My betta is starting to lose color under his mouth into the middle of his lower chest, he's starting to look like he has rips in his bottom fin and for the past day and a half he's been really lethargic stay in one spot for five or ten minutes at a time. Has anyone had any experience with this?
My betta is starting to lose color
- Thread starter Atxpunx
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
bruinsbro1997
Aquarium Advice Addict
What size tank? Water quality alright? What are the specific levels? Any fish with him in there?
Tank is a standard five gallon. The tank is heavily planted. No other fish but lots of invertebrates ( snails ). I'll have to test the water in a little bit and get back to the params. No carbon insert, I do dose flourish but I way under dose and I also use boyd's vita-Chem as a weekly vitamin additive in both of my tanks
bruinsbro1997
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm assuming the tank is cycled, so I'm guessing the water parameters are off somehow. Did you change or do anything to the filter?
Is he losing color in that area or is there a metallic like dusting covering it? If you are unsure, shine a flash light on him which will help you see it if it's there. If it does look like a metallic dusting this is probably velvet.
Has his fins been clamped at all? What temp to keep the tank at?
Has his fins been clamped at all? What temp to keep the tank at?
My API test kit reads as follows
Ph. 7.6
NO2 (trites) 0 ppm
NO3 (trates) 5.0 - 10.0 ppm
Ammonia 0 ish? A little off from 0 ppm
As for the filter, the only thing I can think of is about every three weeks the hob filter slows down to a trickle stream and I think it's because of my self made sponge prefilter intake gets so much bacteria and guck on it that it slows down intake thus slowing down circulation. I normally change it by now but now I don't want to disrupt anything due to my bettas condition
Ph. 7.6
NO2 (trites) 0 ppm
NO3 (trates) 5.0 - 10.0 ppm
Ammonia 0 ish? A little off from 0 ppm
As for the filter, the only thing I can think of is about every three weeks the hob filter slows down to a trickle stream and I think it's because of my self made sponge prefilter intake gets so much bacteria and guck on it that it slows down intake thus slowing down circulation. I normally change it by now but now I don't want to disrupt anything due to my bettas condition
bruinsbro1997
Aquarium Advice Addict
Wait so do you change the filters every three weeks or so?
siva said:
The discoloration looks like a pale metallic but it doesn't look like there's color under it. His fin stay down most of the time except when flaring. I put a mirror in front of his tank to see if he would move around and to take a picture to monitor the damage. Is velvet curable?
bruinsbro1997 said:
No not the actual filter that is inside the hob filter. What I would change is a sponge that I have covering the small pipe intake on the inside of the tank. To prevent debris and hc Cuba from clogging the impeller. I added a picture to clarify, it has the small strands of hc Cuba on it
Attachments
Ok. That is actually not warm enough for bettas, and especially with swings of more than 1-2 degrees. They often get velvet in these conditions. Velvet is definitely curable, but an adjustable heater will be necesary. Betta's thrive at 80. 78 would be acceptable as well, but they shouldn't be kept any lower than that. Consistency in the temp is even more important.
While I can't give you a definite diagnosis, it does sound like velvet. Sometimes as bettas mature they develop a silverish beard, so it's possible that is what you are seeing. Velvet would cause the betta to clamp fins and be lethargic, but so will temps of 75 and lower, so it's really hard to say. You can try to get a pic of it but I find it somewhat hard to diagnose by photo. As velvet progresses, it becomes pretty obvious..you can see the dusting effect usually starting at the gills and will begin to cover the fins and if it gets real bad, down the sides of the body. To treat velvet add an adjustable heater and slowly raise the temp to 80, increasing by 1 degree every 12 hours. I'm not sure how much salt you've already added but ideally you would gradually add 3 teaspoons, 1 each day for three days. Always disolve salt in dechlorniated water before adding to the tank so it doesn't burn the fish. Ideally the fish should be symptom free within a few days to a week and you can start water changing out the salt by the 10th day. You want to do a few partial water changes over a few days to get all the salt out. You don't want to have salt in the water for more than a couple weeks or you can cause other problems. I recommend a Hydor or Aqueon heater, but any adjustable should be fine. Just do not select one with a pre-set temp as they won't raise the temp high enough.
Also if there is ammonia in the tank it is probably not completely cycled. The bio-load of 1 betta in a 10 gal is small so there shouldn't be any ammo in there. I would start by doing a large water change today, and keep a close eye on the parameters. The ammo could be responsible for some fin deterioration you mentioned.
While I can't give you a definite diagnosis, it does sound like velvet. Sometimes as bettas mature they develop a silverish beard, so it's possible that is what you are seeing. Velvet would cause the betta to clamp fins and be lethargic, but so will temps of 75 and lower, so it's really hard to say. You can try to get a pic of it but I find it somewhat hard to diagnose by photo. As velvet progresses, it becomes pretty obvious..you can see the dusting effect usually starting at the gills and will begin to cover the fins and if it gets real bad, down the sides of the body. To treat velvet add an adjustable heater and slowly raise the temp to 80, increasing by 1 degree every 12 hours. I'm not sure how much salt you've already added but ideally you would gradually add 3 teaspoons, 1 each day for three days. Always disolve salt in dechlorniated water before adding to the tank so it doesn't burn the fish. Ideally the fish should be symptom free within a few days to a week and you can start water changing out the salt by the 10th day. You want to do a few partial water changes over a few days to get all the salt out. You don't want to have salt in the water for more than a couple weeks or you can cause other problems. I recommend a Hydor or Aqueon heater, but any adjustable should be fine. Just do not select one with a pre-set temp as they won't raise the temp high enough.
Also if there is ammonia in the tank it is probably not completely cycled. The bio-load of 1 betta in a 10 gal is small so there shouldn't be any ammo in there. I would start by doing a large water change today, and keep a close eye on the parameters. The ammo could be responsible for some fin deterioration you mentioned.
^ Oops I mixed up a couple things. Had two threads open at once! The ammonia you had mentioned was maybe just barely off zero, which shouldn't be a problem, and you hadn't said anything about adding salt..ugh sorry the confusion.
The only heater I have came with a 55 i got for free. It's adjustable but too tall. Could I run it by submersing the heater diagonally? Would using a heater meant for a larger tank in a smaller tank over heat a tank?
Hmm I don't know what the possible repercussions might be from using a heater too large. You may want to do a little research on that before trying it. I would just google it and see what you come up with.
Hopefully sometime soon you can pick up a heater for the tank. You'll have so much less health issues like velvet and swim bladder disease if the tank is heated well.
Hopefully sometime soon you can pick up a heater for the tank. You'll have so much less health issues like velvet and swim bladder disease if the tank is heated well.
