Dying Betta

[aliB]

Hello,

My Betta was doing fine, I had him since last November, I have noticed since last weekend that he is not right.

I tested the water and all parameters are OK, I tried giving him today a quarter of a peeled pea but he didn't eat.

Any hope of saving him still ?

Thanks

 

[Andy Sager]

The fish appears to have advanced fin decay so I question that the water quality is actually okay. Is it in with other fish or is it by itself? How often do you do water changes? What have you been feeding him? What temperature do you keep him in?

 

[pauldadams1984]

Have you got more images and images of him right now and about 3+ months ago.

As Andy said. His fins are lacking quite a bit and it might make it more noticeable to compare.

 

[aliB]

The fish is by itself, I change the water once every 2 weeks.

Here is a picture of it when it was doing ok

 

[Andy Sager]

The fish is by itself, I change the water once every 2 weeks.

Here is a picture of it when it was doing ok

I hate to say this but the fish has not been doing " fine" for a long time. As you can see, the fish is nowhere near the health he once was. The fin deterioration is usually caused by poor water quality. Depending on how large the aquarium is, water should be changed weekly or in the case of smaller aquariums, more than once weekly.
I fear this fish is past recovering but before taking the last step, you should try to feed it any foods it regularly ate. If it continues to not eat, I would euthanize him as he will not recover. If he does eat, you should start doing daily water changes of 10%-15% until the fish starts swimming again and add a liquid vitamin to his food and tank water to help get him back into shape. Once he is stronger, you can do larger percentage water changes and I'd do them at least once a week and possibly more often.
In the future, you should do more frequent water changes and react more swiftly when/if you see physical changes in the fish's fins or coloring. Bettas are a resilient fish specie but are highly effected by water quality.

Hope this helps.

 

[aliB]

Thanks for the tips.

One last question, I added some floating plants around a month ago, could it have contributed to "polluting" the water ?

 

[Andy Sager]

Thanks for the tips.

One last question, I added some floating plants around a month ago, could it have contributed to "polluting" the water ?

Possibly. Lack of surface area reduces the exchange of gases which usually is not a problem for Bettas since they can come to the surface to gulp air when oxygen levels are poor. Because your water's surface is full of plants, that would be why the water quality went down. Your floating plants have choked off the surface. I would remove most of those plants and keep up with not letting them over populate. With Bettas, you are better with rooted plants than floaters or use floaters that have large leaves ( like water sprite) so that the do not over populate and leave areas of the surface open.