Faded betta w/no other symptoms

802 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Pataflafla, Mar 29, 2012

rocksmom

Discussion Starter · Mar 28, 2012

One of my two bettas has been looking really faded lately. He's normally black and white, but his body and head have been looking really gray. Everything else seems normal. He's eating and is active. No new behaviors or anything. The only thing I can think that caused this is just some changes in his tank lately. His light broke so I had to take take the plants out temporarily and I also switched out his filter (same media, just different filter). I got his new light and put his his plants back in yesterday which I thought would "fix" the problem, but he's still looking faded today. Could he still just be protesting? It just seems odd because he's usually not a very shy fish. When I do water changed or move something around in the tank he usually doesn't care and I have to by careful not to suck him up or bump him.

Housing
What size is your tank? 7.5g
What temperature is your tank? 80
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NLS
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3-4 pellets daily

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? about 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? prime

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 7.5
Hardness: n/a, but I know we have extremely hard water here
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? faded color
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? n/a
When did you start noticing the symptoms? last week or two
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? other than returning his plants, no
Does your fish have any history of being ill? yes. when i purchased him he had red streaks in his fins which i treated simply with clean water and salt
How old is your fish (approximately)? maybe 6-8 months assuming he was young when i got him

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ao

· #2 · Mar 28, 2012

I havr a fish that will turn grey if I put him in an opaque container. I think different fish have different preferences.

About that filter, can you describe exactly what you did?

Fish can also look different under different lighting.

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rocksmom

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 28, 2012

I had an ac20 on both tanks, but wanted to hide the heaters. My husband had two ac70's that he no longer needed so I modified them. I put the ac20 impellers in them so they have the same low flow, but used used giant media compartment to hold both their media and their heaters. They also have a sponge baffle so there is little to no surface current. The net result is same flow, filtration, and temperature, but no heater in the tank.

I'm hoping that he's just a little stressed from the broken light, plants being taken out, and then plants being put back in all within a 2 week span.

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Pataflafla

· #4 · Mar 29, 2012

I'm not sure what a safe level of nitrate is, but I'm thinking 10 might be a little high.

Maybe try a 50% change for the week instead of the usual 25%? Usually when color dulls, it's a water quality issue.

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MadameDesu

· #5 · Mar 29, 2012

Is he showing any signs of pineconing? (raised scales)
I think turning gray may be a symptom of dropsy or another bacterial infection.

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MikeZ06

· #6 · Mar 29, 2012

I have a black cobra fancy guppy that i got from an online fish shop that had a very large, jet black tail. He came sick, as did his girl, and their two red cobra guppy pair. The black male started to act different. Began to look sick, and then lost all his color. He went from jet black to an almost silvery gray. I treated the tank for parisites... I lost two of the new fish i ordered, both of them having the red worm of death coming out of its butt. Now i have to wait 4 months to see if the rest of the tank is going to have the red worm... The black male's color comes back a little and then goes away again throughout the day, he's happy to still be alive.

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rocksmom

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 29, 2012

MadameDesu said:
Is he showing any signs of pineconing? (raised scales)
I think turning gray may be a symptom of dropsy or another bacterial infection.

No pineconing or swelling or anything like that. If he's not looking better soon I think I'm going to move him to my 2.5g QT and do a salt treatment at the very least.

Pataflafla said:
I'm not sure what a safe level of nitrate is, but I'm thinking 10 might be a little high.

Maybe try a 50% change for the week instead of the usual 25%? Usually when color dulls, it's a water quality issue.

No, 10 isn't too high. Under 40 I believe is what's considered safe and those results are from before a water change.

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Pataflafla

· #8 · Mar 29, 2012

I'm not sure then. I've always experienced success with any dulling colors by changing out more water than usual.

Has there been any recent changes to the tank? Like new decorations, new fish, different light schedule?

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