Betta Fish Help?

[Nomed]

So I got a betta fish a few weeks ago. He seemed fine when i got him, pretty alert but not that agressive. I had him in his tank with beady gravel things i got at the store and for the first two weeks or so he seemed totally fine. Then I noticed he was a little less active but i figured he was fine. Ive been really busy so I havent really checked on him a lot, I would just shake in some food everynight before I went to bed.
Then today I noticed the end of his tail is turning black and he is spending all his time at the top of the water, and he is swimming a little funny. It looks as if hes struggling to swim.

So I just changed his water and put some reptisafe in it which i figured would be alright, now he seems to be a little better and more active. But what can I do to help him?
I took out the gravel stuff because I think that was making the water a little dirty (more like dusty)

and he wont puff up anymore he just freaks out and swims around when he sees a mirrior...

what should I do? :[

anyway here he is when i first got him.

and here he is now.

Thanks

 

[Corny Noob]

Well you said you just changed the water, but how long was it untill that happened?
What size container is he in? Is their any filtration?

Looks like fin rot to me, caused by unsanitary water conditions.
The gravel shouldn't have caused any problems honestly, but you should run it clean before using it in any set up then everytime you clean the tank again because it gets poop and decayed food build up.

 

[Nomed]

its a little carrier thing.

there is no filter for it :[
and I change his water weekly, but now when i notice its getting a little cloudy im going to clean it to make sure to keep bactiera away.

The gravel was really hard to filter because it was so small, it kept falling thorough the strainer :[

I feel terrible I did not pay more attention, Ive been so busy with school and crap around the house, and caring for the snakes.
:[

 

[Corny Noob]

Hmm so that's maybe half a gallon, once a week is probally pushing it, especially if you're throwing in a pinch of flakes and not really seeing if he eats them all.
A pinch of aquarium salt and clean water is the best way to help him to looking better.

Edit: also maybe you could give him something to do too, if that's what his home looks like normally I'd imagining he's getting bored, give him a plant or something to hide in, it'll minimize his stress levels.

 

[Nomed]

mm I had a little plant in there but I took it out since it wouldent stay down with out the gravel. I found thest little coloum things for him to play around.

It looks like hes eating them, they are all gone and none are on the bottom of the tank..

He seems a lit happier already and hes swimming around a lot more.


Thanks a million for the help Jenn!

 

[tam&biff]

Bettas can be underestimated when it comes to heat, water changes ect.
read this page and you'll see what I mean. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/betta.htm

Imo the black on the fins is you're temps

good luck

TAM..

 

[Corny Noob]

Well I was also wondering if it could have been the temps too, since they are tropical fish and live a lot better treated as so. While they can adapt to the "room temps" sometimes we forget just how chilly that can get for a fish.
I opted to go with the fin rot given the size of the container and the frequency of the water changes.

 

[Nomed]

Ive kept a little lamp on him which gets hot but is not too bright to keep the water temps up. But Ill just break out the heat lamp and see if I can get him up to about 80*
and change his water like every 3 days? that sound okay?
Hopefully I can run out to the store sometime this weekend for some marbles or something for the bottom of his tank so I can put his plants back in.

Thank you for the link Tam! I appreciate your help.

 

[Corny Noob]

Cleaning schedule sounds good to me

Also, just to make sure, you mentioned the reptisafe, have you normally been using water conditioner or was that the first time?

 

[bill38112]

Among the many pets I have raised and exhibited were bettas. At one time I had over 200 specimens. They are remarkably resilient. Water quality isn't all that important as their native habitat is stagnant water in SE Asia. In fact they have an organ at the top of their heads that allows them to breath air directly from the atmosphere when there isn't enough oxygen in the water. That's why you see them kept in deli cups in the shops. The three things that I want to bring to your attention are:

1. They are temperature sensitive. Their native habitat is in shallow pools only a few inches deep. That means the temps get pretty high. 80-85 is about right.
   
2. The prefer live food. Most enthusiast feed brine shrimp. Almost all well stocked aquarium shops carry live brine shrimp. However, if you have just the one fish, try the floating food for baby cichlids. It doesn't sink as fast and you can scoop out what isn't eaten in a few minutes.
   
3. They have a very short life span. A two year old fish is old. By the time they hae the beautiful fins, they are usually at least six months old. You may just have a geriatric fish.

They are fascinating fish. Check out the International Betta Congess' web site for the latest varieties and colors. Be careful, you could end up with a couple of hundred fish.

 

[Nomed]

That was my first time trying it out. I read it and figured it couldent hurt him too much if it would at all cause all it really does is gets rid of chlorene and ammonia, adds calcium as well as some electrolytes and stops slime build up.

Should I not experiment and just use regular tap water? Or keep a close eye on this?

Also the only bulb I have left for my heat lamp lets off light, you think that okay or does he really need darkness at night?

 

[Nomed]

Among the many pets I have raised and exhibited were bettas. At one time I had over 200 specimens. They are remarkably resilient. Water quality isn't all that important as their native habitat is stagnant water in SE Asia. In fact they have an organ at the top of their heads that allows them to breath air directly from the atmosphere when there isn't enough oxygen in the water. That's why you see them kept in deli cups in the shops. The three things that I want to bring to your attention are:

1. They are temperature sensitive. Their native habitat is in shallow pools only a few inches deep. That means the temps get pretty high. 80-85 is about right.
   
