HELP!! Crowntail Betta in DISTRESS-- Help me rescue him!

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.

ocminpin

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Sep 7, 2011
Messages
2,283
Location
North Las Vegas, NV
My room mate has a male Crowntail Betta approx 1 yr old. She has him since February in a 2 gallon glass bowl with marbles, a cave, and a plastic leaf suction cupped to the side. He's fed twice a day and she changes his bowl fully every 7-10 days.
He has had Bettafix/Melafix used for his shredded fins/tail rot a few months ago.. seemed to be getting better and had a full 1/2" of regrowth.. stopped medication as it said to and then a month later shreds are worse and he has looked horrible since. She's dosing with Bettafix and it doesn't seem to be doing very much. He rests on his leaf or floats in the water most of the time or sits in his cave. When you walk by and pause to look at him he comes out angrily and fans his gills and fins at you, coming forward as a challenge.
I feel horrible for him as he has no heater, no filter and is just getting worse.. I've told her it would benefit him most to get a 5 gallon, with a heater, filter... and it should help improve him greatly. The poor guy is sick and can hardly get better in such pitiful conditions. He's clearly unhappy.

I'm wondering if I can offer to buy all the stuff and take him from her and rehab him. He certainly is hanging on for a reason... he has been sick approx 3 months.

HELP!:banghead:
 
sounds like he's tearing his fins on something in the tank, i hope that she lets you buy him a nice home :)
 
If he's in such a small bowl without a filter (which is basically an uncycled bowl) and only doing water changes once a week at most then toxins (ammonia) could be the cause of the constant fin rot. She should increase his water changes to every couple of days. Bettas also like warmer water so the lack of heat could be bothering him as well unless it's very warm where you are. Does she test the water at all with a test kit?

If she really cares for the fish she should really look into a 5 gal tank with heater and filter. At the very least, start changing water more often and add a heater. I wish i could be more help, but that's my best guess. :(
 
If he's in such a small bowl without a filter (which is basically an uncycled bowl) and only doing water changes once a week at most then toxins (ammonia) could be the cause of the constant fin rot. She should increase his water changes to every couple of days. Bettas also like warmer water so the lack of heat could be bothering him as well unless it's very warm where you are. Does she test the water at all with a test kit?

If she really cares for the fish she should really look into a 5 gal tank with heater and filter. At the very least, start changing water more often and add a heater. I wish i could be more help, but that's my best guess. :(

Hi :)
No the room isn't warm. If i stick my finger in the bowl in the morning I get a chill.. it's COLD. She also doesn't use a test kit. She says bettas are cheap and easy, hence them selling little betta bowls for them to be in. She says test kits are a waste of money and pointed out they cost 15x's the price of the betta. It's very difficult to talk to her about this at all.. I'm just hoping she'll let me get him a new setup... or perhaps it's a lost cause.... but I feel like this is like sitting here while your neighbor starves their dog.. just not right.. how can I sit by and watch it happen?
 
sounds like he's tearing his fins on something in the tank, i hope that she lets you buy him a nice home :)

All that are in there are rounded marbles and his rock cave.... the usual ones you buy at Petsmart... Do you think he could tear his fins on that? I would think he'd never get better if that were the case but he had a lot of fin regrowth....now he's down to nubbies... his lil bones are starting to bend and break off completely.. :ermm:
 
Slap her and then steal the betta.
And you can take the water to fish stores and have them test it for you for free. The betta really needs a proper environment. My test kit cost like 15x each individual fish i had but if i didnt have it i wouldve lost that much money on dead fish anyway.
Idk why people think they can just buy fish and keep them without learning about them. The hobby isnt for ignorant people who wont educate themselves
 
All that are in there are rounded marbles and his rock cave.... the usual ones you buy at Petsmart... Do you think he could tear his fins on that? I would think he'd never get better if that were the case but he had a lot of fin regrowth....now he's down to nubbies... his lil bones are starting to bend and break off completely.. :ermm:

sounds more like fin rot then, poor little guy :(
 
Oh no :( Um, can you steal the betta when she isn't looking? lol Has she seen this site? This thread? Maybe she'll realize the severity of the issue if she sees other replies other than your own? Maybe you can buy a 5 gal tank, filter and heater -- if she already has it maybe she won't be adverse to upgrading. Unfortunately when the fish dies maybe she'll learn the hard way, but it's horrid the fish has to suffer. :(
 
A 5g tank at walmart is only about $30. Maybe she will break down in time.... But, I have to say that I have friends who keep fish in conditions I would never keep fish in, but they don't believe me or else just genuinely don't care about the quality of life a fish has. In that case, there is unfortunately a limited amount you can do. I hope it works out for you though! Props to you for trying to educate somebody. :)
 
Oh no :( Um, can you steal the betta when she isn't looking? lol Has she seen this site? This thread? Maybe she'll realize the severity of the issue if she sees other replies other than your own? Maybe you can buy a 5 gal tank, filter and heater -- if she already has it maybe she won't be adverse to upgrading. Unfortunately when the fish dies maybe she'll learn the hard way, but it's horrid the fish has to suffer. :(

No, she hasn't done any research at all. She plays the "know it all card" which makes us all wrong according to her cause she had a goldfish last a whole year in a bowl! :banghead: Oh yea.. what about the other 15 yrs of its life?!
 
A 5g tank at walmart is only about $30. Maybe she will break down in time.... But, I have to say that I have friends who keep fish in conditions I would never keep fish in, but they don't believe me or else just genuinely don't care about the quality of life a fish has. In that case, there is unfortunately a limited amount you can do. I hope it works out for you though! Props to you for trying to educate somebody. :)

Thank you :) It's just hard when you have to live with someone who is that careless and tells you they know what they're doing...
She sees me doing my weekly water changes and she tells me I'm stressing them out and killing them...
 
Back
Top Bottom