan.

There will be an anytime risk of an ammonia spike in a tank with no filtration system.

Your bettas will be vulnerable to harmful toxins like ammonia and nitrite.

The tank will remain dirty, which can make the water condition lousy.

All these things will affect the quality of your betta life, and in the worst case, they will die.

Bad health from the start

It is also possible that your betta fish was not well from the day you bought it from the pet store.

Bettas are kept in cups and small containers in the pet store.

Living in such conditions, they already suffer from stress.

And when we buy them from the pet store and transport them in our tank, the process can be more stressful for them.

All these things can harm your betta fish’s health, and in the worst case, they can pass away.

Incompatible tankmates

When it comes to betta fish, you cannot keep them with any fish you want.

Bettas are aggressive creatures, and you must ensure that any creature you add to your betta tank should be compatible with your bettas.

You should also never keep two male bettas in the same tank, as it will result in them fighting until one dies.

If you keep aggressive, bigger, and fast-moving fish with your bettas, they will fight each other, and your bettas will become stressed.

All these can result in your betta fish passing away.

Also read: Can Betta Fish Live With Mollies?

What are the signs that a betta fish show before dying?

All these are the signs that your betta fish will show when they are about to die:

Your betta fish will stay at the bottom of the tank most of the time.
Your betta fish will appear weak and skinny.
Your betta will gulp air at the surface of the tank.
Your betta will lose appetite and will start avoiding eating.
You will notice behavioural changes like changes in swimming patterns and swimming in a place where they normally don’t swim.
The colour of your betta face will look faded.
You will notice stress in your betta fish, as your betta will hide most of the time.
You will notice that your betta fish has become lethargic as it is not swimming much and being in one place most of the time.
Your betta will find breathing difficult and have a problem breathing.

How to prevent my betta fish from dying?

These are the things you should make sure of in case to prevent your betta fish from dying:

Ensure clean water conditions.
Provide adequate and stable water parameters.
Feed your betta with high-quality food regularly.
Avoid overfeeding your betta fish.
Provide your betta with ample space to live comfortably.
Ensure a stress-free environment for your betta fish.

Clean water conditions

Betta fish require clean water conditions to live peacefully.

Poor water conditions cause stress to your betta fish, making them vulnerable to diseases.

To ensure good water conditions, perform a weekly water change of at least 30%.

To eliminate chlorine, you must treat tap water before adding it to your betta tank with a water conditioner.

We suggest using the API tap water conditioner as it helps to eliminate chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, nitrite, and heavy metals from the water.

Doing a water change will help you keep the water clean from excessive waste.

However, not only will a water change do the work, but you also have to add a good filtration system with bio media to your betta tank.

Adding a filter with bio media will help you keep the water clean and protected from harmful toxins like ammonia and nitrite.

Adequate and stable water parameters

Bettas are very sensitive when it comes to water parameters.

Even a slight change in water parameters can stress out your betta fish.

We can provide the ideal water parameters to our betta fish when we keep them in captivity.

If we talk about water temperature, betta fish require warm water to thrive.

Provide your betta fish with a water temperature between 78-82 °F.

Also, betta fish require a well-heated tank, so add a heater to your betta tank to ensure adequate water and stable water temperatures.

Unstable water temperature can cause high-level stress to your bettas, which makes them weak and vulnerable to diseases.

So, adding a heater is necessary to prevent such issues.

The water pH level of your betta tank should be between 6.5 and 8.

The ammonia and nitrite level should be 0 ppm, whereas nitrate should be under 20 ppm.

Performing a regular water change, adding a filtration system, and maintaining your betta tank will help you keep your betta tank ammonia and nitrite free.

Also, it is essential to regularly check your betta tank’s ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH level to remain updated and take quick action as soon as you find any issue with the levels.

So, we suggest using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit to regularly check your betta tank’s ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH level.

High-quality food

Feeding your betta fish regularly with a high-quality diet is necessary for your betta’s health and longer lifespan.

