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Betta Fish

Betta Fish: Thin / dull betta

This is Picasso (Peek for short) 💙 He's my first betta and I'm worried about my guy.

Petco advised every other day feeding because of bloat and I got him last June. I was feeding Ultra Fresh Betta Fish Food, Pro Shrimp Patties, 50% Sword Prawns + Akiami Paste Shrimps about 5-7 pellets once a day every other day. He eats them perfectly fine. I went down the TikTok rabbit hole of what not to do for a betta, so I took out all the artificial decor. I found a fish and plant store near me to get fresh plants, floaters, and a piece of driftwood. Also added a cutting of my Pothos plant to (hopefully) root in there.

5.5 gallon tank, gravel, auto heater set for 78, AC20 filter. Water changes 30-40% every 2 weeks. No tank mates.

He still swims around but his colors are dull and I find that he's hanging out at the top in the roots of the floaters. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I got some different types of food to add in to what I'm giving now, or change completely if y'all think what I'm feeding is filler food.

I am planning on increasing his daily intake to twice a day for now, fasting once a week, repeat.

Last picture is of him June 2025 and just for reference of his colors.

Any help is great appreciated!

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1s86vjd

Posted by GodricGryff2023

9 Comments

  1. new2bettas11 on

    Wishing you and your little guy well. That is so hard )): Idk what advice to give, but wanted to interact to hopefully find someone that does know!

  2. mytherical on

    can you get better photos of the gold thats coming over his body? i’ve honestly never seen it before, wondering if it could be velvet? but its usually not this noticeable

  3. PuzzleheadedHabit913 on

    Did you get the gh and kh test kits? I know the master doesn’t include those. I’m certainly no expert and don’t have any idea if that could cause him issues but perhaps if the water is too hard it could be causing issues? I do wonder, what is his age? Could he just be getting older and therefore not wanting to swim as much?

  6. TheShrimpDealer on

    Were there any other symptoms you noticed before posting this? Even little things like swimming weird, behaviour changes, food preference, hiding more, etc. and how long has he been like this? Are his gills inflamed at all or is he often breathing hard? It might be worthwhile to test your tap water untreated and make sure there isn’t accidentally ammonia or nitrates in your tap water when you do a WC. 
    Make sure to inspect your heater for any cracks or issues, as sometimes when they are defective they can leech a small amount of electricity or chemicals into the water. Also, how long ago did you add the driftwood and is there any correlation to that and his sickness? Driftwood releases a LOT of tannins, which is good for Bettas, but can be harmful if it’s added in too quickly, and even if the water is clear now it could have caused an issue he is still recovering from. 
    Lastly, are you absolutely sure nothing foreign has gotten into the tank? I had a huge disease outbreak in my 30 gallon one time, out of nowhere my fish were flashing, getting white patches, didn’t have a ton of appetite, and overall just seemed to suddenly be going downhill. Then I realized that my bad habit of sticking my hands in the water without rinsing them first caused my medicated steroid lotion to get into the water, I think it caused a chain reaction that made my fish susceptible to infection. After that I treated everyone with meds and was extra careful, and things were fine! 

    If you wanted, you could put him in a hospital tank/bucket and treat him with meds, but there’s no guarantee it would work, and sometimes they come out worse than better because medication is quite hard on their system. Additionally, modern Bettas unfortunately just have really terrible genetics, often leading to an early death. It’s not terribly uncommon for a Betta to suddenly decline and die in the prime of their life because of some sort of hidden congenital issue that’s untreatable (internal tumors, kidney issues, cancers, etc). Do your best for him, but don’t be too hard on yourself either, while Bettas are known to be hardy our over breeding of them has actually made them quite delicate and hard to care for. Best of luck! Hopefully my info can give you some direction! 

  8. Lala5789880 on

    It looks like you ammonia, no nitrites, and no nitrates. Your tank is not cycled or the cycle has crashed

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