It’s day 2: Larry is dying I think :(

Typically, Larry is an extremely energetic boy. Yesterday, I went to feed him and he went absolutely crazy, he looked drunk tbh. After that, he had been in the corner of his tank for the past 24 hours. Every time he swims, he looks like he can’t control himself (swimming sideways or his face directly on the ground). When he’s stationary, it almost looks like his back is curved an odd way.

Today, when I went up to the tank, he didn’t swim up to say hi, which he ALWAYS does. I’m worried he might have an infection or something :/

He has been in this tank for about 6 months now. I do a 10% water tank every week (with water conditioner). His tank has a heater and filter.

Do we think he’s dying? He’s only a year and a bit old :(

Ive given my betta fish 2 salt baths with some infection medicine to help treat what I think is columnaris, only she’s gotten a weird red spot coincidentally at the place where I think she’s infected, is this a sign somethings happening? Is it good or bad? Any insight would be appreciated

Hi!

I have had my Betta for a little over a year now and I can’t tell if this is fin rot. It has been like this for a while and an employee at Petco said it was a natural part of his fins. I was just wondering what you all think? I tested the water and everything came back normal! I recently bought a new filter which is why the water is a little foggy.

Thanks!

what do you guys keep with your bettas i’m going to be getting one this weekend and i don’t want to have one singular fish in a tank.

I’ve had my Betta fish for 6 months and he’s been doing great until a couple days ago he started acting weird but he looked ok so I thought he was being dramatic wanting more food. today I realized his top fin is clamped and he’s been sitting at the bottom of his tank like he’s tired ,he’ll get up and act fine when I walk up to the tank but his fin will still be clamped like he’s stressed about something. He’s been eating normal though. The parameters of the tank were good last time checked I’ll check again today. He has three tank mates they are all tetras. I changed his light not to long ago maybe he didn’t like the change. It’s on for 11 hours everyday. And he gets fed every morning.

Truck is like actually so chill. He even lets me hold him sometimes (underwater ofc).

This is my “rescue” betta I took him from some family friends before they moved away. They didn’t want to take him with and were going to flush him so I took him. He came with a 5 gallon tank no heater no filter so the first thing I did was grab a heater and filter. Oh yeah he’s about 2.5 years old and has never had a filter or heater.

But it appears that he sleeps or rests in random spots in the tank whether that’s on the rocks or in his little cave. My other bettas don’t do this so to me it seems odd.

It's not often that I can truly say that I contemplate life. But on the occasions I do, it can bring true testament to the fragility of it. It's hard to comprehend how something so stalwart and resolute can be also so fragile and fleeting at the same time. This is forever true with the life of being a fish keeper. When venturing into the seemingly mystical realm of being an owner of our finned friends, never did I realise at the time that I would find such true and loving companionship. The truth is, like all beginning fish keepers we are ignorant to the fact, but something alluring about their alien ways draws us in through curiosity and not just through the manifestation of their grace and beauty. As all fish keepers do I started small and worked up, first tetras and some small cory catfish, snails and shrimp. It wasn't until the first Betta to enter my life, Cosmo, did life change.

At the start I was very cynical, I had heard and read about the mistreatment of Bettas from various sources, how they are prone to illness and mistreatment by the ignorance of people. This initially did stay my hand. Until one day I saw my Cosmo. In a way it's like falling in love. The moment when I saw him in his little box in the fish shop, we caught each other's eyes and he wiggled excitedly at the front of the little tank. I knew I wanted to take him home and provide him with as much attention and care as I could possibly muster. I don't think any words that I could manifest in this post would truly be able to describe my best little fish friend. He had the most amazing way of being the most silly and cute fish I have ever owned. Always happy to see me, irregardless of time of day, situation, how my day had been to that point. He was impartial to this and he was just happy to see me. The way he would come out of the plants like some little shark out of deep depths of the ocean, and sit on his leaf and get extremely excited, wiggling back and forth wanting to be fed. His charm, curiosity and silliness would pick me up from my lowest lows and push me higher when I was feeling well. He has always been there for me, the little light at the end of the tunnel that no matter what day I had had, or what people I may have seen or potentially had adversity with, he would be pleased to see me. He is my first true pet, but he's more than just a pet. He has been a companion who I have shared some of my life with, and he in return. He’s really poorly at the moment, but he’s still hanging on and I’m hoping for the best outcome for his treatment, but I’m also trying to accept that it might not be a positive outcome.

 Not long after I got Cosmo, I got my second boy, and the third betta in the house, Gilly. I saw him in the shop, he was an older boy, and he had a deformed gill plate. I wanted to make sure that he had a good home and someone to love him, even if he wasn’t “perfect”. He sat next to me by my computer, every day that I worked from home. He used to love sitting on his leaf next to me, he’d come away from exploring, to say hi and check that I was still there. He loved being close to me and being able to watch me. He used to do acrobatics next to his leaf and although he wasn’t as excitable or graceful as Cosmo was, he still used to wiggle and show he was excited. He was a shy, gentle boy and he was so so sweet. I only had a couple of months with him, and I wish it had been longer. He had such a big personality for such a little creature, and I feel that I didn’t get to experience all of his wonderful happiness in the short time that I had him. Unfortunately he sadly passed away this afternoon, and I told him I loved him and was proud of him right until the end.  

I don’t understand what has caused this, I really don’t. Something went severely wrong in both of their tanks, and I have no idea what the problem was. This time last week, I had two little friends to share my day with and they were both happy and active. Now I have one empty tank, and another with my poorly boy in it. I’m so upset, I’m really struggling to find the words for how I feel. I can’t believe how much things have changed and I just want my boys back. 

It’s hard to comprehend how something so small had such an impact on my life, and in such a short space of time.

Hi all - I have a male betta in a 10 gallon tank with a few ghost shrimp and some snails, I would like to introduce some other schooling fish. Anyone have recommendations for this? What kind of fish (and how many) would you recommend and why? How would you go about introducing them? TIA!

Hii im cycling my tank now but was just wondering if people have any suggestions? Its 24L and has real plants and a sponge filter. Send honest thoughts pleaseeee

Went to petsmart the other day and saw two of their betta fish dead rotting in yellow water on the shelf. I brought it to the employees attention but obviously they can’t do much about it.

It just disgusts me the way they store their Betta fish, zero water filtration and just keeping them on the shelves in containers as if they aren’t living beings. The water in one of the dead fish containers was extremely yellow and old looking, if the fish were fed daily with frequent water changes the employees would’ve noticed that dead fish before I did, so clearly there’s neglect on all levels.

Genuinely just feel like stealing those fish and would do it if I had the setup to adopt another fish but unfortunately I don’t. How ethical do you feel it would be for people to steal those fish if they were given a good home, if PetSmart just keeps them on the shelf like that making them very easily vulnerable to theft and doesn’t care enough about them to check on them they probably wouldn’t even notice, high enough rates of theft might incentivize them to alter their betta storing methods and switch to the small filtered systems that many small business pet stores have as these require employee assistance to adopt the fish. I also feel like employee assistance should be required in general to ensure the person adopting has the proper setup and such for a fish.

it is what it is. parameters are normal, and i’ve had him for nearly 5 years now, i just turned 15 when I got him and ill be 20 soon. he is showing clear signs of aging and is becoming more and more lethargic and is struggling to swim. what could I do to make it easier for him as he ages/dies and when do I know to euthanize him if he’s suffering?

I plan on getting a 15 to 20 gallon tank for a Beta, Do you all have any preferences for brands? I hear that some have a pretty high reflection from the glass and I'd like to lean away from that