My most recent obsession: Betta mahachaiensis

[Matth05]

Hey, how's the mahachai doing, did u end up getting a female? He's looking good in these photos

Unfortunately not long after my most recent post things started to go downhill. What’s crazy is this situation almost directly paralleled what happened with my paradise gourami. This sudden lethargy in the fish, followed by pineconing which I can only assume as dropsy. For well over a week I was doing daily waterchanges, Epsom salt baths. No success. That makes 2 anabantoids I’ve lost, both in similar situations. I’ve decided I’ll be leaving the anabantoids for another time.

In all honesty I was super bummed out about the whole thing, and still am. I’m responsible for these animals so losing one is a big deal to me.

The 10g had been empty until fairly recently as a mater of fact. Was even considering putting it up in the attic for the time being, but on a whim I decided I might try out some endlers. Haven’t had issues with any livebearers the past couple years and I’m glad I did, cause they’ve been great.

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

Unfortunately not long after my most recent post things started to go downhill. What’s crazy is this situation almost directly paralleled what happened with my paradise gourami. This sudden lethargy in the fish, followed by pineconing which I can only assume as dropsy. For well over a week I was doing daily waterchanges, Epsom salt baths. No success. That makes 2 anabantoids I’ve lost, both in similar situations. I’ve decided I’ll be leaving the anabantoids for another time.

In all honesty I was super bummed out about the whole thing, and still am. I’m responsible for these animals so losing one is a big deal to me.

The 10g had been empty until fairly recently as a mater of fact. Was even considering putting it up in the attic for the time being, but on a whim I decided I might try out some endlers. Haven’t had issues with any livebearers the past couple years and I’m glad I did, cause they’ve been great.

Ahh that sucks, sorry . I hate when everything appears to be going well and then out of nowhere you get unexplained illness, it happens to the best of us. I like to blame it on bad stock but who knows.

Were you keeping him in hard, alkaline water? I've read various things about what parameters to keep them at, I think as long as its not soft they should be good?

Glad the endlers are doing well, cool little fish. Livebeares usually do well for me, I've got montezuma swords that are doing great. 2or3 years back I had some green swords that just started dying, sadly sometimes it just happens

 

[Matth05]

Ahh that sucks, sorry . I hate when everything appears to be going well and then out of nowhere you get unexplained illness, it happens to the best of us. I like to blame it on bad stock but who knows.

Were you keeping him in hard, alkaline water? I've read various things about what parameters to keep them at, I think as long as its not soft they should be good?

Glad the endlers are doing well, cool little fish. Livebeares usually do well for me, I've got montezuma swords that are doing great. 2or3 years back I had some green swords that just started dying, sadly sometimes it just happens

Thank you. Yup my water is hard, alkaline. Nothing super extreme, water hardness usually stays around 200ppm (11 dgh), give or take a degree of hardness at times. And ph is usually around 7.7 - 7.8.

One of the biggest reasons why I chose mahachaiensis was this tolerance to harder water. At one point I was even second guessing how true that may be though. I don’t know in all honesty. I’m almost convinced something in my water just doesn’t jibe well with these air breathers, despite me also knowing that conclusion could be total nonsense.

 

[Tripping Willow 91]

Sounds like the kind of water they should like. My water is 8ph and very hard GH 20dgh and KH 10dgh. If I can find a nice looking pair at a decent price then I'm going to give these guys a go, hopefully my water isn't too hard.

When things have gone bad, I've often thought it could well be my water. I use tap water and who knows what they're treating it with. I used to do big weekly water changes 60-80% and blast the new tap water in to the tank, now I do smaller changes 30-50% every week or 2 and I refill a lot slower. This seems to have helped for me and touch wood I've not had any trouble for a couple years now