Farewell, my Rojas!

I owned 4 Betta Splendens: Azul, Rojas, Marcus and Celeste. I bought them a week apart from each other. Azul, Rojas and Celeste came from the same shop, Morley Aquarium. Marcus came from Seaview Aquariums. I saw him and felt heartbroken. He’s the only one left in the shop (due to Christmas) and his colour was really bad. So I bought him. Now, he’s turned violet with a hint of blue and looking as feisty as ever. Pictures are below. These are taken 2 weeks after I bought them.

                  

               Azul                                                 Rojas                                    Marcus                   

Celeste

All of them were doing ok until a couple of weeks ago. Rojas just wouldn’t eat and always seem to be hiding under his cave. I thought it was just the cold since it’s gotten colder at night. So I bought them some heat mats to keep the tanks warm but still Rojas didn’t want to eat. The other three though were and still are feisty and unaffected.

Concerned, I transferred Rojas to the big tank with the other fish: tetras, cories, bristlenoses, otos, platies and guppies. Initially, we put him in a breeder net since I was scared that he’ll attack the guppies. But, he jumped out twice so we just let him be. He was happy. He even claimed his own territory near the air stone (he seemed to be infatuated with the bubbles!). He also started pushing the other fish to go away when I was trying to feed him.

Last Monday, Ben decided to play with the filter of the big tank and made the water flow stronger than usual. The by product of the change in water flow was that Rojas lost his territory near the bubbles. We came home Tuesday night to find Rojas swimming with tail down, unable to control his position in the water. With close inspection, I saw some of his scales were bitten off and he had clearly been very harassed by the other fish. Worried and panicking, I quickly took him out and put him in the cup while I prepared his old tank.

Rojas was barely moving in the cup and when I put him back to his old tank, he just pressed against the glass, barely moving. I put some aquarium salt in his tank and some Betta Fix. He was like that for the entire day Wednesday. And this morning, at 7:30am, I was going to feed my babies (ie the 4 fighting fish) brine shrimp when I saw Rojas lifeless at the bottom of his tank. I was so heartbroken. I was hoping that he would’ve recovered. But it just wasn’t meant to be.

Rojas is now in Betta Heaven and I’m hoping that he was happy when I was caring for him. He was a very nice fish with full of personality. He will be missed.

To Rojas, as I often say before I leave for work, bye bye baby and NO JUMPING!