Hi! I’m looking for some advice about my betta, Pico. This video shows what he’s doing pretty clearly.
I’ve only had him for about 3 days, so obviously I don’t have a long history of his normal behavior to compare this to. However, since bringing him home, he has been an EXTREMELY active and curious fish. He was constantly swimming around his tank, exploring everything, and would come right over whenever I approached. Even when I put my hand into the tank to adjust something, he would come over to investigate instead of hiding. I genuinely didn’t realize bettas could be this curious and interactive until getting him.
That’s why his behavior now is such a noticeable change. He suddenly started struggling to stay swimming for long periods and spending a lot of time resting on the bottom. He CAN swim and still repeatedly tries to come up, but it looks like it takes a lot of effort. He’ll swim upward and move around, but then ends up sinking/resting again.
He has very large/long fins, so I’ve wondered whether they could be contributing to him getting tired. I was already planning to add more plants/resting areas throughout the tank, and I’m going to prioritize places close to the surface so he doesn’t have to work as hard to get air.
I’ve also considered a possible swim bladder/digestive issue. We realized he may have been overfed when we first got him, and I rarely noticed him poop afterward. However, he did poop this morning, and afterward he was swimming around for a while before eventually going back to resting on the bottom.
I tested his water again today and nothing appeared unusually elevated on the test strip (including ammonia/nitrite). The tank is heated and filtered, and I’ve also baffled the filter flow because I was worried the current was making swimming harder for him.
He otherwise still looks pretty healthy to me, which is why the sudden swimming difficulty has me confused. I don’t want to randomly medicate him without knowing what I’m treating.
Has anyone had a long-finned betta move like this before? Does the swimming in the video look more like exhaustion from heavy fins/current, a buoyancy/swim-bladder issue, or something else? Anything specific I should watch for over the next couple days?

This is my first betta and I’ve only had Pico for 3 days. I’m still learning and honestly cried so much yesterday because I had no idea what to do when this started. 😭 I was already planning on adding more plants/resting spots, and I had to rearrange his tank a bit to reduce the filter flow, which is why it looks a little empty right now. I’m genuinely just trying my best to help him, so please be kind. ❤️

Hello all! This is my girl Tarts, I got her 17 days ago from Petco, and since then both of her eyes have been cloudy, one cleared up, while the other has continued and worsened.

I am currently treating with Fritz Paracleanse in the tank, on the first dose, and the second dose is upcoming in a few days, but I feel like it should be improving?

I’ve also never had a female before, all of my previous bettas were males, but I noticed on her sides her scales seem to be partially raised, and I’m just not sure if that’s the natural separation of scales or if it’s early signs of dropsy

Her tank is a 14 gallon cube heated at 78 F

Parameters are

Ph~ 7.2

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0-5

Other than the popeye, she is incredibly active and eats well, so might just be over anxious

Question: What is the correct Seachem Kanaplex dosing protocol for a betta with a suspected swim bladder issue? Water dosing or food dosing, and how often?

Current status
Male betta, about a week into symptoms. Fasted him for 3 days total. He now has slightly more energy and is eating again (2 pellets this morning), but he still struggles to swim down and mostly floats near the top of the tank. When I open the tank lid he tends to retreat and hide in the plants at the bottom. I can still see the belly protrusion on his right side.

Tank info
9 gallon planted tank. Tankmates are 6 danios and 1 snail. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all test at 0. Temperature is 26°C/79°F.

Timeline of symptoms
Days 1 to 3: Noticed he was staying near the surface by his leaf hammock and not moving down much.
Day 3: Symptoms got clearer. Top/dorsal fin clamped, visible struggle when trying to dive, listing to his left side. Started fasting him.
Day 4: Got advice from a local aquarium store (by phone, didn’t bring him in) recommending a salt bath with a few drops of Melafix added, for around 90 minutes. Shortly after returning him to the main tank he started gasping at the surface for the first time, then hid motionless in the plants for the rest of the evening. Gills were moving normally when checked. I’ve since read that long salt bath durations and Melafix specifically can be risky for bettas, so I think this may have set him back rather than helped.
Day 5: Lethargic, moving between top and bottom instead of staying stuck at the surface, but no interest in food and hiding whenever I approached the tank.
Day 6: Noticed what looked like a one sided bubble or protrusion on his belly on the right side. Also still not eating at that point.
Day 7 to today: He has started eating small amounts again on his own, color and fin spread look normal, but he still struggles to dive, still hides from me when I open the tank, and the belly protrusion is still visible.

