Close Menu
Betta Fish

Betta Fish: I feel a bit lost taking care of this guy. Any advice is appreciated 😬

If someone could take a look at my betta Fern and let me know if he’s okay I’d really appreciate it. Or if anyone has any resources that would be relevant?? Thanks in advance. I did some searching online, but I think it just gave me more questions than answers?

Concerns:

(1) His scales look sorta raised?

(2) Is it normal for his gill plate (the part that comes out when he flares) and the bottom fins to be that bright red & black color, or are those burns? l have no idea how to tell what’s normal coloring because and what’s injury

(3) the opaque spot on his eye is freaking me out

(4) is there active fin rot or is he recovering?

(5) He’s flaring way more than ever. Not constantly but like. A lot. Is this a maturity thing or is he crashing out?

Context: This is my first fish. I’ve had him for about 10 months and when we got him he was super pale & lethargic. He began getting his color and a personality after a few weeks and I was super excited (I had no clue bettas did this.) About a month ago things got super chaotic in my house and I fell off of taking care of his tank… it got rough. Lots of algae + the water lever got low so the filter stopped running.

This has happened twice— the first time it happened (6 months ago) I upgraded to a 10 gal with a heater, filter, live plants, more places to hide & better test strips. This recent time was nowhere near as bad, but now that I know better I was really irritated that it happened again.

I did a full tank reset two weeks ago and got back in the routine of partial water changes every few days. I tested the old water just to have an idea of what was going on. The overall color of the test strips was 0 but there were super small splotches/dots on it that matched 3 so I read it as a 3??

I want to make sure he’s okay & figure out if I need to do anything else to help him out now that we’re back on track. The tank temp stays around 77°. I’ve been testing again and at 0 for ammonia. I have some kanaplex that I ordered when I upgraded his tank the first time. But it didn’t seem necessary then as he was adjusting well and didn’t have major signs of fin rot or sickness (unless I’m just oblivious, which is possible).

Behavior-wise: He comes to the front of the tank whenever I’m walking around in the kitchen. I’ve noticed in the past week he’s been flaring WAY WAY more and he’s kind of erratic. He chills when the light is off or if I’m away from the tank. He’s definitely not lethargic and doesn’t seem to be gasping for air anything.

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1r6yvfa

Posted by envelope-of-garlic

4 Comments

  2. Dd7990 on

    https://preview.redd.it/kbcjiuqs80kg1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=febd9149de826364ec6ba1ebdb7c240105c705be

    The thing that stood out to me most is the top-down view of him… the rest of his body is so paper thin that he spot-on matches the silhouette of the emaciated betta. Your poor betta is almost skin & bones…

    **EDIT: unless the last photo is somehow distorted and he doesn’t actually look that skinny from top-down…**

    How often are you feeding him? How much? And with what?

    I’d recommend Fluval bug bites betta and/or Ultra Fresh Betta Pro Shrimp Patties. These are overall better quality ingredients than cheaper brands.

    Give him smaller but more frequent meals daily to help him bulk up, but be careful not to overfeed. Something around 2-3 pieces of either the Fluval bug bites or the Betta Pro Shrimp Patties per meal (those brands have very tiny pieces so that amount should be fine) morning, noon and evening. Of course if he’s looking too bloated (belly is looking more swollen than normal) then skip the feeding and check again on the next feeding time. But definitely he will need more frequent small meals/snacks to bulk back up.

  3. One_Sarah_Daley on

    My first thought is that he needs groceries…
    What are you feeding and how often?

    My second thought is that you should get a liquid test kit because they are far more accurate than those test strips.

    Other than being thin, he looks okay. Having clean water and staying on top of water changes and testing will be much better for his fins. Do you have any tannins in the water? (Indian almond leaves or driftwood?) Tannins are really good for them, it’s basically an all natural antibiotic and antifungal.

Leave A Reply