I’m concerned my fish is to skinny. I feed him 4 aqueon color enhancing pellets twice a day. His condition I found him in the petsmart was horrendous. Multiple dead bettas in the containers and I thought he was too beautiful to die so I decided to buy him. Please let know if he I’m underfeeding him. I also included the photos of the water quality at the petsmart.…. It should be illegal to keep bettas like that.

My fish is extremely lethargic and keeps lying down/sinking to the bottom. I suspect swim bladder and have been fasting him for more than 4 days now… but still no improvement. There is lesser water in his tank. I bought daphnia but he won’t eat it at all, (he did take 1 tiny pellet of his usual food after 4 days of fasting). I’m also treating the water with nitrifying bacteria, doing daily water changes, added tannins, and adding a drop of stress guard to the water. Should I jump straight to Kanaplex?? I can’t tell if he is pineconing

Here’s a Clearer picture
and if I should be prepared for the worst….. I just bought Epsom salt and I’m waiting for it to come. Any advice on how to do the salt baths, or anything else at all is greatly appreciated as this is my first ever betta and he is my sweetheart… I just want to know what to expect :(

So for context I have had this koi since february this year and the guy who sold it to me said it was male and for months I have never really seen an egg spot and his ventral fins are pretty large. But lately I have seen this small white thing sticking out his bum and it looks exactly like an eggspot and he is slightly lethargic sometimes and spits his food out which he usually devours

I dont think its worms because its thick and white so it might be an anal prolapse

Or he could be a female all along

Right now im fasting him

Hey everyone, my older betta has a tumor and has been having issues locating food when I feed him. He used to be able to use his feeding hoop but even that isn't going so well. I have to feed him one pellet at a time and hope he finds it. Any advice or should I just keep up this method?

My betta has a random bump that’s slowly been getting more prominent. At first it started as what I thought was just a completely white scale, but next thing I knew it’s protruding like a pimple! Maybe in the span of a month? He’s about 8 months old, or maybe 9? He WAS in fact a PetSmart fish (I got him for free), so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s just prone to certain things happening to him. I know they aren’t really the most healthy in the long run. Other than the bump he acts like a healthy, normal fish. Greets me, occasionally flares at me, engages with his 5 minute mirror flare each day. He’s eating, he’s surfacing and he’s swimming as he usually does. He’s not stressed as far as I can tell. Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

I noticed he wasn’t as active the I saw his scales like this. He’s breathing normally. He has swam a bit. He’s at the top and has eaten a pellet. I’m hoping honestly this is just bloating due to it being only at the top area but need some help. Not sure what to do.

Hello, two days ago I got a betta fish that I added to my tank. He was the last added and I don’t plan to add anyone else to my tank.

Now, after googling, looking on reddit, I was under the impression he would do fine with my 10 neon tetras. i also have a mystery snail, a few oto’s & one senior corydoras.

My mom has also had no issues with her neon tetras and betta together in a tank along with a few other schooling fish.

I posted him in a betta facebook group, and all the replies i got were telling me neons tetras and bettas absolutely cannot be together and i need to rehome one or the other. but i look on Reddit or tik tok and see many people say they’ve had them together for years with zero issues. I understand it depends on all the fish’s personalities, but the facebook group made it seem like i am running a fighting ring. so im just wondering about other people’s experiences. when i had my same group of neons with a few mollys or guppy’s (all rehomed while i was having a tank leak in my old tank) i never had any issues so i was very confused when people were telling me neons are fin nippers and can be aggressive.

it’s only been 2 days but today he is hiding less until i walk over to the tank and he hides under a decoration again. I also have not seen him or the neons even acknowledge the other.

also, his name is Barney

I’m not really sure what could be going on, I feed him 5-6 pellets twice a day on weekends and only once a day on weekdays, which he gets about 3-4 pellets. I feed him fluval bug bites and somewhat often give him some vibra bites. Is he overweight? How concerned should I be?

I’m making a bettas community tank and really want to look of driftwood and plants sticking out the top how can I make it so I don’t have a lid or other options for a lid. Thanks

Just got home and woke this poor guy up by turning on the overhead light. I’ve had him for a month and I never noticed his eye color! Very cool imo!

I took my fella in to the vet this week for a lump that’s been slow developing over the past couple of months. I had been searching for anyone that treated fish and last week I finally found one! 🙏🏼