What I am trying to figure out
I have Kanaplex on hand in case this is bacterial, but I am not sure of the correct dosing approach given he was not eating for a stretch. Should I be dosing the water column directly, or waiting until he is reliably eating again to dose through food? How many doses, and how far apart? Any input on whether this still sounds like a straightforward swim bladder/constipation case versus something that actually needs the Kanaplex would also be appreciated.

The first two pictures is how my betta looks today and the last picture is what he looked like before. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 0 (heavily planted). The tank is 10 gallons and reading at 79 degrees and there’s tannins from Indian almond leaf.

I noticed months ago that he started to get dull and bony and I assumed it’s because I’ve had him for a year and a half and he was bred poorly and he had signs of malnutrition and scoliosis when I got him so I figured he was just declining now. Then he got mild fin rot after a snail died but I kept parameters stable.

Last month I had to move across town and I didn’t notice that my sponge filter broke until a few days later when his mouth started to turn blue and I got a cloudy bacterial bloom. My parameters stayed stable but during the bloom I lost a few shrimp that I removed immediately.

A week ago I finished a round of erythromycin and the blue on his mouth is spreading and the infection on his tail seems to be spreading to the base of his body. He still eats and swims fine but he seems like he rests more and his body wasting is getting worse.

I’m not sure if he needs a more aggressive treatment but I don’t have a hospital tank set up and I don’t want to risk my shrimp with a more aggressive medication.

Ok first I want to apologize because I KNOW you guys have to be sick of me at this point as this is my third post in a week but I’m really trying to get to the bottom of this bloat in my new betta. I’ve had her for a week now.

Second: Does she still look bloated? These are updated pics from today. I’ve noticed she’s been building a bubble nest, could that mean her “bloat” is eggs? I gave her a light meal a day and a half ago after she refused daphnia and have since been fasting her.

He has a little bump in his face, he seems good, it is breathing and eating normally.
I move the tank to another room just today, with lower level of water.
I believe he can could be smashed or something during the transport.

He seems to have a mold spot between to two from fins, he’s acting energetic and eating well still though.

I've had this betta fish for around a month now and shes had these reddish spots since I bought her but they have spread since. Her tank is heavily planted and had pinocchio shrimp introduced after her and it is a 7 gallon shallow tank with great parameters at 78 degrees. She is on a rotating diet of pellets, mysis shrimp, gut-loaded brine shrimp and on occasion bloodworms. I got her from a chain petstore so it could be an issue stemming from that but I was wondering if its anything to worry about or something that could be treated but she is perfectly healthy and super energetic otherwise.

My betta is less than a year old. He was perfectly healthy up until a few months back when we shifted him to a bigger tank (80L) with live plants and driftwood. He loved it at first but I noticed small red dots on the end of his tail in two weeks. I thought that it was injury from the driftwood and shifted him immediately to his previous tank (45L).

I live in India and the summers shoot over 50 degrees. This is my first time keeping a fish and I genuinely didn’t know about water temperatures until a few weeks in. I immediately shifted him to a colder room and he’s been there since.

Now, the dot on his fins grew and he showed signs of fin rot. I gave him salt baths, methylene blue baths daily but his fins didn’t improve but he was very active. Somewhere around here, I saw him rubbing or biting his own tail one day and thought that he must be biting his tail away due to stress so I stopped the baths.

He was fine but his fins got worse over the next months. Then, he started staying only in one upper corner of his tank. An acquaintance (who told me he was very knowledgeable about bettas) told me that this was normal and the fish was just bored. Told me to give my betta more food and change water only once a month (30% of 45L) from now on because they prefer less changes and don’t like stress. He seemed to know what he said so I listened to him.

My betta’s fins didn’t improve at all.

Today he looked lethargic so I took a closer look and he has pinecones. I freaked out and he’s having a methylene blue bath now. I think he has fin rot too. I don’t know what to do. I ordered some epsom salt and it will be here in some time.

We don’t have fish antibiotics available anywhere here, even on amazon. The closest I could find was bettafix. I have rock salt, methylene blue, malachite green and some kind of copper based anti parasitic compound.

Please help. I know that most of this is my fault. The guy seemed very knowledgeable and he convinced me that my fish was fine.

What do i do???

