Please help me help my poor Betta!

On Sunday we bought two Opaline Gouramis. They aren't very big, and the LFS said they would be fine with our male betta. We brought them home and everything seemed fine until today. I walked inside to see my poor little betta being ripped to shreds by both gouramis. His lifeless little body was dragged up by the filter where he was violently thrown to the bottom of the tank after bouncing off a few rocks and plants in the tank. I yelled for my husband and put my hand in the tank to stop further attacks on him already fearing he had passed away.

We put him in a bowl with some of the tank water and he moved his fins enough to upright himself and he was still breathing. I immediately went to the LFS and picked up some BettaFix. I've also added some aquarium salt to his little bowl along with some Prime.

He is now sometimes trying to swim around his bowl, but he keeps twitching. He folds himself nearly in half and twitches very violently for a few seconds and then flutters his little side fins and goes back to just barely breathing. I've tested the water and due to the near 100% water change I did before the medications all levels are pristine.

What else can I do? He has almost no fins left, and the poor little guy is my son's favorite fish. He even named him "Dev" after himself (his name is Devin).

Sorry for the long post. I'm really freaking out right now. :( This happened 8 hours ago, and I feel completely helpless.

P.S. I just set up an 20 gallon for him and he is sitting in his bowl inside the 20 gallon. I don't want to traumatize him any further today by forcing him to leave his bowl.

Just have to wait it out sadly. If any fish can pull through it is a betta! Those are some tough fish. I really don't want to say he won't make it but if the damage is bad enough he will just becomes stressed and likely get sick somehow else. :( The betta will be fine in his bowl for some time. I would just let him recover slowly no drastic water changes or anything like that. If he can still eat tomorrow or the next day at least he is trying to hang on.

Who ever told you at that fish store there would be no problems is nuts... LINK Opaline Gourami *semi-aggressive*

Mixing males is always some risk and gouramis are know to hold their ground (mine fought off a full size angle fish and he never bothered them again)even the peaceful and dwarf ones.

This is why I hate the get the person in and out and ---o wait did they say Betta o well too late now--- fish stores.

Yeah, I'm regretting buying these guys now. I may be taking them back to the fish store tomorrow. They told us that there would most likely be no issues, but that if there were any issues it would be in the first 24 hours. We thought we were in the clear when we didn't have any issues after Monday. Little Dev was our first fish, and now he's fighting for his life. :(

Thanks for the reply, and let it be known that I am no longer going to rely on the "expertise" of any LFS employees to tell me what is compatible with my existing fish. I'll be doing all my own legwork from now on. This would have been avoided if I had, and that guilt is really burning. :(

Don't feel bad we have all made mistakes like this and sometimes the fish "should" get along but there are temperament problems within fish as well. Some people keep fish together that should never work but yet there is no problem *shrug*

Honestly what I started doing is going to the fish store and picking out ones I liked in terms of looks or whatever then go home and research until I can tell the fish store I want so many males and so many females...

You did your best though getting him out of there was a must. I hope he makes it.

Dev just died. :( I feel horrible, and now I have to find a way to break it to a 6 year old in the morning.

Lesson learned, and thank you for your help.

Truthfully.. need a tissue on this one.... Bill

Sorry to be the "Debbie Downer" Bill. I'm totally devastated. It's amazing how a little fish can grow on you when you have no means of communicating with it, you can't cuddle with it, and you can only feed it and watch it.

He was a beautiful little guy and he will be greatly missed. I hope I can get my own tears out before the morning comes and Devin is hit with the bad news.

And for the record, the gouramis are going back to the store tomorrow. I know they were working on instinct, but I can't have aggressive fish in my kids' tank just so they can kill more of their fish while we helplessly watch.

I'm sorry for your loss! :(

Truly saddened by your experience . In my humble opinion , hardly anyone in the "big" fish stores knows Squat about the fishes they have and what goes with what ! The little stores , mom and pops , are way better with their knowledge.
Now , if you go to a big LFS , like Petsmart and such , they should have a tag with the fish on it and a description about it and whether it is community , semi-aggressive , or aggressive.
And , you can always come to this site and ask for advice ,chew over the different answers and then do what you feel best suits you.
Ray

I'm sorry for your loss but I just want to add that not all guoramis (sp?) are like that and the issue could have simply been compatibility between species since they are both labyrinth fish they would compete for surface area of the water and the betta was the loser this time.

gouramis and bettas can not be put together they are from the same family and the gouramis will kill any betta. They are both air breathing, bubble nest builders. It's not your fault you were given deadly information. Let the store know your situation. Tell them you were given very bad advice and because you followed it you lost a fish.Then give them the correct information about bettas and gouramis.