Bettas are carnivore fish and require meat-based food in their daily diet.

Some pellets are there, which is especially for bettas. So feed your betta fish with betta pellets and ensure to make it their staple part of the diet.

Other live, frozen, and freeze-dried food can be fed to your betta fish once a week as a treat and should not be fed as a staple of their everyday diet.

Also read: Can Betta Fish Eat Mosquito?

Avoid overfeeding

Regularly feeding your betta fish is necessary, but if you overfeed them, it can cause issues.

Bettas have a stomach size similar to their eye, meaning they cannot digest much food at once.

So, prefer to feed your betta fish 2-3 pellets or any other food at a time, twice a day, to prevent overfeeding.

Also read: How Often To Feed Betta Fish?

Ample space

Betta fish live in shallow places like rice paddies, stagnant ponds, and slow-moving streams.

By looking at that, we think bettas can live in a small bowl or tank.

However, it is untrue, and betta fish require ample space to live and swim comfortably.

A minimum of a 5-gallon tank is suggested for a betta fish. But, of course, the more big tank you go for, the more your betta will live happily.

We recommend at least a 10-gallon tank for one betta fish.

Also, if you plan to keep more fish with your betta fish, follow the one-inch one-gallon rule to house them.

The one-inch one-gallon rule means one inch of fish per gallon of water.

This way, you can find the right tank size to keep your betta fish with other fish.

Stress-free environment

Providing your betta fish with a stress-free environment is the most necessary thing you have to do to prevent them from dying.

These are all the things you should take care of in case to provide your betta fish with a stress-free environment:

Ensure the water temperature is between 78-82 °F.
Add a heater to your betta tank to ensure stable water temperature.
Keep your betta tank clean by performing a weekly water change of at least 30%. (Treat the fresh water using a water conditioner to dechlorinate it before adding it to your betta tank)
Keep your betta tank water free from harmful toxins by ensuring clean water and good filtration.
Feed your betta fish regularly with high-quality food.
Avoid adding two male betta fish in the same tank.
Avoid adding bigger, more colourful, and more aggressive fishes than your betta fish in your betta tank.
Create plenty of hiding spots in your betta tank.
Add plenty of live aquatic plants to your betta tank.
Keep your betta fish in a large size tank. (5-gallon for one betta)

Also read: How To Know If Your Betta Fish Is Stressed?

How to provide perfect living conditions for your betta fish?

When we keep betta fish in a tank, we are responsible for providing them with the perfect living conditions.

Providing your betta fish with their ideal living conditions will help you ensure their longer lifespan.

There is little to do to provide your betta with the perfect living conditions.

All you need is a genuine-size tank, a heater, a filter, hiding spots, and a light.

Provide your betta fish with a 10-gallon tank; they will live and swim comfortably.

A heater will help you keep the water temperature at an adequate range and keep water temperature stable.

Adding a filter with media will help you keep the water clean from waste and harmful toxins like ammonia and nitrite.

Betta fish require a hiding spot whenever they feel stressed or threatened.

Also, creating lots of hiding spots will give your betta fish a place to relax, preventing stress.

Bettas require light to stay active as they tend to sleep in the dark.

So, adding an aquarium light will help you set the day-to-night cycle.

Now, all these are the things you should add to your betta tank to provide them with a perfect living environment.

However, you have to do something by yourself to contribute to the task of providing perfect living conditions to your betta fish.

Perform a weekly water change of at least 30% to keep the water clean and safe from harmful toxins.

Do monthly maintenance of your betta tank by cleaning the filter, substrate, and glass of your betta tank.

Conclusion:

There can be numerous reasons behind your betta fish dying, of which the primary reasons are poor water conditions, stress, and inadequate water parameters.

Other reasons include illness, injury, overfeeding, poor feeding, and age.

Providing your betta fish with clean water conditions, adequate and stable water parameters, high-quality food on a regular basis, and a stress-free environment will help you prevent such issues.

Reference: Wikipedia