Fish Care

View Comments (16)

• Just bought a male and female betta. They are beautiful fish (named the male Esteban and the female Sandra). My wife has decorated the bottom of our fish tank with sea shells and it looks beautiful.

  • It sounds beautiful. I love the idea of putting shells on the bottom.

  • Hi christie F. I might be young for this, Im 11 and I need advice on how you can get or find things to cure betta sickness because I got mine on easter and she died on sunday and she was 9 months old. Igot her when she was a baby and I took really good care of her. And I only want to know how to detect signs of betta sickness. I would of done something but I didnt know, she was just for a few days, um just really sluggish and she was always literally on the bottom of the tank. I cried, I miss her. So thanks for the website and now I can cure my betta spyro and my other one when I get it! D

    • omg! I’m also 11 years old!!! Well… I think i have some answers to your question too. Ok then… here are some things that may result in sickness:
      1) Is your betta’s eye getting really ugly and white?
      2) Does your betta stay at the top of the tank too much, and struggle to swim to the bottom?
      3) Does your betta swim kinda lopsided, and has trouble swimming upright?
      4) Is your betta’s coloration fading?
      5) Is your betta getting less active?
      Well, i hope that helped out a little. See ya!

• HELP! HELP! HELP!
  I’m at my wit’s end! 9 months ago I ‘rescued’ a betta from a coworker who was tired of cleaning his 1 gal. ‘self-contained’ tank. I got a donated 2.5 gal. tank with bottom filter, and after extensive research on the web, set up Fabio’s new home in our office. He tore his fins on the plastic plants, so I stuck with real ones. I got some snails to help keep the algae under control, used water conditioner, nitrate/nitrite stablizer, checked the chemistry with strips,and after some time, the water chemistry finally stablized. I did 25-40% water changes weekly, and while Fabio was never real lively, he seemed otherwise healthy until I found a white spot, which I feared was ick brought in from the snails and plants. I isolated and treated him for several weeks, and came to the conclusion (after finally reading somewhere) that it was probably one of those ‘pimple’-like spots. It finally went away, and everything seemed to go fine for a few months, then he got another ‘pimple’ and within a week or two the ‘pimple’ went away, but now he is looking really sick. He still eats, but he is extremely listless, and the area aroung his pec fins, behind his gills seem gray, and he generally has a gray-ish pallor (his normal color is maroon). After more chemical tests, I found the water had a very high pH. (8.2) I used pH-down to lower, but it would go up again the next day. I finally took him out to a ‘hospital’ tank, and vacuumed the gravel (which was pretty nasty…the snails have been doing a crummy job), completely changed the water, and gave it a day to stabilize before re-introducing him. He still looks like he is ready to expire, and I don’t know what else to do. His water temp. generally stays around 78-82.
  Sorry this is so long-winded, but I can’t find any of his symptoms listed anywhere, so I have no idea how to treat him.
  Thanks for any help you can give me.

  • Hi Steelhead, Can you post the rest of the water parameters from your test? Perhaps I can identify something that’s off. (Include, if you can, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, gh, kh and the current pH if you have it available.) Symptoms you are describing are so common with illness that it’s hard to identify what the disease is, if there is one. It is possible he is suffering the results of pH shock (from the rapid change in pH) or even ammonia poisoning, as even very low levels of ammonia are harmful when the pH is high. If you can email me a photo, so I can see the grey you are talking about, it’ll help me to see how severe it is or help to identify a cause. My email address is betta@nippyfish.net.
    Just FYI, the snails will only eat some types of algae. The gunk stuck in your filter is not algae, it’s mainly detritus. (Organic matter). You’ll need to clean the filter regularly to get that stuff out. This could be contributing to high nitrites or nitrates (which can cause the symptoms you are describing too.)

