Is he sick?

[Hishoelle]

I have Rocco my Betta because he was the center piece at a wedding and I knew if I didn't take him home, who knows where he'd end up. He only has a one gallon tank (for now, as that's all I could afford for the time being.) He has fake plants, a heater, air pump/filter?, thermometer and heater (that doesn't work the greatest.) I feed him Betta pellets (soaked, so he doesn't choak) alternated with flakes to give him variety and he gets blood worms on the weekends. I've had him just over 5 months now. He has a timer that turns his light on at 7am and off at 11pm. The only thing I'm not the best betta mommy at, is cleaning his tank. I don't do it as often as I know I should. (I probably clean it once every couple weeks 100% water change, scrub all plants, gravel & tank, and add conditioner.) Lately i've noticed some of his scales seem to be kinda silvery/off colored, and this morning when I got up and said hi to him, he just laid at the bottom of the tank and I thought he was dead. I was pleasantly surprised by his 'hello' when I got home from work. Today, when he is swimming around, he seems kinda "hyper". I feed him once a day in the evening and he ate his flakes tonight. He's kind of lethargic otherwise. I'm not sure what's wrong with him/what I should do. I have limited funding, but I love my little guy more than anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[shellieca]

Sorry he seems to not be feeling well. 1st, IMO, the lights are on way too long. They should be on a more normal day/night cycle instead of 16 hrs. I have my lights all come on around 11AM & go off between 8 & 9PM, i like the lights on in the evening when I'm home. Being in small volume water he needs much more frequent water changes which is the 1st thing I would do, besides adjust the lights, to see if that made any difference.

[Hishoelle]

Thank you Shellieca! I changed his timer so that his light comes on at 10am and turns off at 8pm. I also gave him a 50% water change on tuesday and 100% yesterday. He's still hanging in there. And maybe he's okay. He's still more lethargic than usual and has some off colored/silver/iridescent scales. I've heard of fin rot, but I don't know what it looks like. If he keeps hanging on, I'm going to be more diligent about changing his water!

[shellieca]

Fin rot looks like his fins are melting off, there will typically be black edges. The silver could be him changing colors, they do that sometimes. If you can get a decent pic of him we could let you know if it looks like he has fin rot or not. It may take him a few days to come out of it & he may just not be as active as before. My CT male has slowed down quite a bit compared to my other males but when he thinks there's food coming he amazingly gets energetic again, its just his new norm.

[sainthogan]

What color is your fish? The reason I am asking is because it could possibly be velvet and the color of your fish is making it look silver. Take a flashlight and see if he has any gold or rust colored "dust" anywhere on his body. If he does it's velvet.

[Hishoelle]

Rocco is a beautiful blue. He's just a little guy. Not a Crown Tail. I held a flashlight up to him and brought my brother over for a second pair of eyes. We didn't see any gold or rose. It sounds exactly like the last thing shellieca said about changing color and not at all like fin rot. He's lethargic (lying on the bottom of the tank and doesn't always respond when I say hi.) However, he gets very excited and active when its dinner time and sometimes is even darting around. I'll post a picture later tonight or tomorrow. I really appreciate everyone's input. You guys have been incredibly helpful! I've heard of velvet, but I'm not sure what it is. If he's changing color, what should I expect and what should I do?

[Hishoelle]

These are the pictures I have of Rocco right now. They're not the greatest. But they were the best I could get. I hope this works this time.