# What is wrong with this guy?



## sschreiner5 (Oct 11, 2011)

I need some help with my Betta. The last 3 days he has been hiding more than normal and he looks really bad. I am not sure if he is sick or has been attacked. His tail looks like its clumped together or missing pieces or something. I have a 29 gallon tank with a hob filter under gravel filter heater and a plant light. Living in the tank are 1 betta, 6 gold tetras, 4 neon tetras, 2 bloodfin tetras, 1 random small tetra, 1 kuhli loach, 1 pleco. I know the kuhli loach needs friends and the pleco needs a larger home, I am working on that. Also in the tank are live plants: 5 jungle val plants, 10 or more chain sword, 1 wisteria, and 1 unknown plant that came with the tank. The water tests the same every time: ph 8, ammonia 0, and nitrite 0. I tested it yesterday with a liquid test kit. The betta was added 4 weeks ago and the jungle val, chain sword, and wisteria were added 2 weeks ago. All other fish have been the tank for months. The only things I am doing differently are adding a half teaspoon of Kent’s iron manganese with my weekly water change and my light now runs for 10 hours a day on a timer. I change 5 gallons a week and started adding the Kents when I added the new plants. I feed the fish flakes one day then blood worms the next (freeze dried sometime and frozen others). I skip one day a week with feeding and on every other flake day I try to feed the betta one beta pellet, sometime it works and sometime it floats over to another fish.
What happened to my betta and how do I fix him? He is still eating but hides out way more and looks terrible. He looked fine one day then bad the next and has only got worse. My new plants are doing well and all other fish seem fine.
Here is when I got him. Looking good if you ask me.

And here he is now.










Sorry for the long post, Please help. Thanks!

Here is one last shot of the whole tank.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

The aquarium advisor says that other fish tend to nip beata fins and betas are not compatible in schooling community tanks. 
But I have a blue veiled beta in my community tank for the last two months and he is doing just fine. 
I would get him a 5 gallon tank just for the beta.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Looks like you have alot of agitation on the surface.Bettas come from slow moving waters so the current could be stressing him out.Freeze dried foods and flakes are a horrible diet for them as well.Frozen foods and pellets are good.What type of food?Is it betta specific?

Also whats the nitrates?


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## sschreiner5 (Oct 11, 2011)

The pellets are specfic betta pellets, two different brands and the flakes are just tropical fish flakes. The freeze dried blood worms dont specify what they are for and the frozen blood worms dont either but they are Hikari brand. As far as the surface agitation, its only one corner of the tank that has that, only 1 powerhead on my undergravel filter is running. I guess I could turn it off to see if it helps. Whats up with my fish though? Is it stress that caused him to look like this? What can I do for him? Should I get a breeder box to isolate him or something?

I dont know what the nitrates are right now. For some reason the "master" test kit I bought does not have a nitrate test in it. Its the tetra test laborett. When I go to the LFS I always bring a water sample, the test it for free if you buy something or its only $1.50 if you dont buy anything. Every time the water is fine and they get the same results I do. They do test nitrate and its always very low, almost nothing. I am going to get my own nitrate test soon.


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## sschreiner5 (Oct 11, 2011)

Nevermind. He died.


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

Sorry to hear that, 
I can't wait to get home to my tanks I have been gone for almost 2 weeks and miss them.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Sorry I couldnt help sooner.I do believe it was stress related though.

Sorry for your lost and may the little guy rest peacefully.


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## sschreiner5 (Oct 11, 2011)

majerah1 said:


> Sorry I couldnt help sooner.I do believe it was stress related though.
> 
> Sorry for your lost and may the little guy rest peacefully.


Thanks, I am rather dissappointed he was becoming my favorite fish. So you are thinking stress. I want to try and find the cause of the stress. The gold tetras are pretty active, they chase each other around the tank often but never bothered the betta, he would be out swimming around when they would chase each other and the betta didnt seem to care. They would swim next to him and it didn't phase him. He never flared at any fish in the tank. He would flare before goining into a cave or tunnel but once he was in there he'd stop. He would flare at a mirror until he started looking ragged but the last few days he wouldnt flare for anything. I have never seen any fish chase the betta. You mentioned the surface agitation, I didnt think that was a problem because the betta would swim in the current form the powerhead and it looked to me like he enjoyed it. I would really like to get another betta but I want to fix the issue first so this one lives longer than a month. So judgeing by the pictures did he look like he was attacked at all? I want to rule that out first then move on to other things like surface agitation. Any ideas? One thing that just came to mind was feeding. So I would try to feed the betta a betta pellet first and the the last week or so the other fish caught on that he was eating first. The betta was very curious whenever I'd open the lid, he swim right over to see what I was doing so I'd drop a pellet or two in there and they would float around a little then he eat them while all the other fish would stay near the bottom of the tank. Sometimes a pellet would float over to the other side of the tank and get caught up in the current form my HOB filter and sink where the other fish would get it. The last week the other fish would come up to the top with the betta when I'd open the lid like they knew there was gonna be some food. Think that had something to do with it?


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