Help Please

[SasukePanther]

I have had my Crowntail Betta Ikkaku for 13 months now and his behavior is starting to worry me. I am scared he is dying.

I noticed yesterday he didn't eat as he normally does. Usually no sooner than the pellets would hit the water, he would gulp them down. He wasn't really swimming around much either.

Then today when I go to feed him, I noticed that he was sitting on the bottom of his tank, sort of leaning to the side. Not a major lean just a small one.

I tried to feed him but he ignored the food from yesterday as well as today. When I put the net in, he barely moved and even allowed us to catch him without running away from the net as usual.

We put him back in the tank and again, he sunk to the bottom, becoming motionless again.

Also, his red in his fins are a deep red, usually they are a bright.


I keep the temperature of his tank between 78 and 80. That's how it has been for the past year I have had him and his brother. (We got them both on the same day and they are housed in seperate tanks)

He is fed 3 pellets a day.

His tank is purified the same way I do it every time.

His fins are also looking torn, more than they usually do.

The tank size is 1 gallon.

Also in the past year I have used the airator that came with the tank. It's really nothing more than a bubble stone that is put down in the tube.

We use betta fix whenever it is needed.

His brother is fully active, not showing any signs of sickness.


Is Ikkaku getting ready to die?

[SasukePanther]

He is now laying fully on his side..

[Meatpuppet]

sorry to hear about his condition
for feeding probly 2 pellets twice daily will be better.

how do you heat his tank and also how do you purify it? what is your water changing schedual?

i would turn off the air pump that makes bubbles. for a small one gallon tank it could be making way too much current for him (telling you from experience)
and does he look bloated at all? are his scales protruding and sticking out?

can you post the water parameters (ammoni, nitrite, and nitrate)

[Flashygrrl]

Sounds like a swim bladder problem. Have you seen him poop at all?

[SasukePanther]

I haven't seen him poop yet but then again, I can see the swelling that comes from the swim bladder.

I didn't fed him today because it says to fast them. Hopefully this will pass and he will be alright.

Can you please tell me how long this could take? I've tried not to disturb him too much, only to make sure he is still alive. Will swim bladder cause him to die?

[nav2008]

does he look bloated or anything? you say his fins are torn, what do the edges look like? possible fin rot. post a pic up for everyone to see :) we will do our best to help you out.

[Flashygrrl]

If you've got a petstore near you that you can get some frozen daphnia from it can be fed to him to help with any constipation he might have. Do not feed him anything else for the time being. If you can't get frozen, get some freeze-dried and thoroughly rehydrate it before feeding it to him (use a clean eyedropper). Hopefully this will help but if you see any "pineconed" scales on him it might be dropsy which is more or less uncurable in bettas.

Now, you didn't mention how often you clean the tank. This is important in helping him get better because you don't want him to get a secondary infection. Usually a 1 gallon tank should be partially changed 4 times a week or fully changed 2-3 times a week. It's easier and recommended to have at least a 2.5 gallon tank because it's more swimming room for them and less maintenance for you.

[SasukePanther]

I clean the tanks once a week because any more stresses them out. I had noticed this before and when I questioned a pet store, they said he was stressed so I cut his cleaning down to once a week.

And he has had torn fins before. These look sort of the same. I will post pictures but I do see swelling on the back of his body near his tailfin. I am guessing it is Swim bladder but I don't have access to a pet store currently.








No I am not keeping him in this, these are the cups I use for changing their tanks.