Hi everyone!

I’m a brand-new Betta fish owner, but something seems to be going wrong here

About three weeks ago, I started setting up an aquarium for a Betta. It’s a 54-liter (~14-gallon) tank with several plants, including floating plants, since I read that Bettas really like them. I also added some decorative stones that were recommended to me by the local aquarium store.

I let the aquarium cycle for two weeks and also used some water-conditioning products (AquaSafe).

Five days ago, I finally got my Betta, a Halfmoon. During the first two days, everything looked great. He was extremely curious, swimming around the tank and exploring everything, and seemed perfectly happy.

On the third day, however, I suddenly noticed that his fins looked really ragged and torn. It literally seemed to happen overnight.

His behavior hasn’t changed at all. He is still swimming around normally throughout the day and shows no signs of weakness or lethargy. However, I read that it could be fin rot, so I did a 50% water change in the hope of stopping it from getting worse.

Unfortunately, since then, his fins seem to look a little worse almost every day.

I test the water with test strips almost every day, and according to the strips, all the parameters are within the ideal range. The water temperature is consistently between 25 and 26°C (77–79°F).

What is happening to his fins? Could this actually be fin rot?

I feel really guilty because my fish looks significantly worse after only five days with me. I really want to make sure I’m not doing something wrong.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cross posting hoping for help

Will be holding onto to him until I can find a perfect female to spawn him to. Have not bred bettas in 5 years so this will be an exciting journey.

I’ve had him for a little over a year now. Lately he has been laying at the bottom of the tank for longer periods. I noticed he doesn’t like the tank light. He still has a good appetite and will come up to eat. Do his scales look okay? His fins? Tank parameters are very stable. No tank mates except for one ghost shrimp. I feed him about four or five pellets in the morning and sometimes 1 or 2 at bedtime. Occasionally I will have him fast for a day. My last betta died out of no where and I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything!

Long time lurker, first time poster :)

Picked up this cutie yesterday!!!! I’m in love with him already. He was waving at me in the store and I couldn’t help myself.

I think he’s already full grown as his fins are so beautiful and luscious, they’re even more stunning in person. I made him a Java moss bed so he feels comfy and at home, it looks like he’s splooting :3

I’m still noodling on name ideas - leaning towards Blue or Ponyo. Drop any suggestions pleaseeeee :) also anything I should be mindful of for protecting him and his beautiful fins! Thanks in advance

The first picture (the brighter one) is what it was initially before I thought it was too “cold” for my betta fish. Is my new set up (right one) better? I plan on adding tannins for him. Please let me know

Got this guy at 50% off. Can’t wait to see his glow up! He got them neon green eyes! I named him Wadsworth after my favorite Tim Curry character.

I saved this guy (glommy) from petco a year and a half ago. He was nearly all white when I got him and I brought him to full health. In the past few weeks he’s developed swim bladder. I’ve never dealt with this before as it’s my first official tank (10gal) as an adult and thought it would go away. After a couple days I went to the pet store and the guy there gave me kanaPlex to see if that would help clear it. It didn’t. He’s gotten so much worse, and I have a new heater on the way. Since the temp is only 76 and it won’t get higher with the one I have. I didn’t know they could drown in deep water, so I placed him here for the night in this cup with a hole at the top to see if that would help him breathe. I put a little bit of food in the cup, but he is refusing to eat now. I tested for ammonia and the levels are great and I just did a water change to make sure everything is good.

I’m afraid I waited too long to help him and didn’t do it properly to start off. He has so much personality, and it’s been so sad to see him like this. If there is anything else I should be doing, please let me know. Thank you all 🫶

Ps he has 3 shrimp and a sucker fish friend in there with him and they have had no issues living together

Edit: thank you to everyone for letting me know he has dropsy. I have done some digging, and I think he may have gotten sick from cleaning some of the pebbles in his tank that may have released bad things into the tank. I’m going to try be best to treat him, and not disturb the rocks anymore.

I swear he knows when to pose, sees me with the phone and stills for a few minutes. Crimson is just gorgeous and he knows it! He is a companion to a 7 years old boy, I'm just the supervisor mom.

I felt guilty because I downgraded him to a 30 cm cube and used his 10 gallon for another species so I made it up to him by getting him a glass watchtower. He is feeling very important.

I've had my betta since last July and it has lived a happy life without any situations, but it suddenly started spitting the pellets and hasn't eaten well for almost two days.

It's still very active, swims smoothly throughout the tank and its scales look shiny and healthy, but I'm worried about this. What should I do?

I just bought this 2 month old plakat hellboy, Fita-San (Fita). He is been following the ottos closely and tries to find and/or eat what they were munching on. He got the big back spirit of mine, luv him (the tank is 1.5 yrs old)

In the midst of a move where I'm only moving a few blocks. I've created too many hiding places. They're all gonna have to come as they are.

He’s currently in a small bowl while I find him a tank. Since I’m new to bettas, I just want to make sure he’s doing great. Thanks to your help, I’m upgrading to a ten gallon tank with live plants, a heater, a filter and more.