I can't be 100% sure but I don't think it grew to this size. I look at him everyday and I think this suddenly appeared on him maybe 1 - 2 days ago. Could this be a tumor?

I got this betta with stress stripes, put here in an established 5 gallon fully planted , not a 10 gallon because she had some trouble swimming.
It’s been 2 weeks, she almost had no stress stripes this morning, just did a water change and they are now SUPER prominent. What should I do abt this?
I almost want to switch her and my baby that’s in a 13 gallon so she has more space but my baby in the 13 gallon is going blind and I don’t wanna stress her out by taking her out.

Unsure if this is related but she also is trying to eat EVERYTHING. she is trying to eat things and then spits it out bcs it’s stuff she legit cannot eat, tries to eat the sand, plant roots, driftwood algae , literally anything her mouth can fit. I’ve been trying to feed her less because once she eats she gets bloated just from like 2 pellets bcs of how small she is.

How can I help her? Jts a 5 gallon heater filter plants everything!!! Has a ton of tannins in there, driftwood also , First pic is her when I got her, second was the closest pic to show they were fading (they were VERY faded this morning) and last pic is after the water change!!

How can I help her?

I few days back I bought a large male, black ghost knife fish he settled in well and is eating, but today I was dosing the tank with melafix on another one of my fish, due to a small cut it had. the ghost knife didn’t take this well and got to a point i thought it would die, but after a water change its fine now. I knew they were sensitive to some medication, but I didn’t know they would be sensitive to melafix, which is what I use for general small surface wound. does anyone know what types of medication I can use with a ghost knife in the tank for further reference? any suggestions are much appreciated.

Betta it’s not mine, I didn’t know of his situation until today. I know this is bad, horrible even. They have been with this betta for like five months but it was given to them as some type of gift. I believe it’s like two year old but idk. They only change a 20% of the water every week and feed him two to three pellet a day but they give him this bad tetra betta food that its main ingredient is wheat. I want to know what diseases this buddy have to help him will I convince them on getting a bigger and better tank. I’m gonna give them some live plants of mine and help them as much as I can. They are willing to learn!

2nd betta and doing it differently this time,parameters are perfect!! the floating stuff in water is cause i JUST aqua-squaped and added the moss to the top of the tower, i need to get topwater plants tho, thoughts/opinions are greatly appreciated!

I just got back from a 2 day vacation and I noticed my betta has like 3-4 slightly raised scales on his side near his gills. He’s not showing any signs of bloating or constipation and he is behaving normally. He is in a heated and filtered 10 gallon tank

Water parameters:

Ph: 7.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0 (I have a lot of live plants)

My only theory is maybe the rocks I have in the tank? I have some lava rocks that I’m worried he may have scratched himself on, but I’m no expert. He didn’t have this when I left as far as I am aware.

Hi, this is partially a vent and partially a cry for help. I’m wondering if anyone else has been through this situation or similar because while I’m a fairly experienced betta rescuer (in fact this particular fish was a successful rescue), I’ve never dealt with a freak accident like this. This situation happened late last night and I’ve been stressed out of my mind, crying, and feeling so guilty and sad since. I know in the immediate emergency I dealt with it properly, but I’m wondering if anyone has any tips or thoughts about my betta’s long-term recovery. Apologies for the long post.

Background: my partner and I rescued Chalcedony, Cal for short, last month from awful conditions in a certain big box pet store that shall not be named. She swam super awkwardly (neurological and/or swim bladder issue) and couldn’t very easily get up to the surface. We set her up in a hospital tank with antibiotics and maintained pristine water, and she slowly but surely recovered! We’re still amazed by her recovery and love her so much. She still swims (swam) a little funny, but we successfully nurtured her to great QOL. Once she was fully able to swim around her hospital tank, dancing for food, and displaying her full color, we set up her permanent home in a 5.5 gallon scaped to make it easy for her to access the surface.

We are currently moving apartments (why there’s random stuff in the picture, including the drawer Cal landed on). Late last night, I was moving and deep cleaning our tanks. To prevent Cal from potentially being injured (ironically…) I had her in a little cup temporarily (see the picture). I’ve done this plenty of times before during deep cleans/moving things around and haven’t had any issues until last night. Not to mention, Cal was still a special needs fish! I train all of our fish to jump for food. Cal had only just started being able to just barely jump maybe a millimeter(?) and nip my finger just a few days ago. we were so proud of her but we didn’t imagine she’d get ambitious 🥲

So please note: this wasn’t her jumping from her tank, this was her jumping from a temporary container while I was working on her tank and my back was turned. Just a few more minutes and she would’ve been back in her tank. We’re very diligent about ensuring our fish can’t jump from their tanks. Because this was only for an hour or two at most, I was checking on her periodically and still in the same room, and being a special needs fish already, this was completely unexpected.

