The Puffer Forum

Hey guys,

I think perhaps my betta is just old and dying, but I wanted to run everything by you guys and get your comments/suggestions. I would prefer he lives longer of course, but I guess if it's his time to go then I can't do anything.

Anyway, for about a month and a half my betta lies on the bottom of the tank, barely swims or anything. I can get him to eat about 3 of the 7 days of the week. His gills seem like they're permanently stuck out, but laying flat.

He lives in a filtered ten gallon, by himself. I do 90% changes every week, and clean out any uneaten food every day.
His parameters are:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5
Temperate: 80 degrees F


The ten gallon was planted with about 5 smaller java fern, but I removed them to do a salt treatment about a week ago. The tank is 100% fresh water (no table salt, now) but I left the plants and substrate out to see if it helped anything.

Thanks so much for any help in advance, guys.

How long have you had this betta?

Does he struggle to come up for air, or do so less often than before?

Can you get a picture of the gills?

The plants and substrate won't hurt anything.

I got him February of 2011, so a little over a year now. Yes, he definitely comes up for air a lot less now. I got him from petco and he was originally placed in a fully cycled 5 gallon, for 4 months, then moved to the ten gallon.

I will be putting the plants and substrate back either tonight or tomorrow. i removed the plants mostly for the salt treatment I did on him.

He refuses to let me get any sort of picture of him. He just keep moving himself into a corner where it's impossible to see his gills. However, what it looks like is the gills they use for "flaming up" is stuck out, laying flat against his body, partially. It's the symptoms of inflamed gills really, but I have always been very tight about his water change schedule and I test his water often.

It's probably just one of those things. We know you care for your fish and tend to them well. The thing is we don't know what damage is done to these fish before we get them in our care, they are bred to exhaustion and kept poorly, then shipped to a fish shop who only care about profit. We can only do what we can do.

Yeah,I just feel so bad. He pretty much just lays on his side all day now. I can't really get him to eat a whole lot. I keep watching for something that could be causing it all, but I can't find anything.

Normal betta lifespan is 2-5 years, with a little more or less not being unheard of for natural deaths. Male bettas from pet stores can be as old as a year if they're kept back for breeding before sale. Old age is definitely a possibility.

Lowering the water level will help him get to the surface more easily.