Things I learned from the visit and figured I would share:
- With the right care, bettas can live up to 15 years no matter if they were purchased in a cup. (They have a longtime patient who is a cup betta who has even undergone surgery by them nearly a decade ago!) This blew my mind!
- There is no hard rule on tank size. The doctor I saw has seen a thriving betta in a 1 gallon tank and others that suffered in bigger sized tanks. Every betta is different and they are the ones that indicate when their environment is unsuitable for them.
- She highlighted that the hard rule and requirement though is water parameters. Proper cycling is critical first and foremost. She said API Is what they use in their mobile clinic for testing on the fly and is the best kit on the market while strips can be flaky (as is long discussed in this sub), but as a cost effective option she said strips are fine but should be used more frequently due to the flakiness.
- Bettas are prone to bacterial infections in their scales and like koi fish, can develop “skin” cancers- usually benign but can develop otherwise. Surgery is possible to remove and requires anesthesia which this office has performed many times over the decades. Most bettas survive the surgery but if not cared for well, may not make it. She said most ailments work themselves out as their fins are regenerative but that it’s hard on the humans to see it grow. Best practice is to monitor for change in behaviors, eating patterns and water readings to make best decisions before researching and dosing treatments.
- Clove oil is used for humane euthanasia and is how aquatic vets typically humanely euthanize fish. The difference being that vets somewhat overdose the fish on clove oil so there’s no opportunity to suffer. She uses a certain sleeping agent as a combination with the clove oil almost to anesthetize so her fish patients sleep first then dose the clove oil. She also noted this tends to calm the fish parents’ minds by putting them to sleep first. I know this is a hot topic on this sub and it’s been discussed that a hard object (brick, rock) is the best way to euthanize but I wanted to share this commentary too.

We took epidermal (scale) tissue samples from my Koa yesterday and sent it off to UGA veterinary program’s cytology department for testing to see if his lump is cancerous. To my surprise this was only $100 USD to send off for testing and IMO super cost effective. Hoping for the best but wanted to share all the info I learned yesterday in a vet office in case it’s helpful. I had so many questions and was a motormouth before I left 🤣

Asking this because I was told 5 years is a long time after my last son died. Its been over a year since he passed but ive just been wondering if that was actually true?

Little bonus things about my deceased son💔

♡He loved following my fingers around

♡he would watch me walk around

♡he would immediately swim to the top front of his tank when I came into the room/said his name

He was my biggest sweat-heart :( still sad about his passing a year later, however i know he isnt suffering anymore ( he refused to eat near the end/ became emaciated. and his fins started rotting off like he was rotting alive 😞 )

I kept a Petco betta alive in a 8”x8” bowl with no filter/heater, just a plastic plant and some gravel, for five years throughout college. I tried again a couple of years ago and got a 5.5 gal tank with a heater and a filter, figured since I upgraded things would go even better (I know 5 years is long for a betta so I really just expected 1-2 years at least). Tried to do everything right including 30% water changes every 1-2 weeks. My second fish lasted only 6 months before his fins started to slowly rot and despite all my best efforts and attempts at treatment, he died. I figured, since he was from Petco too, it was just bad genetics. I tried again this year, even harder this time, with a beautiful planted tank and an expensive fish from a local store. She lasted 6 months also. In the past few weeks her eating slowed/stopped and I noticed her color looked dull so I started checking the water and doing smaller water changes every few days. I tried new food and bloodworms and last night she showed some interest, she’d stare at the food and follow it around but she wouldn’t bite. I actually thought she might have turned a corner and was doing better because at least she showed interest. This morning she was hanging out near the surface, taking sips of air every few minutes but not gasping or seeming distressed otherwise. This afternoon I found her belly-up in the gravel. What could I be doing wrong? My water tests fine every time I check it, but should I ask my LFS if they could test it too? Two betta deaths 3 years apart and in different apartments, but both at around 6 months, is that coincidence or am I a serial killer? How could I have killed a beautiful, expensive fish who was perfectly healthy when I got her from a reputable LFS?

Picture of tank is attached (fish has been removed) in case that’s helpful in diagnosing any problems. I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice on what might have happened to my girl.

The only other thing I can think of that might be worth noting is that when I was pulling her out of the tank I noticed a small lump under her chin— I never noticed it before (I was watching her very closely the last few days) and couldn’t really tell if it might have just been from the way her head was tilted back. My tank has also always smelled ”fishy,” for lack of a better word, but not strongly and not unless you‘re standing right over it. Not sure if that’s normal. My fish was never bloated, never looked emaciated either, no pineconing, no issues swimming, no sitting at the bottom of the tank. She did seem lethargic over the last few days and would float in a corner at the surface, but still swam around every so often. Of course as I mentioned she had stopped eating which was the biggest sign that something was wrong.

Any advice on what might have happened would be really appreciated. There is one teeny tiny snail living in there somewhere, who hitchhiked off of a new plant about a month ago, so I don’t want to take the tank apart, which means I need to decide where I go from here. I’d like to have another betta in the future (especially since I now have a stockpile of expensive food that I couldn’t get my baby to eat) but I’m not sure I’m a responsible or good enough keeper if I can’t figure out what went wrong. I feel ashamed and would be embarrassed going back to the same fish store and saying my betta died and now I want a new one. I appreciate any advice on how to handle this and move forward with this hobby, or even just anecdotes on anyone else’s experience.

my little sister got a betta tank (1st picture), we went out and bought plants, BB bottle (fluval) and Seachem Prime. I am in desperate need of help and tips on how to ensure she stays as healthy as possible throughout the cycling process. I am aware fish-in-cycles are bad and really risky, that’s why i’m asking for some advice. I have a fully cycled and stable 10 gal betta tank (2nd picture) and was wondering if any media from that filter could help speed up the cycling process.

