shedding?

[april]

We have had our male Betta for about a year and a half. He recently became lethargic, did not eat and his fins were literally coming apart (like shedding or molting). I changed his water but there seemed to be no change and his fins continually "fell apart." After about 4 or 5 days he just snapped out of it, ate well, was active and normal. His fins are now shorter but seem in good condition. What happened? And should I expect it to happen again or periodically? If not, is there something we should or should not do to avoid it in the future? We use distilled water in his tank of about 3/4 gallon size, but in my online research I have read not to use distilled. Why not, and since he has been doing well with it for so long should we just continue with it?

[dramaqueen]

It sounds to me like your fish had some finrot but seemed to get over it on his own. Keeping the water clean helps to prevent finrot. I used Betta Fix for one of my fish that had finrot and it worked pretty good. Other people haven't had much luck with Betta Fix. If you have your fish in less than a gallon, the water needs to be changed 1 to 2 times a week. I don't know much about distilled water,except that it doesn't have essential minerals that bettas need.

[Flashygrrl]

Distilled shouldn't be used because it does not contain the trace minerals that fish need in their water.

For a 3/4 gallon tank the water needs to pretty much get changed every other day. You should look into getting him a tank at least 2 1/2 gallons and a heater and small filter. With the bigger tank and the filter you only have to partially change the water twice the week, doing a gravel vac during one of them.