Krystal Misty, you will be missed, sort of

I, like approximately 100 million other people out there, bought a (blue) Beta fish about 2 years ago. At the time I was living with my friend Sarah and she named him Joey (she has a knack for naming things, for example my dog Sadie). Several months after buying him I decided his 2.5 gallon tank was too much of a hassle to keep up with – it kept developing green slime and, as much as I did not wish Joey any harm I really didn’t care at all. So I transferred him to a lower maintenance, small fish bowl that I filled with bamboo stalks on the assumption that when I forgot to feed him (often), he could subsist on the roots or whatever it is they tell you at the pet store. Sadly, I filled the bowl too high and as I was moving it to another spot in our apartment he leapt! to the hard tile floor. Although he survived, it wasn’t long before he began doing the sideways/upside down swim and I knew his minutes were numbered. Shortly thereafter I had to flush him. A few days later, after the grief had lost its sharper edges, I bought another Beta – this one bright red in color. I named “her” Krystal Misty for rude reasons I will not write about here. I put her in the same low-maintenance bowl and fed her (sometimes – but remember the bamboo roots!) and I thought everything was fine. As I was getting ready to leave last week for my Fla trip I noticed her doing an all too familiar sideways/upside-down swim. You know the rest. Now I am fish free. I think maybe the bamboo is poisonous?