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SUMMARY OF CURRENT ISSUE:
Over the past month, my up-to-now healthy vibrant boy has had thinning fins, low-to-no appetite, clumsy eating, fading color, sleeping more, and as of this past week, mostly floats kinda sideways at the top, with intermittent bursts of energy. His GH/KH are lower lately than they used to be, but pH is stable at 7.0 and nitrates/nitrites are at 0. His scales look pale but fine (no growth, film, or pinecones) and he’s not bloated. He’d be slowing down for about a month, but symptoms have been severe for almost a week. I’m so scared for him. I’ve been doing fairly aggressive water changes (30-40% daily) for a few days and he seems gradually better each day – he even ate a pellet of food today and is exploring more of the of the tank! (just the top, but still improvement!) But he's not himself; I know he’s unwell and want to save him. Based on my research it doesn't seem like dropsy or swim bladder or parasites, or etc.. Is he just old? I've only had him for 7 months, but who knows how old he was when I got him...
DETAILS:
The fish:
I got my healthy-looking boy of unknown age from a Petsmart in June 2022. Before becoming unwell, he was a vibrant red with an iridescent light blue sheen along his body and on the very edges of his fins. He loved to eat and swim in zips and shimmies whenever he wasn’t asleep or resting. If I approached him while resting he’d shimmy over to me to say hi. Very sweet boy.
Housing:
He’s by himself in a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter and heater that keeps temperature steady within 78-82F. No aeration besides what the filter provides by moving the water around. He has a plastic hammock, two live plants, and a plastic log for hiding. Gravel substrate.
Food:
I use Imagitarium Betta Pellets, and Zoo Med Dial-a-Treat (includes dried bloodworms, daphnia, and mysis). When he was healthy, I fed him as instructed on the Imagitarium Betta Pellets container: 2-3 pellets, 1-2 times daily. The Dial-a-Treat I would give occasionally if he was being especially cute. If I did that, I’d reduce the number of pellets fed.
Maintenance:
I was changing ~20% of water every 1-2 weeks before he got sick. I’d siphon out the water at the substrate level to remove debris. The water put back in depended on my comfort level:
Water Parameters:
I use API 5-in-1 test strips. The water chemistry had been consistently good, with Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: 0, pH: 7.0, Hardness (GH) 80, and Alkalinity (KH) 60.
But lately, the GH and KH (but not pH!) have been lower. pH is till stable at 7.0, but GH hovers closer to 40 and KH hovers closer to 30. Nitrite/Nitrate still at 0.
Symptoms and Treatment:
He started getting clumsy with food around late November. I’d go to feed him, and he’d act eager to receive it, but he’d miss the food more often than not. He started zipping around less and resting more often, usually along the bottom or in his log.
A few weeks ago I noticed his fins were looking tattered. There’s nothing sharp in his tank, no companions. He doesn’t appear bloated, there’s no weird growth on his scales and his scales look smooth (not pineconed), but he has paled a bit. I started feeding him less because when he missed the food it would sink to the bottom, and I didn’t want an accumulation of rotting food down there.
He‘d been less mobile and clumsy with eating for a few weeks by the time I left for a trip a week ago. I was away for three days. My dad house-sat for me and although I gave instructions on how to feed him, I think he may have forgot and overfed. However, I highly doubt he actually ate anything because he’d been so clumsy and somewhat disinterested. However, the food would have been sitting at the substrate uneaten and decaying.
When I got home this past Friday (4 days ago), he was experiencing another algal bloom (see below) and he was floating passively and sideways at the top of the tank. I had bottles of Activ-Betta water available so warmed that up to 80F and did a partial water change first thing. Since then, I’ve been doing water changes daily – about 30-40% – and each day he seems better relative to the day before, but oh boy was that bar set low. A lot of floating sideways at the top of the tank, close the edges. Not really eating, even when I hold it right in front of him.
Will he get better? Is he just old? I don’t know what else to do for him and can’t tell what’s even wrong exactly. He was so happy and healthy from June-December but this past month has been rough. I love him so much.
Algae issue, in case it matters:
Since early on, later summer, he’s had an algae problem. In August it got so bad that I performed a water change and put him in another container (of current tank water) while I wiped off all his ornaments and substrate and scraped the walls to get rid of the algae (just water, no soap). The resulting tank water was 50/50 old and newly-treated tap water (rested 24hrs, same temperature as the old water). At first he was fine but by end of day he was in such a shock I thought he would die. He got better within a couple days and was back to his zippy self, but that event scared me from performing water changes for a few weeks. During that time though, I checked his water chemistry almost daily and parameters were always good. Once the nitrates/nitrites looked a little off (~September) I started doing partial water change every 1-2 weeks with Activ-Betta water. But that’s too expensive to use while keeping up with how often his water needed to be changed, so I got the confidence to treat my own water again. It was going well for months. The algae was still there, but his water parameters were always good and he seemed like a happy boy. Even made a bubble nest back in October!
