[Bettalove22]

I have a male dragonscale crowntail betta fish with purple/blue-ish colors with marroon fins.

But the last few days upon looking at him it seems as though the webbing in between his fins look as if they are lighter than when i got him, as i remember anyway, and are wondering if this is an issue


He is showing no signs of any disease im aware of, eats fine and alllllways wants food though he doesnt get as much as he would eat for he would bloat lol. Swims around and has been making and maintaining bubble nest constantly. Got him in just over a 10 something gallon octagon tank now with heater 80 and filter.


Any info on this would be much appreciated, I love my little guy and want him to be as healthy as he possibly can be and have a great home so checking to see if this is signs of something or if im just worrying over nothing cause its how he always has been and i just dont remember it being as light as they look lol.


Mitch

 

[Silverbeam]

If you notice that your betta is losing color rapidly, it is generally a sign of illness (Possibly caused by stress). I suggest you check your water quality. Sometimes the quality of the tap fluctuates, so even though you think the water looks clean or clear it can have high chlorine/chloramine concentrations which could be what's causing the loss of color (and quite possibly harming your fish). I suggest cleaning you tank more often.
I'm not really an expert :/ But I did some research for you and I put together my best advice.

Sil

 

[Bettalove22]

any info helps, ive been looking into it as well and have come to about the same conclusion.

I do about 30 to 50% water changes in the tank every two weeks being he is small as well and the tank is 10 something gallons, but i ran out of my test strips and havent had the extra cash to pick up the master kit that has all the chemicals and tester so you can perfectly set up the water and change the levels at will if needed. im doing a 50% change today and cleaning my filter hoping that will help him. might have to do weekly changes i guess but have read and been told that with as much water as i have it can go every 2 weeks but could be wrong. i have water conditioner for the chlorine and stuff but im guessing its the ammonia is high or somethign from not having the water changed more now that i have read into it more.

But thanks for the info, any and all helps

 

[lilnaugrim]

It's most likely his iridescence. Can we get pictures?

Between the ray's of Betta's fins they often have an iridescence which can be different than their normal color or it can be lighter than their usual color. Like the boy in my avatar, his fin's are orange and blue, between the orange parts near the body there are sections of a light blue shiny iridescence. That is completely normal You can't see it will in that actual picture but I was just giving an example.

 

[Bettalove22]

LIL, i could try with pics but i dont have my chord to hook it to my laptop so its a pain but i will try. and i was wondering cause he shows no signs of stress or unhappy behavior i mean he is hard at working on his next as i speak swimming at the top. i just remembered when i first got him the space being more solid like the rest of the actual spines. but i could be mistaken being i never payed to close attention that that specific thing. I just love this little guy and love his colors and style and so any little thing that might appear wrong i will check. Also any idea as to why some if his fins may be curling ? i know they are very sensitive and i think a few have been damaged due to the hide my younger sister got me and i feel compelled to use cause we dont get a long much and she is younger than me. its a half anciet greece structure and i sanded it and the edges to make it smoother, and i dont have any plants yet, sad i know, but i havent had the extra cash like i mentioned earlier with the master test kit i need to get first as well. But i can try to get pics but it will take me time cause im also not to sure how to put them up on here lol

 

[lilnaugrim]

Okay. Well there's always a chance that he's colored up now and is feeling happier, that's why his colors will brighten and sometimes deepen in color. Also there's a chance he could be a Marble which means his colors can change whenever the heck they want to haha.

Here's a great article on the marble gene: http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=1114

 

[Bettalove22]

I dont think he is a marble, it would be awesome though, Ive seen almost exact copies of him under the type he is but i wouldnt know either cause i am faaaar from expert, he is the first ive owned since a child and so he is the first ive had that has actually gotten the proper care they deserve cause i looked them up a bunch and care for them before i got them here when i found it. But the pic i have as the profile thing on my page is him, its super small though cause i set it as the pic and then you cant crop it or anythign its just shrunk to fit and is super small

 

[lilnaugrim]

You can make an album here and upload that picture there if you wanted. Or you can crop it on MS Paint or something, save as something else and upload it as your avatar pic ^_^

But yeah, just because you've seen Betta's that look exactly like him doesn't mean they all have the same gene's so you'll never know what will happen ;-)

 

[Bettalove22]

Good point, youll never know the true genetic make up of them lol. I just have seen like clones of him practically haha. it was funny i was watching a show vid to see live variety and not just pics on the net and was like Nereus!! But im just hoping he is good. everything point to him being perfect and happy but was worried, especially cause i dont have the master test kit to make sure and set the water to the perfect set up for bettas

 

[Bettalove22]

Also, unrelated but i gotta say, i love your pic of your fish, the black with vibrant blue and yellow gold is gorgeous. There are so many i want cause they are beautiful fish

 

[lilnaugrim]

Lol thank you, that's Rembrandt ^_^ he's my first Betta that I didn't kill in 2 weeks >< I've now had him 9 months! He's a Mustard Gas, his body is actually blue but in some ways he just looks black that's normal though.

But yeah, as long as you do your regular water changes he'll be okay. If you feel that he needs extra changes then go for it, it won't hurt anything as long as you always condition the water and keep it around the same temp he'll be great!