2. The prefer live food. Most enthusiast feed brine shrimp. Almost all well stocked aquarium shops carry live brine shrimp. However, if you have just the one fish, try the floating food for baby cichlids. It doesn't sink as fast and you can scoop out what isn't eaten in a few minutes.
   
3. They have a very short life span. A two year old fish is old. By the time they hae the beautiful fins, they are usually at least six months old. You may just have a geriatric fish.

They are fascinating fish. Check out the International Betta Congess' web site for the latest varieties and colors. Be careful, you could end up with a couple of hundred fish.

Thank you for your advice.
Hes looking a lot happier now that i have the temps up.
I remeber when my mom had one a long time ago she fed it these dead little worm things. I was hoping thats what the jar of food I got was but it ended up being flakes, so I'll go out and get some of the dead shrimp

 

[lil_rab2005]

Ive kept a little lamp on him which gets hot but is not too bright to keep the water temps up. But Ill just break out the heat lamp and see if I can get him up to about 80*
and change his water like every 3 days? that sound okay?
Hopefully I can run out to the store sometime this weekend for some marbles or something for the bottom of his tank so I can put his plants back in.

Thank you for the link Tam! I appreciate your help.

I used to breed betas, but I've always had them in aquariums with a filter running. So I don't know about water without a filter but filtered water I was always told to only make a 15% water change because if you do the whole amount of water, it kinda ruins the good bacteria that builds up and keeps the aquarium free of amonia that builds up sometimes, if that makes any sense lol...

The pics are awesome!!! He looks great!!! As long as he's eating fine, I see nothing wrong with him. The black around the fins are sometimes due to yes, water temps and things like that. Fin rot looks kinda whitish around the edges and tears start appearing around the whitish looking spots. Can definitely be cured any time by medicine from the petstore. I don't know if you store carries it but we loved the medicine called "Clout". Man, it was a wonder drug for fish lol... it works far better than the others on the shelves IMO... just my opinion though.

Good luck with your little guy, man I miss breeding them. They are so neat. The male blows bubbles on the top of the water, then when you put a female (has to be fat with eggs, if not ready, he will kill her) in, he gently wraps his body around hers and squeezes the eggs out a little at a time, 5 or so, then he goes down and picks all the eggs up and blows them in the bubbles on top. After done, take the female out and he takes care of them way after they hatch. He is the best dad in the world lol...

Your male will always keep building nest of bubbles on top of the water but he will not suffer any if you don't breed him.

Lil.

 

[Nomed]

Haha I guess it would br really cool to breed them to see all the different looking fish you could produce but its not really for me now haha

I really want him to heal so he can be as handsome as he was when i first brought him home. I feel really bad for ignoring his needs even though it was unintentional.

here is a few more pictures of him the day afer i got him:

sorry that one is crappy ^

and a photo I took of my sisters who unfortunatly has been in the same conditions as mine but has had no problems, but were going to have to raise her bettas temps too.

he is really agressive, hell just puff out if you get too close to his bowl haha.

 

[lil_rab2005]

WOW!!!

That's is one gorgeous beta... love all the pics.

I had reds, purples, blues, pinks, oranges they are all beautiful to me.

You mentioned that you gave your little one some dead worm looking things? Those were probably frozen blood worms and yes it is very good for them. They should have brine shrimp eggs that you can hatch with filtered water, that's the best thing to really feed them but I've fed them, frozen brine shrimp (which they really love) flake food, beta bits, frozen blood worms. It really doesn't matter. The most important thing is to not feed him what he won't eat because the amonia in the water will kill him faster than anything that can.

You have a beautiful fish, but like the other reply said, I think his name was bill, they don't live long unfortunately I had a few that lived to be 4 years old and quite a few live 3 years but it's so sad because they don't live long and I get so attached to all my pets, sooo....

Lil.

 

[Nomed]

aw :[
Loosing any pet always sucks.

Here are some pictures of him right now.

Hes swimming around a lot more and seems to be taking intrest to the pilliars I added.

He looks completely different under this light and no flash ^

 

[Nomed]

oops

 

[lil_rab2005]

Yes...

it's so weird how they can change different colors like that lol... definitely depends on what kind of lighting is around them. And see how his fins and tail are jagged like that on the ends? It's completely normal, it happens to them all. There fins are so long that the more they swim, the more they cut up like that. It's completely normal though, so don't worry.

Lil.

 

[Shorty6]

I had a small tank like yours (probably smaller) but my betta wan't happy. Now I have a 2.5 gallon tank that I can just plop a 25watt heater in and it stays at 80 all the time. My fish had the same problems. As soon as I got his heater in there he thrived
Unfortunatly, he was old and passed on not to long ago. RIP Black Beard the Betta.

I would recommend getting a 2.5 gallon tank with a little heater. They're cheap and your fish will be much happier. Also, Java Moss is a really good plant for your tank, I use it. It's super cheap, doesn't need much light at all and grows very fast.

This is Black Beard the Betta

This is Rocky

 

[Nomed]

wow they are both gorgeous but rocky is amazing looking! I love red ones!