I need help figuring out whats wrong with my betta.

[Saviee]

Hi all, I have to admit that I do not know much about aquariums. I've made quite a few mistakes since acquiring my betta fish. But I'm working on getting better. Before I moved him to a larger tank, I had him in a small 1.5 gallon unheated tank with an aerator. That has changed now he lives in a 10 gallon heated tank ( that keeps it between 78 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit) with an aerator along with a few ghost shrimp, a couple of my ghost shrimp have eggs under their bellies and once the eggs hatch and the fry mature, I plan to add an in tank filter.
I think my betta has velvet because his face has started to turn kind of blackish and gray in some spots, and lately I've been noticing him rubbing up against his hidey-holes. Before I moved him he was very lazy, only ever came up to eat, but now hes alot more active he swims all over the tank. And he acts kind of excited when I come to the tank to feed him. I have no idea what it could be except for googling his symptoms, and velvet seems to be the closest to what I've witnessed.

If I've left anything out I'm sorry, please tell me so I know in the future . I'm new to the whole forum thing so any help would greatly appreciated

I forgot to add that I do a 30-50% water change once a week

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

Hi all, I have to admit that I do not know much about aquariums. I've made quite a few mistakes since acquiring my betta fish. But I'm working on getting better. Before I moved him to a larger tank, I had him in a small 1.5 gallon unheated tank with an aerator. That has changed now he lives in a 10 gallon heated tank ( that keeps it between 78 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit) with an aerator along with a few ghost shrimp, a couple of my ghost shrimp have eggs under their bellies and once the eggs hatch and the fry mature, I plan to add an in tank filter.
I think my betta has velvet because his face has started to turn kind of blackish and gray in some spots, and lately I've been noticing him rubbing up against his hidey-holes. Before I moved him he was very lazy, only ever came up to eat, but now hes alot more active he swims all over the tank. And he acts kind of excited when I come to the tank to feed him. I have no idea what it could be except for googling his symptoms, and velvet seems to be the closest to what I've witnessed.

If I've left anything out I'm sorry, please tell me so I know in the future . I'm new to the whole forum thing so any help would greatly appreciated

I forgot to add that I do a 30-50% water change once a week

If you could post a pic that would be great and I could go further....

 

[Saviee]

This is the best I can get, I guess he doesn't like his picture taken lol hope it helps!

 

[Saviee]

This one is very blurry but you can clearly see the grey under his mouth

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

This one is very blurry but you can clearly see the grey under his mouth

Does your betas mouth look like this???

 

[Saviee]

Kind of yeah, its not as yellowish as that, more of a white/grey color

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

Kind of yeah, its not as yellowish as that, more of a white/grey color

Is your betta eating regularly? If not it might have Chilodonella", which is a parasite and can be treated with salt

 

[Saviee]

I noticed that he was spitting out his pellets about 2 weeks ago. A friend recommended getting him some blood worms, hes eating a little bit of the blood worms, but hes still spitting out the pellets. Is that normal for a fish with chilodonella? Will the salt hurt the ghost shrimp living in the tank with him? Also how much do I use?

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

I noticed that he was spitting out his pellets about 2 weeks ago. A friend recommended getting him some blood worms, hes eating a little bit of the blood worms, but hes still spitting out the pellets. Is that normal for a fish with chilodonella? Will the salt hurt the ghost shrimp living in the tank with him? Also how much do I use?

We have to ENSURE that the betta has chilodonella... Or else it could do some harm if it ends up not having it here is some info I copy and pasted from this great website I found...

The symptoms of Chilodonella includes changed (heavy) breathing, excessive secretion of mucus that makes the skin of the fish look cloudy, clamped fins, loss of appetite and scratching against aquarium decoration. You can also observe a general loss of virility in infected fish causing them to act more lethargically. In severe cases the fish moves away from the rest of the fish and hides somewhere.

I don't know if your fish has all of these but is seems like it hides in that cave a lot....

 

[shellieca]

First off thank you for upgrading him to a heated, bigger tank. Bettas will become more active in the warmer temp & do change color, typically getting darker when they're in the right environment. As best I can tell from your pics I think his color is just changing which is normal. What pellets are you feeding? Blood worms are not meant to be their main diet so don't feed those more than a couple times a week. I don't remember if you said their frozen or not, if freeze dried make sure you soak them for a few minutes before feeding. Bettas can be picky eaters so he may not like the brand of pellet you're feeding or they're possibly too big, you can try crushing them. I suggest feeding New Life Spectrum, they're kind of small & good quality.

 

[Saviee]

He doesn't appear to be breathing heavily, I don't know what clamped fins are, but they do look kind of smushed together sometimes, and here lately hes been scratching up against all the decorations in the tank. He didn't used to hide in the hidey hole but then again that was before I moved him into the larger tank. He seems to have more energy now but he is hiding alot


Man let me tell you what, when I found out that I was basically abusing him I cried for days. I immediately got a bigger tank and heater, set it up, and put him in it 3 days later with some ghost shrimp, and a live plant. I wasn't looking for a fish when I got him, but I saw him looking so pathetic on a walmart shelf near death(im a sucker for hurt animals), so I took him home. I should have done more research when I brought him home, but I just went with what people told me and what I had heard about them before. Trying to fix that now though! I didn't know that about the blood worms! It wont hurt him any will it!? All he's been eating the past week is the blood worms. The pellets I have for him are "tetrabetta floating mini pellets" and the bloodworms are freeze dried. I'll go out and get a new food tomorrow hopefully we have better luck with a new food!