 

[Bettalove22]

I do the 30 to 50% every two weeks cause its a 10 plus octagon tank like i said earlier. and always use conditioner when i do and when i add water to it.

Nereus is mine and he is my first betta since i was a child and my first i have truly owned myself and ive had him a couple months now, pushing two i think.

I hope to have him close to the 6 year high end average, he was smaller than any other the others at the fish store so i hoped that him being smaller meant he was younger and could still grow giving me a potential buddy to have for a long while lol.

But yours is incredible, i love the variety in styles, and colors this fish come in. One of the most awesome stunning fish out there. Id love to get a green one, mainly cause my fav color is green, but yeah just so many id want from there looks

 

[lilnaugrim]

Oh...every two weeks? It should be done at least once a week and if it's not cycled then you should be doing at least twice a week changes 25-50%. That will help him for sure. And just to check, do you have a gravel vacuum and do you siphon the gravel? I know sometimes people don't know to siphon the gravel and stuff, just the water so just want to help out if you didn't know ^_^

Sorry, I didn't read much of your first post >.< I apologize for that.

Yeah, I've got 23 right now as it is! my sorority carries most of them though at 15 while I've got 8 males, mostly blues and variations of so like Rembrandt here. But you can visit my albums to see who I have if you want. Males and females are split into their own albums.

 

[Bettalove22]

I have a gravel pump and use it to clean my rocks, and good to know about the changes. have read a lot of stuff from other site and info things about if you have a bigger tank with only the 1 fish with filter and heater you can do it every 2 weeks, 1 week with none then on the next then one off and then the next. but i can do them every week easy, the gravel pump makes it easy to get water out of the tank lol. but i also have been doing it so i dont blow through all my conditioner, again i dont have a ton of extra cash at the moment to keep buying a bunch of conditioner lol. but i have a new bottle and are going to get the dang master test kit next and then i should be all set to keep perfect tabs on my water and how it is for him

 

[lilnaugrim]

How much conditioner do you use and what brand is it?

That's good you can do it every week though. See it's not just the fish poop that you're taking out but there are other non-dissolved and dissolved organic compounds in there that you take out. Also fish get their minerals from the water the same as we do so eventually all those minerals get used up and so it has to be replenished and that's where water changes come in helpful.

Also you said his fins were curling? That could be from two things; ammonia is too high, or you have hard water. Harder water tends to cause fin curling and it is not reversible but it's not dangerous for their health either, it just might not look as nice lol The flip side is it's from ammonia so if your tank isn't cycled then this could be the cause of it. Thankfully most of it is reversible, depending on the severity they'll usually uncurl a little bit at least when they start to get good clean water. They may not fully uncurl but it might get a little better down the road is all.

Also, every tank needs a cleaning once a week unless it's an NPT (natural planted tank) in which case the plants do the filtering and then you just replenish the water when it evaporates and do about a once a month cleaning for it. But regardless, regular tanks no matter the size under 100 gallons or so should be done each week. However this also depends on what's in the tank too. If you've got a 150 gallon tank with fish that poop crazy amounts, yeah that should be cleaned out once a week lol

Betta's, for their size do not have a huge bio-load but they also excrete a type of urine, not the same as we do but they do excrete it along with their poop and just constantly through their gills. So that's why it's also important to do changes every other week will be fine if the tank is cycled and has plants and stuff but otherwise, once a week at least should be your goal. My 10 gallon has 3 Betta's, all divided but that sometimes I even do twice a week around 80% because I can and because they poop a lot!

Oh that's another question I have, how much do you feed him and what is it and how often?

(sorry for the longer post )

 

[Bettalove22]

They arent curling ive just noticed some arent dead straight and he came with a few that were bent already lol and so they are probly the same ones.

The conditioner is Kordon NovAqua Plus, and it depends on how much i change or add for how much i use, just use the amount it says to use per gallon you add

I think it may be some of my levels are off, but i cant check right now and i hate it.

Feed is mostly now cause he sometimes does and doesnt eat the frozen brineshrimp i give him to mix his diet up. but he mainly has been eating pellets. Feed him 2 to 3 pellets when i turn his light on in the morning and 1 or 2 at night depending, usually give him 4 pellets a day total. and i wanted to get the new life spectrum pellets but no store had them so i had to get the Omega One pellets

 

[lilnaugrim]

Oh great! Food looks great ^_^ Yeah I use NLS mostly, Omega for substitution and then Frozen BW's, I want to get Frozen Brine Shrimp though. That's good though :-D

Have you looked into using Prime? It's only 1-2 drops per gallon so it literally lasts forever. Same goes for API Tap Water conditioner. I'm still using the same one I bought 11 months ago! Almost a year now and I'm just starting to get low! lol so that might be something worth investing in ^_^

 

[Bettalove22]

Daamn that is good, ima write that down haha.

Yeah when i looked up these fish i read they can be picky eaters and like to have variety so i got frozen brineshrimp which he likes just i think he is used to the pellets from the store so he sometimes just follows it as it sinks instead of eating it like he does with the pellets, plus i have floating pellets. and i have freeze dried bloodworms but i dont use them much cause i heard you make them a main part of the diet can sometimes give them constipation. i know it can come from over feeding but i also read that freeze dried bloodworms can cause it too.

But with the gravel pump how do you use yours? i just want to ask to be sure im doing it alright.