Help me please betta pales at night!

[Myates]

A lot of fish will lose color at night while they are sleeping.. it is natural. Some of mine do it and they have had no health issues.

The fin damage is from him biting it off, not snagging on decor- those are clear mouth shaped bites. Normally when fish snag their fins you will see ripping/shredding, U and V shapes are fin biting.

Should never keep them in AQ salt constantly- in time it will build up inside of them and cause kidney/liver failures. Even just a tiny bit of salt- AQ salt should only be used for external problems such as injury, rot, fungus, ich, etc. When it is used it is only for a specific amount of time and a specific amount of salt- daily 100% water changes should be made when using salt as treatment. You will want to do a water change to remove the salt as to not harm the fish nor the plant. AQ salt can potentially hamper the growth of new fin- and no, I see no indication that he has fin rot. The blackened edges looks like his natural coloration/formation. He just bites his fins.

Leaving a light on 24/7 is not ideal as that will stress out the fish.. they need a regular day/night schedule. If you have a night light in the room that is fine, but not right next to the tank.

[asukabetta]

Originally Posted by snazy

Try leaving the roome light on with the tank lights off at night just to see if it makes a change. Can you post a picture to show how pale he goes? Are you keeping him in a container where there is lots of surface area in case he can't breathe at night properly if he can't see where he's going?

He has good access to air, also i posted a picture the last one however that was taken 20min after turning on the light so he was regaining a but of color

[asukabetta]

Originally Posted by Myates

A lot of fish will lose color at night while they are sleeping.. it is natural. Some of mine do it and they have had no health issues.

The fin damage is from him biting it off, not snagging on decor- those are clear mouth shaped bites. Normally when fish snag their fins you will see ripping/shredding, U and V shapes are fin biting.

Should never keep them in AQ salt constantly- in time it will build up inside of them and cause kidney/liver failures. Even just a tiny bit of salt- AQ salt should only be used for external problems such as injury, rot, fungus, ich, etc. When it is used it is only for a specific amount of time and a specific amount of salt- daily 100% water changes should be made when using salt as treatment. You will want to do a water change to remove the salt as to not harm the fish nor the plant. AQ salt can potentially hamper the growth of new fin- and no, I see no indication that he has fin rot. The blackened edges looks like his natural coloration/formation. He just bites his fins.

Leaving a light on 24/7 is not ideal as that will stress out the fish.. they need a regular day/night schedule. If you have a night light in the room that is fine, but not right next to the tank.

thanks, the aq salt was a recommendation I got from another person from a different site http://www.bettatalk.com/water.htm, honestly people keep contradicting each other and I don't know what to believe

I will keep a night light on see how he takes it, and as for the tail I never thought of it as the tail bitting issue.

But you are right, I realized that this may be the case, as before I bought him, he was in a small cup like jar.

Most bettas, (except the crowntail and the pure bred thailand ones (there was 2) had it's own proper tanks) were kepts in said conditions (with old water as it was yellowing) and some had their tails missing. Like when I went today there was a red betta that had no tail o.o'' Chunks and chunks were gone as if it ate it or something.

Out of all the crowntail and the red/black thailand one looked the healthiest, however I couldn't stop myself from buying this betta who was actively swimming around when I got near.

I haven't seen him bite his tail once since I got him (been watching him like a creepy stalker and taking pictures weekly or so to compare), so I guess it was because he was in such a small swimming space???

I also looked up the stress coat to help the healing however it has conditioner in it, and I already have conditioner for the water and adding more chemicals in the water could do more harm to the fish than help, so i'm going to do a bit of TLC, keep the water clean and hope that his tail becomes illustrious again.

I also did a little reading about tail bitting and lighting, some people recommend dim lighting, my light is pretty gentle, but i'm going to point the light away from the further corner so he can have some shade there (not dark) and rest or shield himself if the normal light stresses him.

I'll keep you guys posted. By the way you are all awesome :) I just love reading these posts about bettas in general in different sections, I hope to become experienced like you guys and help others in the future ^_^ betta's are wonderful creatures, and not long ago I thought fish were dull pets !

[Perseusmom]

The yellow water you saw was probably cause there was Indian Almond Leaves in the water which is good and healthy for the fish and would help with healing the tails.

Fish just like people need a day and night cycle and yes they can get pale in color at night that is normal and they color back up in the morning. As for the tail biting I am not sure what could be causing that but yes you are right it could be the small living space and not enough room for him to swim with his long tail so he bites it to make it shorter. You have and right idea about keeping his water extra clean so his tail can heal.

His water temp should be 76 being the lowest to 82 degrees since Betta are tropical fish. Good luck and keep us posted !

[asukabetta]

The night light worked!!!

Night light and partial water change without AQ salt. (Dunno if the salt did anything, as I said last time I put a minimal amount hardly half a teaspoon for 2 gallons of water, some say it's bad while some say it's good for the betta x_x.)

But I woke up at 7:00 am (to go to class so it's still abit dark) and he looks supeeeer happy and his usual dark blue!!! He ate happily without me having to wait for him to calm down or anything.

Going to keep this "night light" for a couple of days and see if that is the reason he looks so happy in the morning XD

At nighttime with an improvised night-light



In the morning 7:00 am, swims actively, no signs of stress, happy little blueberry XD However he did turn pale a few min after with the light on, but I guess because suddenly it was bright, but he is recovering his color again