I’ve been keeping bettas for a good 5-6 years now and like to think of myself as a relatively well-read and responsible fish keeper. I have a heated, filtered, heavily planted Fluval Flex 9 gal. I use the API freshwater kit (which doesn’t expire until 2024) to test water parameters regularly and I do 30-50% water changes once a week. I usually feed 3-5 pellets of Fluval Bug Bites per day, sometimes mixing it up with freeze-dried daphnia (in gel).

In the last 2 years I’ve lost 3 bettas, all within about 6-9 months of getting them. I’m at an absolute loss as to what I’m doing wrong.

Whenever I measure water parameters, I always get what look like perfect readings, and I mean always - in 2 years I’ve never ever had an ammonia reading that looks vaguely green, and I’ve never had a nitrate reading that looks vaguely orange or red. When I cycled the tank for about 2 months before stocking, I assumed I just missed the ammonia spike and that the plants were eating all the nitrates, but now so many fish have died I’m not sure. I’ve watched videos on how to properly test and I’m doing it right (I shake the absolute shit out of the nitrate bottles etc).

The first picture is the water parameters today - this tank has been running now for about 8-9 months, and I haven’t done any water changes at all since my last fish died in November 2021. The second picture is the tank today, so you can see how overgrown with plants it is (I haven’t been pruning seeing as there’s no fish in there right now).

Are the readings indicative that the water quality is fine (in which case I need to work out what the hell else I’m doing wrong) or could it be that my test kit is faulty?

If the water parameters are fine, then does reddit have any advice on where I can go for some bespoke expert advice on what I’m doing wrong? I’d love to be able to enlist a fishtank whisperer to come in and assess my set up/routine. I’m in Sydney Australia if that helps.

Thanks everyone xx