  • My fish has one of those white spots too. And the area on his gill cover is pretty greyish. But he is fine, he eats, he is happy and healthy, and he lives in a relatively large 1 gallon tank. He is a very active fish. Maybe your betta fish was gnawing at the snails, trying to remove the algae on their snail shells, then ended up with algae and a sickness in his own system. I don’t know, that is just a thought…

• Forgot to add that I also have a mini-charcoal filter in his tank too. I only run the filters at night, and alternate between the two.
  Thanks

• Hi there,
  I know you get a lot of messages like this but I really am not sure what else to do! We have a betta and about a week and a half ago he started floating vertically in the water. I looked online and figured it was probably swim bladder disease. We stopped feeding him and he seemed to get better but then started showing signs of ammonia poisoning. So…I did a Ph and ammonia test and ph was at 8.5 and Ammonia was 0.15. I did a 100% water change, cleaned everything with aquarium salt and put in conditioner. I have been testing the water and the ammonia and ph are now at 0.1 and 8 and I can’t get it any lower. The last few days my fish has been completely lifeless, a little greyish but his colour comes and goes….sometimes he looks better sometime he looks worse. He sits on the bottom of the tank (something he NEVER use to do), and won’t eat. He will swim a little bit and sometimes seems to recognize someone is at the tank looking at him. He is betetr then he was but definitly still not well. I don’t want to lose him! I have a 2 gallon tank, no filter or anything and have been doing daily water tests and 50% water changes as per what I have read online. Is there something else I can get to hnelp bring down the ammonia levels? Where I live, the water is really hard and alkaline so I’m not surprised by the high PH…just really worried about the ammonia. I had a betta fish a few years ago and never had any problems with him so this is all new to me. Thank you!

  • A pH of 8.5 is extremely high and with that alkalinity, makes even low levels of ammonia toxic. I might recommend using a very good dechlorinator like AmQuels NovaAqua and AmQuel+ in combination. I like this perticular brand because it does the work of an ordinary dechorinator but also converts dangerous ammonia into less toxic ammonium. You might also want to consider setting up an aquarium with a filter and cycling it using the Fishless Cycling Method. If you do this you will be able to do less frequent water changes which means less fluctuation of your betta’s environment. Every time you do a water change, it means a new influx of high pH water.

• I just got a new betta fish and he appears sluggish and just lays on the bottom of the tank. he appeared lively at the pet store which why I bought him in the first place. I have four other bettas in separate tanks and they all swim around seem to play. I’m worried that I did something wrong with his water or something. he’s in a 2.5 gallon tank and I put water condition, stress zyme, and aquarium salt in the tank. I also have a small water heater in the water and it is at 78 degrees. Is he just stressed and getting used to his environment or is he sick and dying???

• What temperature should they be kept at? I’ll they survive in a cold climate?

• I was wondering what the minimum tank size I should use for multiple female bettas?

• If your betta fish is swimming and resting in a horizontal position, then, he’s ok. When to be concerned is if your betta lethargically lies in a vertical position (his body is up and down). This happened to my betta fish last week and he was just gasping for air as he floated in a vertical position. He was getting sick until I cleaned his bowl and got rid of the sea shells I had placed in it. Since then, he’s back to normal and more energetic than ever. I believe the shells were leaching something toxic into his water and that is why I did not put them back in the bowl. Becareful what you put in their bowls and always make sure your tap water sits awhile in a jug UNTIL it’s ROOM temperature before replacing the old water with it. Also, I recommend putting a few drops of this special solution you can buy that you stir into the water that balances out the ph in it and protects your betta from hard metals that may be present.

• nice post in the website. iam very interesting . success from me from indonesia the largest betta fish types..

• I have male betta, I named him Lance. I am happy to report that he is doing very well. His color is orange with a veil shaped tail.
  He is doing very well, he is exciting to watch. He’s very active, playful and has a healthy appetite. I have him in a one gallon fish bowl. He has a heater underneath his gravel, one small silk plant which also serves as a hammock and he does use it and a thermometer. I am grateful to my boyfriend for encouraging me to read as much as possible about all the correct way to care for a betta. It has made a difference, I feel way more competent and responsible. Although I was fortunate with my previous betta Brandon for a year. Even though I did not have the correct set up, he still thrived until unfortunately he passed away from swim bladder disorder. I love bettas, their personalities are so interesting just joy to watch.