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Help me please betta pales at night!

1K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  asukabetta  
#1 ·
Hello! I hope you can help me, this is my first time I have a betta, but I did extensive research before purchasing.

His name is Blueberry and is about 3 weeks old (in my house) and has been upgraded from a 2gallon bowl to a 2 gallon tank about a week ago or so (bowl was temporary till i found a tank that was decent and had the money for it)

He has a heater, light but no filter (I tried but it shook up the water too much and the betta didn't like it one bit.)

I do partial changes everyother day and full water changes once a week. using tap water with conditioner

His parms are normal, the temperature is constant at 75 farenheit. He doesnt seem to have any fungus, parasites or bloatness.

He does have some fin rot (i believe) but i have been putting a bit of salt to help the curing process, he had it from the store already.

However, ever since he was in the tank, as soon as I turn off the light for the night, the next morning he is all pale with his stress line visible.

At first i thought, it might be the cold, as leaving the light on, he quickly recovers his color (in an hour). But the temperatures remain stable thanks to the heater I bought him.

I do not know why he pales without light and with light he thrives. Is he scared of the dark???

He eats normal (pellets and dried blood worms) except when pale in the mornings (I need to wait till he calms down), acts normal, no clamped fins, stays on top of the tank, moves around, reacts to movement (says hi to me in front of the tank).

I honestly have no idea, but this has started with his tank, before in his bowl he never did this. I love animals, I wish I could have a 5 gallon tank but it won't fit in the house for now. Been taking pictures of him every other day to see his fin rot progress and any illness signs

Please help me.

Here he is in his previous bowl:

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In the tank:

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In the morning

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#3 ·
Thanks for the fast reply, are you sure its fine? Im a little paranoid as in the bowl he didnt pale at all.

Also the salt i put is a minimum amount, my one live plant doesnt seem to mind it at all. Resistent little bugger, its funny i was sp worried about the fish i forgot about the wellbeing of the plant lol.

It also shows stress stripes when it pales, is that normal when they pale due to lack of light or is it really stressed?

Also about the fins, it is fin rot correct? Does a sress coat apart from the aquaro salt help the healing??

Sorry for all the questions, i really just want my betta to thrive xD
 
#4 ·
I'm not really sure why he would be pale, he's a beautiful looking betta though. It does look like the fin is torn a little, but it could also be from his fins snagging on the deco/plants in your tank. Do you have any plastic plants? I can't tell if the ones in the picture are plastic or silk. If they are plastic, I would recommend taking them out and replacing them with silk or live plants. Also, stress coat does help with healing damaged tissue, so yes, it's okay to put AQ salt and stresscoat in to help with the fin healing.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thanks, actually there were prettier ones but somehow this betta called out to me more than the other flashy ones, he has a great curious personality and loves watching gangnam style lol ( i wondered if hed pay attention to my phone screen if put a video on it). His fins were like that from the store, i checked the decoration by running a thin stocking to make sure it wouldnt tear the bettas fins, i have 1 plastic plant, a cave with some leaves and a live plant. I always checked the decoration and been observing him for any new tears, so far nothing new, i am aware of silk plants being better but im trying to replace them for real ones as they help with the oxygen and he seems to like them a lot
 
#7 ·
I placed the decorum to give him plenty of hiding spaces, perhaps i should leave a low light on? So its still dark but not so much? What else can cause a betta stress apart from water conditions

By the way thanks for helping me out :)
 
#9 ·
Yes i checked it, the heater autoregulates but i still keep an eye on the thermometer, i use a light with led bulbs that dont emit heat, i talked to the pet shop keeper he said maybe the betta is stress bu the abrupt changes of light. Dunno if this is true, but if it is, any ideas to reduce this kind of stress?
 
#10 ·
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?
 
#11 ·
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.
 
#13 · (Edited)
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 !
 
#14 ·
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 !
 
#15 · (Edited)
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

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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

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