Betta Death From Dropsy, What To Do?

Hi all, long time no visit!! Hope you all and your many tanks are well! After a long time without my tank running (after my last betta’s death) I finally set my tank up again and had a lovely purple female Betta and some large Amano shrimp. The tank has been running for several months without issue. The Betta was very happy and healthy until suddenly last week she was off her food, and the next day she was bloated. Then I also noticed her scales were sticking out and googled the symptoms to realise she had dropsy. I had tried to treat for constipation (pea) but she just wasn’t eating and sadly died this morning. Gutted.

I am just wondering if the infection can effect the shrimp? I’m not sure what to do as I would like to get more fish later but I’m aware I should probably clean the tank thoroughly, however it’s occupied with shrimp so I can’t do that! Any advice?

Hi Sue, lovely to see you’re still frequenting the forum with your amazing advice as always!

Yes I’m sorry to visit with such bad news! I had my previous Betta for the longest period of time so had been hoping I’d gotten things right this time too but sadly no such luck!

It’s good that the shrimp should be unaffected, I’ll keep up regular changes and reasses in a few weeks what to do next. Yep I’ve still got the edge! It’s looking really scruffy these days and none of my lights work any more (from
condensation in the light unit). Hoping to get that sorted if it’s possble to do simply. Once that’s sorted I can look at plants again, I think I had some duck weed (or something like that!) which worked ok in the tank. I used to have java plants on wood but I haven’t had anything other than moss balls for a long time. Ideally I’d like another Betta but I have considered going for a shrimp only tank as I do love shrimp!

Since you have amanos already, it would be best to stick with amanos. Years ago when I first got my red cherries and they all died another member on here asked me if they were in the same tank as my amano shrimps as the larger amanos can intimidate smaller shrimps. (Mine were in different tanks so that was OK)
Though I suppose other shrimps the same size as amanos might be OK.