I'm so sorry and knows what it feels like to lose a fish in this manner. Be strong as you have learned a valuable lesson that is never go on advice from your LFS and research. You and your family is in my prayers.

I'm sorry for you loss as well. That sucks, big time

Sorry to hear he died :( Just know you did all you could have done and that with this lesson behind you all fish to come will have the best chance they can get.

As a parent that has gone through many a small animal/fish pet demises through the years - here's a suggestion on how to handle it with the age group of your child.

Find a nice little box (jewerly box works well), put fish in, have child write a card/note, place it in with fish. Close box, help child wrap it in a paper that the pet would have 'liked'. Bury in either a big pot or in a part of the yard that's not lawn. Have child look on internet to pick out a pretty plant/bulb to plant over grave.

Go to petstore with Gourami's and politely give the manager a piece of your mind. Bring child along to show him that wrongs can be 'righted and forgiven'. Then go and let child 'adopt' a 'sibling/cousin' of deceased pet.

This is a time where life lessons can be taught and learned. Take advantage of it. And I'm deeply sorry for your loss.

Good advice 2C. I like that. We had a large pleco once that died and my granddaughter felt really bad so she and I went behind the tool shed and I let her dig the whole for it and then we planted a flower over it. She felt much better.

Wow great advice 2c

Thank you guys for your kind words. Devin is very upset, and this advice is wonderful.

I have a lot to learn, and I'm happy to have found this forum. I think there is a great group of people here to teach me how to move forward from these sad little bumps and prevent them from happening again.

Thanks again everyone!

Chelsea

Chelsea, Devin will grow up a better person having a parent like you.

Thanks so much Vixen. That's very sweet of you!

I made a mistake like yours once Chelsea, I jus saw your posts. I had a betta when I was 9ish and put him in a community tank that also contained a female krib. My poor betta was destroyed I was able to save him but needless to say I am much more careful with them and true to his name he was a fighter and lived for 2 or 3 more years after recovering. I am sorry you were given bad advice, I hate that happening. I used to hangout in the fish area in walmart to give people fish advice so they wouldnt get in a bad spot like that also. Good luck going forward :)

Just reading this but im sorry, truelly is sad got a little teary eyed on this one.

hello there. i'm sorry about your betta.

gourami's usually aren't good tankmates for bettas, seeing as how they're from the same family, and both are pretty aggressive.

as a note, i've been told Bettafix isn't healthy for them at all, which is silly since it's BETTAfix. supposedly, it has a chemical in it, that burns their labyrinth organ and can damage it severely. i don't use it because of all those reports i've heard.

again, i'm VERY sorry about your betta. you should do research on your own if you find a fish you like, and don't rely on pet store employees most of the time. i've heard so many of them tell me or my mom, "yeah! they can live in a 10 gallon just fine!", then, after researching the fish myself, finding out they get WAY bigger than we were told.

Thank Luimeril! I actually just got a betta from a guy that was told 2 males would be fine in a 10 gallon tank together as long as there were plenty of hiding spots... He brought them home and put them in the tank and they went to war. They almost killed each other (duh). He called me and asked me if I could take one of them and I took the one that was in the worst shape. I medicated him with Fishkeeper, salt, Prime, and Bettafix and he is doing very well now. I have stopped using the Bettafix, but I will make sure to do more research before giving it to him again if he ever needs it.

I've had him for about 2 weeks now and he seems to be healed. Even his fins have almost completely grown back and the open wound he had on his side has completely healed. I even named him Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen's role on Two and a Half Men lol). I still miss little "Dev" and I will never forget him, but at least I got to give this little guy a second chance and he's spoiled rotten. He eats bloodworms multiple times a week right out of my hand and he has a big tank all to himself and designed just for a spoiled betta.

And thanks again for all the positive encouragement and kind words from everyone that replied to this post. It was really devastating to me and like I said, I'm just happy I was able to give old "Charlie Harper" a second chance.

glad Charlie Harper's doing better! two males, can almost NEVER live together peacefully. i've heard ONE account of it, but it was a wonderful breeder, who'd been breeding for longer than i've been alive, and all the males were father-son-grandfather-uncle.... somehow related to each other and grew up together. but, then, it's a HUGE tank with TONS of plants. x-X