New Crown Tail Betta needs help

I just returned from buying a new Betta. I was looking for a male and spent a great deal of time at the store trying to decide among several beauties! I'm honestly thinking of going back to get an additional one.

Anyway, I did get a nice looking Betta - and a "freebie" in addition after I mentioned to a worker how bad one looked compared to the other CTs.

So, now that he is home, can anyone advise me on how to help this guy regain his health in order to thrive? He's not as pretty as my other one but I do hope that he can regain some of his looks and health.





And on the brighter side, this is my other new boy:



The one I may go back for is a clear/yellow color with some orange streaks in the tail. Actually there are two or three alike there which is what took me so long in deciding overall, but in the end I left those boys behind for now.

Try warming your water a little (high 70's) and adding some aquarium salt 1 tablespoon for 5 gal to reduce stress and just give him time to heal. Good luck hope he gets better

Thanks! I went out to buy some aquarium salt and found this stuff. Is it the right type?

Yes that will do. Along with the salt you can add some finely crushed garlic or the juice. Plus do 100% water changes until he looks better. Good luck.

I see now what you were telling me about the other day. Poor guy. Just follow whispers advice and he will better in no time. She knows her stuff! Your new boy is beautifull.

I agree water changes till he looks better. Just watch him closely for any signs of infection.

Thanks! I'll get some garlic as well, but how much goes in the water?

natikah- yes, you can see there aren't many options around here! My store recently started carrying Bettas, they've been stocked twice now. The first time, I bought all 9 of the females :) Strangely, they don't have a large selection of males and those they do have are either brilliant or torn up. I almost wonder if our store isn't gettin the 'overstock' from another local Wal Mart's orders, as we're a much smaller community.

It's still hard to find supplies though. Most of my buying is through places like Craigs List or local ads but there are some things almost impossible to buy. For instance, I STILL need a long 55 gallon light bulb. With my work hours it's very hard to get to St Louis of Jefferson City to a bigger retail store so I'm stuck waiting for a more local Petco to open up. It was supposed to back in March, but the date has been pushed back to late August. It's very frustrating!

I'd buy from breeders and have the fish sent to me but with the heat we've been having I don't want to risk it any more than I'd want to risk ordering live plants (another commodity impossible to find here!).


strikingthematch, what are some of the first signs/symptoms I should look for? He doesn't exactly swim on an even keel but I think his balance problem may be from the lack of proper fins. I'm not sure though, I'm just guessing about his balance issue. This body and eyes are otherwise appearing to be fine and I don't see any gill (I think it is called, or where his face flares out) injuries.

That's strange to me that his dorsal fin is in tact, seems if it were finrot that would be affected as well. Wondering if he could have been nipped by something in a tank? Or did he come in one of those cups? Hope you keep us posted on his recovery. He has nice color and your other guy looks awesome. Good luck with them both!

The first one looks more like fighting injuries from breeding. Also most all Bettas in the big chain stores are from Asia. Asians are the biggest exporters of Bettas in the world. The ones that they send to the stores are there rejects. They are either old, out bred, or not the coloring that the Asians want for there show stock. Also your description of his balance could be from bloat which Bettas are very susceptible to. It is caused from over feeding. You can try fasting him for 4-5 days then just giving him frozen thawed and shelled crushed peas.

Well, he's still here. Balance may be a little bit better. The dicolored sections on his tail seem to have diminished.

He's been getting 100% water changes and the salt bath added each day.

He did come in that cup he is pictured in. Each cup at the store was sprinkled on top with flake food, so I fed him the first day, skipped two days and have fed him sparingly since then but he doesn't appear to be very interested in the food as of yet.

Today he has quite a bubble nest, but it'll be gone once I do his cleaning.

Hopefully I'll eventually be able to post pictures of obvious improvements but as of right now he looks pretty much the same, LOL!

regular water changes, a steady healthy diet and he should be fine...

Bettas aren't normally fond of flake food. Get him some of the Bettas pellets and only give three of them twice a days. The fins will heal but they take a long time to grow back so just be patient. LOL

He does have the beta food now. :) I also have the dried bloodworms but he isnt so interested. Eventually I'll figure out how to make my own food "blocks". I know I read of it somewhere before, Im just not sure where. Of my pets, it seems only the fish are on commercial foods rather than a "healthier BARF/RAW diet, as the cat and dogs are.

Bettas being natural carnivores love all frozen food. You can get frozen bloodworms for him and other frozen food too. Just keep in mind that there stomachs are only the size of there eyeballs .

Would've responded sooner - but been busy finishing off a summer college course and inservice at my work......

Two easily found foods that all of my bettas love are sinking shrimp pellets and floating dried brine shrimp. I buy them both at walmart.

One thing that will really help him is putting him in a minimum 1G sized tank with some floating java fern. It'll get him more active and more interested in 'life'. If you buy one of those 'glofish' tanks that have the undergravel or sponge filters - you can lower the amount of water changes once it has fully cycled. I'd also keep his water temperature at 80F. Which in a tank is easier to do.

Welcome to the world of bettas!

Thanks to all for the advice!

I'm prety upset right now. He'd been doing wonderfully, obvious tail improvement - very feisty and lively.

Whe's not dead yet, I think I may have effectively killed him less than 20 minutes ago. He's been in a bowl and has been thriving. I had neglected to clean his bowl out for the last 3 days so I just got onto it. I've been doing it since I got him with no problems up till now.

When I put him in his cleaned bowl be ran around and crashed into the sides a lot before stopping and going belly up.

I've put the water in too warm. Not hot by my standards, but Im sure VERY warm for him.

Grabbed him out, put him in a bowl with cooler water, but he kept belly up or drifting on his side. I used my finger to bring him to the surface a few times, he's got a little balance now but his gills are going like crazy and unless I bring him topside he wont breathe on his own.

I guess in a short while I'll know the final outcome.

:(

Sound like Chlorine shock. Are you sure you treated the water when you did the change? Or you could be right about the water being to hot.

I did treat the water, so it leaves little doubt about the warmth of it. I feel like an idiot, but can say he's still hanging in there though he's still sluggish and seems to have knocked a bit off his head during his initial struggles. If he makes it through this evening yet and into the morning I guess the crisis will be over. I did change out my other two betta bowls with no problem. If I can ever get proper pictures of those boys (not the colorful one in this thread) Id love to show them off and get color names for them. They are different, IMO.

Well it may have been the sudden shock of the water temp then. Here's hoping he makes it through the night.

Just got home from work - He's ALIVE!!

Oh that's good. How is he acting?

He's doing very well now :) I'll try to get updated pictures of him. He's really growing his fins out nicely.

Updated pic of Ollie:

Yes he's looking much better. Good job.