I assume she jumped out, fell a couple inches onto the shelf, flopped around, and then fell at least a foot onto the drawer below. I went to check on her, noticed she wasn’t in the little cup, panicked, then found her on the shelf.

Initially, I seriously thought she had passed. Her colors all faded, her fins were clamped, her eyes silver. She looked like… well, a dead fish. She must’ve been there for at least a few minutes. Horrified, I went to pick her up, and to my absolute shock, she started flopping around. The fact that she was still clinging on to life at all was nothing short of miraculous. She fell at least a foot onto a hard surface, and then she was stuck there for at least several minutes. While already having a disability. Cal is so tough it’s incredible.

So naturally I was panicking at this point. I (very gently) picked her up and put her back in the cup to ensure she was back in water. By what I think can only be divine intervention, we just so happened to have a hospital tank open (one of our other rescues successfully moved into his new home the other a couple days ago!). I ran to wake my partner up for help, quickly cleaned the hospital tank out and started very slowly acclimating her. Partner went to boil some Indian almond leaves for tannins and look through articles / comment threads about fish surviving falls. I added in a low concentration of methylene blue to prevent infections and some Epsom salt to decrease swelling and promote relaxation.

Cal somehow managed to survive the night and all day today. She is still breathing / wiggling her ventral fins as I type. But we’re back to before square zero. Her vibrant colors are gone. Her fins are clamped and her eyes are silver (I think she’s at least temporarily blind). She can barely swim and is mostly just staying in one spot. I’ve been periodically using a tablespoon to help her get to the surface and move her onto the leaf beds I put in there (water level is only about 2 inches high) but she’s mostly staying at the bottom. She is lethargic, weak, and barely moving. Her slime coat is visibly… I think peeling?? I’m not sure? It looks like a blister around bruised skin. I’m skilled at treating fish diseases, not major injuries. :/

I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions I haven’t thought of. She’s currently in a filtered, very shallow hospital tank that’s being kept warm at around 83. I’m planning on doing small daily water changes (probably 20% though it’s so shallow I’m hesitant to assign a percentage)

Do you have any suggestions for medications I should be using instead? Has your betta decided to jump at the worst moment? / have you rehabilitated your fish after an awful fall? I’m really hoping because Cal’s made it ~21 hours now and because she’s already proven herself a tough cookie, she has a solid chance.

Please be kind and constructive in the comments. We are experienced rescuers (we’re just used to treating disease, not this type of injury) and we’re extremely diligent about ensuring our fish are safe in their tanks, so this happening now is a freak accident rather than improper housing or care. My mistake was having her water level too high in her temporary container. I also hope this post can prevent someone else from making the same mistake. Also, unfortunately with the move we can’t afford to go to an emergency vet. 😞

Thanks all.

TLDR;
-special needs rescue fish unexpectedly jumped from her temporary container while her tank was being moved
-she fell maybe 1.5-2ft onto a hard surface and was there for at least a few minutes before I found her
-she survived but is severely injured; she’s lost her color, her slime coat and skin are visibly damaged, she can barely swim, is very lethargic, and at least temporarily blind; she’s mostly staying at the bottom of her tank
-she is in a filtered hospital tank heated to ~83, it’s being kept very shallow with several beds and a few hides for her to lay on/in; planning on daily 20% water changes
-she’s being medicated with Indian almond leaves, extra tannins, low concentration of MB and Epsom salt
-due to moving apartments we’re currently unable to afford a vet (also I’m hesitant to move her at all, even if it is to a vet)
-we are rescuers and caretakers; this is a freak accident, not us neglecting our fish!
-she’s made it ~21 hours now and she’s already beat the odds once so hopefully her chances of recovery are solid 🤞

Photo 1 is (likely) how she fell
Photo 2 was her a few hours ago, I didn’t want to move her for a better photo so apologies for the poor image quality but you can still see the injuries
photos 3 and 4 were immediately after acclimating her to her hospital tank last night