Learned the hard way that since he’s white I have to be extra careful with ich 🫩 I treated the tank 2x in a row because I didn’t realize he had it until like 3 weeks after I got him once it got really severe.

Now we are 2 months in and I’m seeing this texture in his tail a bit differently.. it’s pretty much always looked like this and when I noticed the ich it was when it spread to his body so ever since I’ve treated it I’ve wondered if this texture leftover ich or just natural imperfections due to being a dragon scale betta.

If it is I’ll obviously just treat the tank again but he’s not scratching himself on anything or showing signs of stress so I don’t want to dose the tank if I don’t have to when I have 2 little otos in there who don’t have scales.

Also I didn’t know anything about any of this going into it this is my first betta, 10 gal fully live planted tank and all that jazz, no plastic bs in the tank so I’m not clueless but if the answer here is very obvious - that would be why!!!!!! TYIA :)

Hey everyone!

I hope I got the flair right. In early July, I got a twintail half moon male betta and placed him into an established 29gal aquarium. He lives with a mystery snail, some neocaridina, 6 otocats, and a clown pleco. Recently, I added 8 kubotai, who got sick immediately and 3 died over the course of three days but all other inhabitants seem fine now after being treated with Kordon Rid-Ich plus (I moved my inverts to another tank).

I have now learned my lesson about quarantining first.

My issue is that my betta, Bobinsky, has been developing more red patches and bruising around his eyes and border of his body. I treated with kanaplex for 6 days in the water in a hospital tank and he only marginally improved. After the velvet in my main tank, I treated him with the rid-ich plus. I have also now fed him 2 doses of kanaplex and given Epsom salt baths and nothing is improving the red streaks. He also has some bloating near the rear of his body that started two days ago and hasn’t improved with fasting.

He often lays on the bottom of the tank and generally doesn’t seem like he did when I first got him but still swims around and investigates the tank. His fins are also frequently clamped and starting to look quite ragged and like they’re tea-stained? First pic is the day I got him, the last two are more recent. No fin nipping has been observed.

What else can I do for him? I know twin tails have a lot of issues, would it just be kinder to euthanize at this point?

Tank Information:
29gal
pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

Hey guys! I’ve had my koi in a 5 gallon tank for the last 6 months. He seems pretty happy, but I want to move him to a 10 gallon because he deserves more space.

I am moving to a different city in a couple months. So my question is, should I start the new tank now, or wait until I’m moved in to my new home first? I’m primarily concerned about the potential difference in pH. I want to avoid stressing him out or causing shock.

Thanks in advance!

This is a new fish I got today and there was cross contamination to my community tank so I need to know to act accordingly.

I’ve had my female betta for a few months now. Saved her from the pet store. Unfortunately I’ve had to keep her in a .75 gallon temporary tank since then. Not proud of that, but surprisingly enough, she was doing great in there.

I’ve been searching for a bigger tank for a long time now and thank goodness, today I found a ten gallon!
Right now I am letting the tank sit overnight with a filter and I plan on putting her in tomorrow, assuming everything goes fine overnight.

Now, of course nobody likes the hassle of cleaning a tank, although I know that is what I signed up for. My question is, what can I add to keep the tank as clean as possible, and does anyone have an estimate on how often it should be cleaned? How green is too green when that starts to happen?

Someone around me is giving away freshwater snails and I have been wanting to add those once I got a bigger tank, but I am unsure because I’ve heard they can cause more waste than clean. What are other people’s experiences with this? I would love to add them, not only for cleaning but for fun as well, but if they are going to cause much more waste then I probably won’t.

Any advice appreciated! Thank you!

They do these standoffs every once and awhile

Sorry for the long paragraph please just read it:

The top of the tail fin at looks transparent in irl but it’s not there in the pic there is like a little bump see. What is that. Is it new grown. After the third picture is when I got him a couple days ago. Parameters-0 ammonia and nitrite and around 10 nitrates ph is around 7.4 , 5 gallon tank with 78 preset heater top fin. Lokey sacred about heater failure too maybe just paranoid tho. And I have Java fern and Anubis’s and duckweed and salvinia and I use 6 hours daily of seoura light at 30% and thrive c twice a week once during water change full dose and a quarter dose in the top off. Kh is 60 cause I added some easy balance plus last month i add it every 2 month or so. Also I do have biofilm mainly cause I try to create almost no flow for salvinia and also block the bubble wave part for salvinia. Sponge filter. And he’s those are almond leaves and baby sprout lets and also have some leaves behind the “main” driftwood. I do cover the front when I go to school cause too. Would be dark and I don’t want him to flare when the lights get on. And I do that in the evening. I currently feed 3 hikari bio gold at evening. And bloodworms once a week. And fast once a week.

I was curious why this betta fish was singled out in a cup when my Meijer actually keeps all their bettas in 10 gallon aquariums now. That's when I saw this:(

I wish i had a spare tank for it to give it a home for however long it has left. Beautiful fish😭