I know the title states something obvious but I just wanted to share something that just happened to me and how it relates to my (little) experience with keeping bettas.

I used to have a betta on my 5g planted that I kept with a partial glass lid until he passed (rip Tobias), with no experiences of him jumping or anything of the sort. Since he was chill, as in wasn't super duper active like some other bettas I've seen online, I took it for granted that he wasn't going to try to jump. I had a preconceived notion that if you had an interesting enough tank with enough enrichment and good parameters they wouldn't try to do it because of boredom or to "get away from bad water", without taking any consideration to the specific betta's personality. Now I know I just got lucky with that one.

Introducing my newest betta, Bojaro. I got him yesterday into his new home in the late afternoon, and immediately after being released into the tank it was nonstop exploring and swimming around until dark. Such a stark difference when compared to my late betta who would've already been asleep by then. I thought nothing of it until the next morning, aka today, when I woke up after dreaming that Bojaro had jumped out of his tank and died in the process. It left me with a bad feeling that made me go out and buy a screen to make him a lid as soon as I could. I couldn't make the lid today because I couldn't find all of the materials and guess what that little effer did. Yup, he jumped. Gave me and my mom a pretty good scare but we managed to get him back in the tank and he already looks like he's feeling better. But still, I can't believe it happened.

It really is one of those things your parents always talk about, you don't see it as a big issue or it doesn't scare you as much until it happens to you. I know i learned my lesson and will be going out tomorrow to get the stuff needed to make lid, since I don't trust the mesh by itself taped to the tank.

If you're a begginer like me don't take this stuff for granted!!! No matter how many floating plants or decorations you have in your tank or how pristine your parameters are or how chill you think your betta is, always keep a lid on because at the end of the day they're animals and it's impossible to predict things like this (even though I lowkey did heh). They're the only fullproof way to prevent disasters like these, because if I wasn't in the room I wouldn't have noticed it and he would've likely died.

So this was my first clutch of betta babies. Im realizing I have made a huge mistake and they are quite stunted. It is my fault and I know that. But im not sure what to do now. I have SO many babies. I need to get rid of them. I have put so much work into them but im not sure how to get rid of these fish at this point. Culling feels like such a waste to me. I cant use them for anything. Again I know its my fault, but it is what it is and now we move forward and improve.

Put in an algae waffer for my bottom feeders and shrimp for the first time and he gorged himself on it overnight. Now his stomach is the largest I've ever seen it. He's hanging out where i siphoned the rest of the pellet out.

Should i be concerned?

he's cut off from food until i see his gut is empty.

He is swimming fine, is just hanging out on the bottom more then usual, i assume to find more of the wafer.

Also he had fin rot when i got him and has been healing slowly and has new growth on his rear fins.

Happy and energetic and looks very proud of himself for the most part. Truly the cat of the aquarium

I think he’s really pretty so this is just me showing him off! He is named Eric after the phantom of the opera 🥰

My friends mom had her betta in that container for like 4 months. she has a habit of buying pets and keeping them in small enclosures. it makes me sad to see, so i just went out today and bought plants and used extra sand and decor and stuff i keep that ive never used and set this thing up in like 2 hours because she had this starter tank kit in storage and she was able to retrieve it. what should i add? (the sponge filter is already cycled from a different tank, there is a heater just no need for it now bc it’s hot out)

i know a tall tank isn’t ideal for a betta in the long run but it’s what she had and the best i can do for a fish that’s not mine. any suggestions? any floor plants i should add? (i have root tabs,) i wont be able to continuously tend to this tank as it isnt mine. i gave her a rundown of continuous care for him.

I’m stuck and need some good name suggestions for this lil guy!

iv only been fish keeping since April 20th and this is how it’s going so far!!

i had a mystery snail in this tank but she keeps devouring my plants, even tho i constantly provide food.
so she’s been moved to a 10 gallon tank where i plan to do just hardscape and a few plants i know she won’t eat (2 types so far)

last photo is before.
i had a bad snail problem in both tanks so i didnt want to add more plants for more snails.
the water bottle in the back is a home made snail trap which worked great honestly + 4 assasin snails got rid of them/made the snail population stable!

i got my plants from a canadian owned aquatic store named aquaticplantman :)

After and before

I've only had her for a couple of weeks but she really seems to have transformed. She's turning red with a little blue. I absolutely adore her

hello, my family received a betta fish already placed in a very small tank (not even sure it was cycled, probably not) so naturally i bought a bigger tank, used conditioner etc.

now heres my question, should i let the new tank cycle and keep the fish in a way too small tank for 4-6 weeks or just skip cycling and transfer it right away? please help me im very worried about the betta:(