Betta Fish: new betta 💜

Hi everyone! I am looking for some input on how my betta is doing and how I can do better for him, if I need to change anything to make his life the best it can possibly be.

I got mochi almost a week ago now from petco, the first picture is of him when I had first seen him in the store. He seemed like a really sweet guy to me and I was drawn to his beautiful coloring.

I had bettas growing up as a kid, but had never gotten my own that my parents wouldn’t be taking care of. Before I got Mochi I decided to do a lot of research and figure out exactly what he needed, I had no idea fish weren’t super straight forward to care for. Growing up my parents didn’t know this either and so my bettas never had heaters or filters. They would just put lukewarm water and some conditioner and throw em in, we would do water changes biweekly and change out all of the water, they also had sharp fake pink and white rocks and colored hides for the fish to go into.

I felt really bad finding out that everything we had been doing was wrong and that these fish weren’t living a good life like I thought they were as a kid. I now have an urge to give Mochi the beautiful life that he deserves, and i’m hoping I can have some support with this.

Mochi is a super sweet guy, he’s very friendly and greets me when I walk into the room, I want to give him a planted tank, which I have been working on collecting more plants to create. Here are some inspo pics of what I hope I can recreate to some degree, other than having no lid (Mochi is very spunky and energetic as well as I have cats so no lid wouldn’t be a good option for us)

I have noticed that Mochi is extremely food motivated, he always seems to be starving and when I come into the room it’s almost like he begs for food and does this swim around kind of like a dance telling me he’s hungry, I have been feeding him twice a day and have a new food coming today since I recently found out what I have been giving him doesn’t fit the dietary needs of a betta (Aqueon betta pellets) I am going to make the switch to the new food below tonight as I hope it’s much better for him.

I noticed some discoloration or spots on his top fin near his body and am wondering what this could be, or if it’s something I should be concerned about.

Overall Mochi is a really sweet guy, I am wondering if anyone can give me tips or recommendations on some things I might be missing to make this guys life as best as it can be. Thank you! 🐠😊