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

He doesn't appear to be breathing heavily, I don't know what clamped fins are, but they do look kind of smushed together sometimes, and here lately hes been scratching up against all the decorations in the tank. He didn't used to hide in the hidey hole but then again that was before I moved him into the larger tank. He seems to have more energy now but he is hiding alot

Man let me tell you what, when I found out that I was basically abusing him I cried for days. I immediately got a bigger tank and heater, set it up, and put him in it 3 days later with some ghost shrimp, and a live plant. I wasn't looking for a fish when I got him, but I saw him looking so pathetic on a walmart shelf near death(im a sucker for hurt animals), so I took him home. I should have done more research when I brought him home, but I just went with what people told me and what I had heard about them before. Trying to fix that now though! I didn't know that about the blood worms! It wont hurt him any will it!? All he's been eating the past week is the blood worms. The pellets I have for him are "tetrabetta floating mini pellets" and the bloodworms are freeze dried. I'll go out and get a new food tomorrow hopefully we have better luck with a new food!

Well I will say wait 24 hours to c what happens I can deal with this in the morning I need to do a bit more research on this case on about how much salt you want to add..... Unless you want to treat him tonight...

 

[Saviee]

I can't do anything tonight I didn't even know I could add salt to a freshwater tank until tonight I'm gonna go pick up some aquarium salt and some new food in the morning. I'd rather wait till I know the right dosage, than using to much or not enough and end up hurting him

Thank you so much for all your help! I really appreciate it!

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

I can't do anything tonight I didn't even know I could add salt to a freshwater tank until tonight I'm gonna go pick up some aquarium salt and some new food in the morning. I'd rather wait till I know the right dosage, than using to much or not enough and end up hurting him

Thank you so much for all your help! I really appreciate it!

Great and if you are going to a good advice pet store bring up that disease and they will help so much! Btw if you are going to petsmart don't ask them they know nothing! Hope he/she gets better!!!!

 

[Saviee]

Oh no, no petsmart for me, I've heard way to many horror stories about that place. A local lady opened up a pet store here in my town about a year ago, she's where I get almost all my pet supplies. I'm gonna show her that picture of him and see what she thinks, and ask her about the salt, she set up a saltwater tank a couple months ago so I'm sure she'll know what I need to do

Thank you! Me too!

 

[Obsessedfishlover]

Oh no, no petsmart for me, I've heard way to many horror stories about that place. A local lady opened up a pet store here in my town about a year ago, she's where I get almost all my pet supplies. I'm gonna show her that picture of him and see what she thinks, and ask her about the salt, she set up a saltwater tank a couple months ago so I'm sure she'll know what I need to do

Thank you! Me too!

Ok good! I bet she even knows five times as much as petsmart people know....

 

[Saviee]

Oh yeah! She cares alot about her animals! I can think of multiple occasions where people have taken sick or hurt pets to her, she stays up all night sitting at the shop taking care of them for no charge. She's actually the one that told me that I need to put him in a bigger tank with some plants, and she told me to feed him the bloodworms, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure she told me to feed them to him a couple times a week

 

[bobbyj206]

He doesn't appear to be breathing heavily, I don't know what clamped fins are, but they do look kind of smushed together sometimes, and here lately hes been scratching up against all the decorations in the tank. He didn't used to hide in the hidey hole but then again that was before I moved him into the larger tank. He seems to have more energy now but he is hiding alot

Man let me tell you what, when I found out that I was basically abusing him I cried for days. I immediately got a bigger tank and heater, set it up, and put him in it 3 days later with some ghost shrimp, and a live plant. I wasn't looking for a fish when I got him, but I saw him looking so pathetic on a walmart shelf near death(im a sucker for hurt animals), so I took him home. I should have done more research when I brought him home, but I just went with what people told me and what I had heard about them before. Trying to fix that now though! I didn't know that about the blood worms! It wont hurt him any will it!? All he's been eating the past week is the blood worms. The pellets I have for him are "tetrabetta floating mini pellets" and the bloodworms are freeze dried. I'll go out and get a new food tomorrow hopefully we have better luck with a new food!

I started out the same way. I saw a beautiful crown tail at Walmart, made my share of mistakes and now i am addicted.

 

[shellieca]

I wouldn't jump on the disease mention just yet but if you want to ad Aq salt it won't hurt, I use 1 tsp per gallon but you can go up to 3 tsp. Make sure it is completely dissolved in a glass of water before adding it to the tank, I'd start with the lower dosage & then increase it the next day so he has time to adjust. Salt doesn't dissipate so if you do a partial water change, only add enough salt for the water being replaced, so if you do a 50% water change, only dose salt for 5g. You don't want to salt for more than 10 days straight with a Betta from what I've been told. How much coverage is in your tank? Bettas like a lot of coverage so if there isn't much except the cave that could be why he tends to hang out in it. Do you have many plants real or silk? Have you shined a flashlight on him from different angles? More common parasites/diseases are velvet & Ich. Velvet, already mentioned, will look like a dusting of rust, Ich will look like he's sprinkled with salt. Are you sure he's rubbing against thing as if trying to get something off of him or just rubs against them as he swims by? One other thing, do you know about fish IN cycling? Are you testing your water with a liquid test kit? I'm not sure how long you've had your tank set up.

 

[shellieca]

Oh, another reason he could be hiding more is the filter current, the water is calm in the cave. Bettas don't like strong current so you may need to baffle your filter, I don't know what kind you have.