My beautiful beta looks like very sick. He has lost his shine and nice fins and is barely moving?

Question

I change his water daily, I have a filter installed, nice aquarium for himself only, good food brand, good conditions.... but he barely swins and stays at the bottom of the tank all the time. I'm worried he's dying. What should I do? If he's suffering, should I end it for him? No fish vets around and I have only had him for a month now so he's still young.

Answer 1

First off, when you say "he has lost his shine and nice fins," do you mean his fins aren't shining anymore, or that he has lost his shine AND his fins are deteriorating?

An aquarium, no matter what kind of fish it houses (so long as it's not fish getting medicine) should not have its water changed everyday. There are some beneficial bacteria that grow in the tank after the water has cycled for some time. If you have an actual 2.5, 5.5 or 10 gallon aquarium, a 25% water change once every two weeks will suffice if you're caring for only one fish.

Any living thing (plants, animals, people, etc.) will be more inactive than normal if its in a colder environment than it's used to. If your bettas water is cooler than room temperature, you should probably invest in a heater. With this heater, you should keep the bettas water around 78-85 degrees Fahrenheit. A little warmer wouldn't harm your fish either. I like to make sure my bettas water is lukewarm to the touch, as I keep my fish on a shelf above my reptiles. So, essentially, my reptile heat lamps also act as heaters for my betta fish.

Betta fish are relatively inactive fish. They'll swim around, breathe from the surface, but are definitely a far-cry from the activity of, let's say, a neon tetra. This is perfectly natural behavior.

If the shine is gone from his scales, but his tank is kept clean, the only other problem would be his food. If the fish had a shine to his fins when you bought him, you could try contacting the pet store or breeder you purchased him from and find out what they feed their betta fish, and switch your fish's food to the food he used to have.

(Sometimes, bacteria, fungi and protozoans can cause a fish to lose it's shine and lose it's appetite. This usually happens because a tank or bowl is too close to sunlight (e.g. a window), or the aquarium isn't being cleaned often enough to keep harmful bacteria, etc. from reproducing to the point that a fish's immune system can't handle the attack.)

If what I mentioned doesn't answer your question, write an additional detail about if his fins are deteriorating, how often (and how much) you're feeding him, and how long this behavior has been going on.

I will try my best to keep helping if I need to. :)

Good luck. :)

Answer 2

What's the temperature of the water? Bettas prefer around 78°-80°F. If it's too cold, they'll show symptoms like you're describing.

If the tank isn't cycled, I wouldn't let the water go too long without a water change like mentioned. They're pretty sensitive to ammonia and nitrites in the water, which is what you need to let accumulate/build up to properly cycle a tank. You're better off sticking with the daily water changes. Are you using a gravel vacuum to do those? If not, and the tank is large enough, I would start using one of those. Any uneaten food or fish waste ends up down in the gravel-and you won't see it. But eventually it'll cause ammonia to start accumulating if left there to rot.

If the temperature is fine, I'd get a test kit and check your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

One last thing, how big is the tank and how much water are you changing out? If it's a smaller tank/bowl, and you're changing a majority of the water out daily, you need to be sure to slowly adjust him to the new water. If the temperature is off or even if the ph is different in the new water, that could stress him and show those symptoms as well.

EDIT: Wow-aquatic specialist? And you're recommending only a monthly water change? Sorry, but Petco "aquatic specialist" doesn't mean much. Just that they hired you to bag fish.....Please stop dishing out poor advice.
Anyway, I would not recommend for any tank to go with only a monthly water change. Love to see your nitrate levels....
in a normal stocked, filtered, and cycled tank no matter what size-weekly water changes of 25% minimum should be done. Now, since you've had your tank for a month, and have been doing daily water changes, I'm guessing it's never cycled, so do not follow that advice....

Answer 3

How large of a container do you have for him? They will do best if given some swimming room. I'm thinking that if you're changing the water every day, you might be keeping him in a bowl. Bettas should also have a heater, which you don't mention. These are tropical fish and should have their water around 76-86oF. That's harder to do in a bowl as well.

I keep my bettas in 2.5 or 5 gallon tanks - most are mini-bowfronts like this: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/22435/product.web that come with a light and filter. I also add a heater and gravel, some driftwood, and a few plants (either real or silk). The tanks are available at WalMarts, where they're probably the cheapest. They also come in a nice selection of colors.

NOTE: My bettas are active all day long - if you keep them correctly, they aren't inactive.


ADDITION: Does your betta look like it has a "dust" or "powder on him? (see photos: http://www.flippersandfins.net/Images/VelvetEarly.jpg , http://www.vidadecao.com.br/peixe/img/odinium.jpg ) If so, look at him with a bright flashlight when other lights in the room are off and see if these spots look gold/rust colored. If so, he's developing velvet (a parasitic infection). My last betta got this 3 days after I bought him. You can treat this with medication used for ich (preferably something that has malachite green and formalin in it), but you'll also need to turn off the lights - the parasite has a photosynthetic pigment that allows it to make its own food as well as act as a parasite. This is a little harder to cure than ich, and it took me over 3 weeks to kill it. I'd leave the medication in his container for at least a week after you've stopped seeing any spots on the fish: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/othprotist.shtml

Answer 4

Beta are normaly very inactive fish. They tend just to lie on the bottom of the tank. They are very different then other fish who can swim around all day long without a care in the world. You shouldn't be too worried about him he shoul dbe fine

Answer 5

that's the problem right there. You can't change the water that often for betas, they need the natural bacterias in the water...leave the water in there for awhile (if it gets really bad algae, though, by all means, clean it out) and put some sea salt in the tank (you can buy it at most pet stores) and he should perk up.