Pictures from November/December:
![Plant Fish supply Petal Fish Aquatic plant]()
![Plant Pet supply Organism Terrestrial plant Fish supply]()
Pictures from today:
![Liquid Water Fluid Organism Barware]()
![Liquid Water Fluid Wood Terrestrial plant]()
Over the past month, my up-to-now healthy vibrant boy has had thinning fins, low-to-no appetite, clumsy eating, fading color, sleeping more, and as of this past week, mostly floats kinda sideways at the top, with intermittent bursts of energy. His GH/KH are lower lately than they used to be, but pH is stable at 7.0 and nitrates/nitrites are at 0. His scales look pale but fine (no growth, film, or pinecones) and he’s not bloated. He’d be slowing down for about a month, but symptoms have been severe for almost a week. I’m so scared for him. I’ve been doing fairly aggressive water changes (30-40% daily) for a few days and he seems gradually better each day – he even ate a pellet of food today and is exploring more of the of the tank! (just the top, but still improvement!) But he's not himself; I know he’s unwell and want to save him. Based on my research it doesn't seem like dropsy or swim bladder or parasites, or etc.. Is he just old? I've only had him for 7 months, but who knows how old he was when I got him...
DETAILS:
The fish:
I got my healthy-looking boy of unknown age from a Petsmart in June 2022. Before becoming unwell, he was a vibrant red with an iridescent light blue sheen along his body and on the very edges of his fins. He loved to eat and swim in zips and shimmies whenever he wasn’t asleep or resting. If I approached him while resting he’d shimmy over to me to say hi. Very sweet boy.
Housing:
He’s by himself in a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter and heater that keeps temperature steady within 78-82F. No aeration besides what the filter provides by moving the water around. He has a plastic hammock, two live plants, and a plastic log for hiding. Gravel substrate.
Food:
I use Imagitarium Betta Pellets, and Zoo Med Dial-a-Treat (includes dried bloodworms, daphnia, and mysis). When he was healthy, I fed him as instructed on the Imagitarium Betta Pellets container: 2-3 pellets, 1-2 times daily. The Dial-a-Treat I would give occasionally if he was being especially cute. If I did that, I’d reduce the number of pellets fed.
Maintenance:
I was changing ~20% of water every 1-2 weeks before he got sick. I’d siphon out the water at the substrate level to remove debris. The water put back in depended on my comfort level:
- Sometimes I didn’t trust my own treatment of the water, so I’d use Activ-Betta Bio-Activ Live Aqueous Solution Betta Water.
- When treating my own (Boston tap) water, I treat it with API Stress Coat, API Quick Start, and Top Fin Readistart Nitrifying Bacteria Starter (all proportioned according to the volume of water being replaced into the tank). Once he became unwell I also got Zoo Med Betta H2O and API BettaFix, (again, proportioned according to the volume of water being replaced into the tank). I let the water rest 24 hours before performing the water change.
Water Parameters:
I use API 5-in-1 test strips. The water chemistry had been consistently good, with Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: 0, pH: 7.0, Hardness (GH) 80, and Alkalinity (KH) 60.
But lately, the GH and KH (but not pH!) have been lower. pH is till stable at 7.0, but GH hovers closer to 40 and KH hovers closer to 30. Nitrite/Nitrate still at 0.
Symptoms and Treatment:
He started getting clumsy with food around late November. I’d go to feed him, and he’d act eager to receive it, but he’d miss the food more often than not. He started zipping around less and resting more often, usually along the bottom or in his log.
A few weeks ago I noticed his fins were looking tattered. There’s nothing sharp in his tank, no companions. He doesn’t appear bloated, there’s no weird growth on his scales and his scales look smooth (not pineconed), but he has paled a bit. I started feeding him less because when he missed the food it would sink to the bottom, and I didn’t want an accumulation of rotting food down there.
He‘d been less mobile and clumsy with eating for a few weeks by the time I left for a trip a week ago. I was away for three days. My dad house-sat for me and although I gave instructions on how to feed him, I think he may have forgot and overfed. However, I highly doubt he actually ate anything because he’d been so clumsy and somewhat disinterested. However, the food would have been sitting at the substrate uneaten and decaying.
When I got home this past Friday (4 days ago), he was experiencing another algal bloom (see below) and he was floating passively and sideways at the top of the tank. I had bottles of Activ-Betta water available so warmed that up to 80F and did a partial water change first thing. Since then, I’ve been doing water changes daily – about 30-40% – and each day he seems better relative to the day before, but oh boy was that bar set low. A lot of floating sideways at the top of the tank, close the edges. Not really eating, even when I hold it right in front of him.
Will he get better? Is he just old? I don’t know what else to do for him and can’t tell what’s even wrong exactly. He was so happy and healthy from June-December but this past month has been rough. I love him so much.
Algae issue, in case it matters:
Since early on, later summer, he’s had an algae problem. In August it got so bad that I performed a water change and put him in another container (of current tank water) while I wiped off all his ornaments and substrate and scraped the walls to get rid of the algae (just water, no soap). The resulting tank water was 50/50 old and newly-treated tap water (rested 24hrs, same temperature as the old water). At first he was fine but by end of day he was in such a shock I thought he would die. He got better within a couple days and was back to his zippy self, but that event scared me from performing water changes for a few weeks. During that time though, I checked his water chemistry almost daily and parameters were always good. Once the nitrates/nitrites looked a little off (~September) I started doing partial water change every 1-2 weeks with Activ-Betta water. But that’s too expensive to use while keeping up with how often his water needed to be changed, so I got the confidence to treat my own water again. It was going well for months. The algae was still there, but his water parameters were always good and he seemed like a happy boy. Even made a bubble nest back in October!
Pictures from November/December:
Pictures from today:
Even if I hold it right in front of him! I've tried his pellets, and bloodworms (which he used love) and daphnia. He's also tending to keep his face towards the glass, so he doesn't really orient himself to even notice that there is food most of the time.
