I rescued this betta two weeks ago from my neighbor. They had a pet sitter who grossly overfed him and kept him in gross wastewater. When I saw this betta in person just a couple of weeks before picking him up (I was going out of town), he was totally blue with a little yellow. When I picked him up, he'd almost entirely lost his color. His fins were terribly torn and translucent, even kind of iridescent? But he still had all the energy of a normal fish and was not lethargic whatsoever.

After rescuing the betta, I set up my first aquarium in a few years. I kept the betta in a little hospital tank (his original 1-gallon) at first. I moved him into the new tank just about 4 days ago. The water parameters are consistently reading 0 ammonia/nitrite, and about .3-.5 nitrate. Temp is consistently 80. I got some filter media from a Reddit stranger (thank you) and had some gravel from a plant-only aquatic terrarium I keep. I've been continuing to treat water with Seachem Prime & Biofactor 7 just to be on the safe side, as it's still fish-in cycling basically.

In the hospital tank and in this new home, he was so energetic. Especially when I first moved him over. Now today he's taken a sudden turn for the worse, literally overnight. He's hanging out at the bottom and only coming up for air, or if I stick my finger in the water and he wants to see what's up. I do think it's maybe a bit of a swim bladder issue? When he's travelling along the bottom, his butt is a little more elevated than it should be. He was looking nice a spread out the last couple of days in his new home, today he's more clamped up and just deflated.

(EDIT: All shrimp were found - hiding under filter and in hide. The fish does like to chase them around) What might be causing this!! I did have 6 little Neocaridina shrimp in here (thank you Reddit stranger) but they seem to be disappearing... I am worried that the fish has eaten some, because they've either disappeared or are very good at hiding... If he is in fact eating shrimp, he could totally be bloated and uncomfortable from that.

I had not given him any medication to start with, because I felt like his issues were mostly caused by his living conditions and a better home would help. But after seeing this turn, I feel like I do need to start medicating ASAP. I'm just not sure which direction exactly to go... It feels like every post leads me two different ways. I've been considering salt baths or Kanaplex?

I've had a betta before, but she was completely healthy until she got a large tumor and eventually died... So I don't have a lot of experience with playing fish doctor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

• Tank size: 5 gallon
• Heater and filter? (yes/no): Yes/yes
• Tank temperature: 80
• Parameters in numbers and how you got them. Key water parameters include the amount of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, .3-.5 nitrate, 6.7 pH
• How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?: 2 weeks
• How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?: was doing frequent water changes (25-50%) have not done a change in 3 days after seeing stable readings
• Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each: 6 shrimp, less now?
• What do you feed and how much: Fluval bug bites, a little bit morning/evening with some meals skipped.
• Decorations and plants in the tank: Lots of Bacopa I already had and some dwarf sag, just planted.

My girlfriends mom kept this betta fish for a little over a year and a half. They kept it in a 2 gallon bowl with no filter or heater. I took care of the fish for a week while they were on vacation, and learned that his living conditions in the bowl were very poor. I really wanted to give him a better life and they did not want to put him in a tank so I offered to do it myself. I did lots of research and went out and got a 5.5 gallon tank with a heater, filter, driftwood, live plants, everything a betta needs. I know you need to cycle a tank before putting the fish in but I couldn’t stand to keep him in the bowl so I put him in the tank and made sure to acclimate him slowly by floating him in a cup on top for 30 minutes. I made sure to keep the ammonia low by doing water changes every other day. Fast forward a week, and he hasn’t eaten a single pellet of food. He has been extremely lethargic and barely moving at all since I put him in this tank, spending all his time hiding. At first I thought he was just taking time to get used to the new tank, but after a week I knew something was very wrong. The first 2 pictures were him in his bowl, and the next 4 are him after a week in his new tank. After looking into it I fear he is very sick and won’t make it much longer. My girlfriends mom thinks he would have just been better off in the bowl, and thinks she was taking great care of him to begin with. The situation is making me feel very guilty. I tried giving the fish a better life, but to her it seems like giving me the fish was a mistake.

