Rocky passed peacefully this morning. I'm glad I didn't have to see him floating with his belly up. Instead he was at the bottom like he's sleeping. He didn't look anything like the picture above because he had gotten extremely thin from his tumor. He was very pale for the last few months as well. Nothing like this beautiful blue and black in this picture.
I forget exactly when it happened, but I noticed a small bump on the right side of his body. At first I thought I fed him too much, but the bump kept getting bigger every week. I did a lot of research and found out that he has a tumor. TUMOR!!! He's a frickin' fish.
Apparently this isn't uncommon due to inbreeding that goes on in the betta breeding world. So this poor little thing was suffering from a genetic defect. It's not like I can operate on such a small creature. It doesn't go away on its own. It was basically a death sentence.
I didn't realize it was a tumor until a few months later, so I would say it went on for at least 6 months. There was nothing I can do except to keep water clean and keep him healthy as much as I could. This wasn't easy since the tank is only 3 gallons. He got several fin-rots, and mysterious white spots here and there. I was able to heal those but he slowly started to get very thin.
He used to swim back and forth for no reason that my coworkers and I had a lot of fun just watching him. He stopped doing that. He wasn't exactly lethargic but he would float around and not explore the tank as much. The only thing that didn't change till the very end was that he ate and pooped like a champ.
When I got my new job I took him home since I didn't think the new office would be a good environment for him. I might have been out of the office a lot and it was just better to take care of him at home. It was like his hospice...
Last Monday when I fed him I noticed that his scales were standing up. This is pretty much the beginning of the end. There is really nothing you can do when pine coning begins. He didn't seem to be suffering much. He was just less active but would still eat as usual.
Then on Saturday he didn't eat. This was truly the sign that he didn't have much time left.
I don't think this heat wave in LA helped at all. I couldn't keep the water temperature at a comfortable level. When I woke up this morning it was at high 80s. Too hot for bettas.
He was at the bottom like he was sleeping. This is not normal because he would be swimming around waiting for food in the morning. I don't have a place to busy him so I ended up flushing him down the toilet...
I hear that some people would euthanize their fish when they are suffering. Rocky didn't seem to be suffering, at least not very much. He was just a little slower. He would still swim toward me when I walked up to the tank. He was a sweet little fishy. I will miss him dearly...
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