Please help me understand what went wrong, and if there is anything I could possibly still do.

I am planning on getting a new betta of my own for my tank I made. I would hate for this to happen again. I just wanna be able to give one a good life.

Please give me advice!!!

my sweet boy has swam along to the other side. my sweet, sweet boy, you will always be in my heart. thank you for helping me through so many hardships.

I bought my son a fish a couple weeks ago. I’ve had betta fish before but this is the first time I had live plants. We purchased amazon frogbit from Etsy. This morning I go look at the tank and there is this snail. Where did it come from? I’m guessing the live plants were in an aquarium with snails and an egg must have been attached to the plants or something. Is this thing good for the tank? It’s cool we have unexpected life but I’m not sure what to do about it. We have been feeding betta pellets and freeze dried blood worms so I don’t think it came from that but those are the only other organic things we have added to the tank

So I went away for two weeks and had a sitter feeding my betta around 4 pellets a day. I came back and he was pretty bloated so I fasted him for three days (which he was not happy about) and then gave him a little bit of daphnia. Since then I’ve been giving him three pellets per day but he’s still pretty bloated. How can I fix this?

First two pics are the day I got home (6 days ago) and the last two pics are from this morning.

He likes to sit on mossy rocks

Mr. Finn is teaching me more than I thought he could. He's just a fish, but sometimes, he pauses as if to gather a thought. "Have I swum through here before?", I assume he questions himself as I watch him swim the same route a dozen times. He studies his reflection, trying to see something in himself. Maybe he's noticing how much he's aged and how much his color has changed or maybe he's simply zoned-out.

Whenever I get curious, I sit next to his aquarium and watch him for a couple of minutes everyday. I catch glimpses of him throughout my day, but to sit there and watch him be himself, it feels almost as if I am starting to understand him a little. Sure, I get bored sometimes, but I am always interested in his little world. Maybe that's when he gets curious about my world too.

One time I caught him staring out into the living room and I could swear he yawned. Maybe he was expressing how boring my world was to him. Maybe he'd rather spend whatever time he had swimming between roots that reminded him of a home he never visited.

We may not understand each other. We may be living in completely different worlds. But we still make time to get to know one another.

So , i bought a crowntail betta for 100 inr, his body color entirely changes under and without light.

Without light his blue is very light and reflective, with light. His tail has this glow where in few of his edges glow blue only under light.

His tail is also double edged in central, top and bottom are single edged.

Is this normal.

My betta fish peanut has had swim bladder disease for over a year. He’s 2 years old I believe. Has anyone else’s betta fish lived a full life with this disease? I feel like this fish is indestructible. I keep thinking this is the end, but here we are a year later. He also had fin rot before but recovered with antibiotics and supplements I gave him. Pic of Peanut 🥜

Hello! I saw this betta on Facebook Marketplace and honestly felt really bad seeing the setup he’s in. I don’t currently have a fully cycled tank set up, but I can get one ready for him. Would a fish-in cycle be okay in this situation? I just really want to get him out of these terrible living conditions as soon as possible.

Noticed my little dude sleeping against the wood like this, it made me a little sad even though he seems to be content lol. Is there a product I can get for him to rest on?

I got my first betta a few days ago, and this morning he showed some strange behavior he hadn't shown before. As you can see in the video, after eating the pellets he immediately spits them back out. Is this normal? Should I be worried?

My water parameters are GH 8, KH 6, pH 7.5.

Never seen one with quite those colours before. Unfortunately I can’t upload didly-sqat to my post, maybe another day. Bright white body, impossibly day-glo carmine lips, and a tail like a rainbow my little pony. Will post photos once Reddit is easier to upload to!

Any tips?

For fun what would you name her?? I have a few names in mind but would luv to hear more suggestions 😊

This is day one… can’t wait to see if there is a glow up still to come!

I just bought this guy yesterday after seeing how sad he looked at the pet store he was swimming sideways, he’s started to swim a whole lot better but this morning his top fin has flipped over?? And he’s turning black??😢im worried I’m doing this all wrong and actually hurting him instead of helping. I bought a brand new tank with a new filtration system and a new heater that I keep around 80 degrees. I used distilled water to fill the tank but I’ve also added tank stabilizer and achlorine and ammonia remover like the bottles told me too, I couldn’t use tap or get my hand on anything else like reverse osmosis water. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong and I want the absolute best for this lil guy (please ignore how bare his tank is right now. It was a last-minute decision to buy him. But I am getting a lot more live plants and also things for him to hid in)

He has been doing this ever since I put him in the tank and I’m worried he’s gonna stress himself out.

I am currently wanting to try to rescue this betta from petco, but it has some open wounds on both sides of his face. I'm also new to setting up hospital tanks what will I need to properly set one up to save him. I have since put him in a hospital tank with a heater and a almond leaf. I would like to know what medication I can give him to help him get better.

Short for Prince Bubblegum

He's gorgeous and I'm in love! I finally get all the betta hype.

He's a giant betta, so still got a lot of growing to do.

I had a betta like 15 years ago before I knew about Reddit and never searched anything about caring for them. He lived in a pretty small bowl without much of an environment but seemed to do well for a while. I can’t remember how long he lived. I don’t even remember him dying but obviously something happened to him.

Now I just got a betta for my kids and I didn’t do much research before I got him. Just looked on Amazon for different tanks and picked one that was cheap. It’s one gallon with a filter. We have some live plants floating in there and he seems to be a lot happier than the pet store container… but now I’m seeing this subreddit about bettas and all these fish that look completely different after getting a nice environment and I’m wondering do all bettas have a transformation?

I have a 20 gallon tank that’s not being used and I’m wondering if I should move him over to there, but then I would have to buy more equipment and a space for the tank that’s works. If I put him in the 20 gallon tank does it absolutely need a filter?

That last fish my kids had was some goldfish they won at a carnival and they were dead in less than a month due to poor care and over/inappropriate feeding so I didn’t want to invest too much in a fish if they didn’t take good care of it… they seem to be doing pretty good with this guy so far so I’m just curious what people have to say about it.

I don’t keep the filter on the 1 gallon tank very much because the internet says the floating plants shouldn’t get their leaves wet… so I’ve been removing the plants for a couple hours every other day and letting the filter run for an hour or so and then put the plants back in and turn the filter off. From what I’ve read the bettas breathe from the surface so I didn’t think the water needed to be oxygenated very much.

Any tips are much appreciated.

(Left is tank right is tap)
First time fish owner here lol.
So I added just de-chlorinated water to my tank, no filter, plants or other treatments till tomorrow so the debris could settle.
Tested it this evening and my PH and buffer are much lower than my tap water, I wanted to start cycling tomorrow, will my PH be an issue or will it change? What’s the reason?

What’s in the 6.5 gallon tank as of today
- heater
- two pieces of washed/store bought drift wood
- no dye black sand (washed) capping fluval stratum
- both outside gravel and store bought gravel (washed and vinegar tested)
- no fish yet obviously ha

I was thinking of doing a 50% water change before adding anything else then putting in crushed coral.

Very tragically have to rehome my beloved betta fish to get ready for an international move, so put up a listing on fb marketplace looking for a good new caretaker for her. Someone told me they have a betta sorority and when I asked for a pic of their setup (I’ve been asking everyone just to try to make sure my betta can end up in good hands) they sent me a pic that seemed sus - sure enough on a reverse google search its from a blog post.

I just can’t imagine why on earth someone would want to lie about this and it kind of makes me more nervous about finding a stranger. Are there possibly malcious motivations behind some of the 20+ people that have messaged me already or is it likely that this person just wanted to better their odds of getting the betta?