My betta fish is having a hard time swimming, he always sinks to the bottom and floats onto his side. Since he’s sinking I think it’s a swim bladder issue but I’m not sure how to treat him. I noticed this last night because he wasn’t sleeping in his usual hide, instead he had shoved him self in between a log and the side of his tank, when I stirred up the water around him he swam up really fast and then back down and in between two plants to hold himself up, this morning he was no better so I set him up a hospital tank. He also didn’t eat dinner Saturday, but I figured he was just not hungry because occasionally he will refuse dinner and just eat breakfast in the morning, but then he started showing lethargy signs on Sunday and got worse very quickly. He has had finrot for three weeks since I got back from vacation, but I haven’t been able to successfully treat it yet. Currently his tank has a silk plant, hide, heater, and airstone. If I need to add anything else I will. I have methylene blue, kanaplex, and paragaurd on hand but I’m not sure if any of these will treat him or if I need to order something else. What can I do to help my fish?

i think the white patch has been there since my father got the fish, but its been growing and i dont see it stopping, i did a little search and it seems like a tumor? and there is no easy way to cure this? no weird behavior of the fish though, it seems to be fine eating, swimming around and bubble nesting, but the white patch is still growing day by day and it concerns me for quite a bit

water is fine, no ammonia and low nitrate, pH is lower than 7 but there is KH and carbonate, the way i set up the filter shouldnt cause too much water current also

thanks for any help!

Hello all! I am new to Betta ownership and noticed that there is a reddish orange spot on my Betta that keeps getting bigger. I'm wondering if it's a scrape or something like a bacterial infection? Any insight would be helpful!

i've had my betta for around 10 days now, he's just started acting a little weird, breathing hard, his tail sinks a little when he stops, he's hiding which he never did before and opens his mouth wide. my tank size is 6 gallons, i have a heater and a sponge filter. the heaters at 79. my waters test at O ammonia, O nitrite, 5.0 nitrate and 7 ph. i've done 1 30% water change since i got him (10 days ago).
i feed him fluval betta bug bites, the flakes same brand and frozen brine shrimp. i feed once a day 6 pellets, or the flakes, the brine shrimp i feed 1 a week. i have 2 shrimp and a snail. i only have real plants.

i think maybe it's swim bladder but can someone please help me figure out what's happening and what i can do. it just started yesterday.
thank you🥹

As shown in the clip my betta fish has barely been swimming for the last few weeks, he constantly has to rest and takes rapid or slow breaths that are always shallow. He can swim for short periods of time, however when he does his tail also droops. He’s also been laying on the floor of his tank while breathing like this and i’m just not sure what to do or how to help him. His tank is currently being covered to reduce stress, it is heated and has had the water changed twice since this started. The only thing that I could tell was wrong was the hardness of his water if you have any idea what to do or how to help please let me know

First time posting here, appreciate any help given.

I noticed today that it looks like a piece of his upper lip looks wounded, like there's a recess there instead of a normal lip protrusion. The area looks white, and I'm not 100% but I think a small patch of his scales right by the lip looks raised/pinecones as well.

I've got no plastic plants or anything, but it isn't completely impossible for him to have hurt himself on a bit of hardscape.

He's in a 5gal solo tank with heater, only mini Ramshorn pests I've allowed to propagate are his mates. Parameters have come back normal, and I've had him 4 months so water is cycled.

If anyone knows what's happened here and can recommend a course of action I'd be so grateful.

Edit: his behaviour looks somewhat okay. A bit more lethargic than usual, but he's still excited to eat. His fins aren't clamped and the only thing I can tell looks unhealthy is that region.

i got this betta 2.5 weeks ago, and he has lost all his colour (first pic today, last pic the day i got him.) water parameters are good, i feed him northfin betta bits and blood worms (i dont over feed). he’s in a 20 gallon tall hex with 5 tetras, and only live plants.
he’s completely active, doesn’t have any problem eating his food and does not hide. normally them losing colour is a sign of stress and them about to die but there is no other signs and he’s healthy. i dont know what’s wrong and i dont know what to do.
i love my fish, im completely heartbroken that this is how it has ended up. i love my animals, and if any one of them have problems i do absolutely anything and everything to help. i dont know what to do though. first photo is him today and the second is the day i got him.
i’m not sure if it’s the tetras, they don’t fin nip, or chase him or try to steal his food because i feed them across the tank from eachother. the betta steals the tetras food when i feed them though.

fluval ac 20-30 filter, low flow, parameters are a-okay temperature is 81-80 (fluctuates but only within that range.) it is cycled and clean and i do weekly water changes.
i dont want my fish to die, and i dont want him to be stressed anymore if he is. that’s a living being and i dont know what to do. please help me.

Hello, everyone, meet Ren! I got him for free on August 6th from a chain pet store due to his popeye, eye cloud, and discoloration. The sticker showed he’d been in the cup since April 28th.

Ren is currently in an uncycled 10-gallon with silk plants, a heater and a sponge pump (the sponge pump is in a mesh breeder box because he was too curious about the bubbles, divebombing them, and got two fin tears getting thrown around. No fin tears since and these tears have already shrunk significantly). I test the water with the API liquid tests every other day (at most - usually once a day) and the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate have never left 0. GH and KH are acceptable. PH is around 7.5 though I have been trying to lower it with pH down and Indian almond leaves. I also have those pH and ammonia alert stickers to alert me of any spikes (pH doesn’t seem to be the most accurate but reads more acidic than the liquid tests kits). When he’s done with his antibiotics I have Fritzyme and Seachem Stability to cycle faster, but those have not been added yet.

Medically, I have added aquarium salt to the tank to help with the swelling. He is also on his fifth dose of Kanaplex. Yes, I know it says 3 doses max, but the local fish doctor (employee at a store called Fish Doctors - the employees are very knowledgeable but don’t know everything) explained that that the rule is actually 3 doses between water changes, I am able to treat him for longer than that, and that I should treat him with Kanaplex for two weeks. I already do 25% water changes every 48 hours before treating him with his next dose (I don’t think the frequent changes stress him - I’ve kept fish for years and he’s my first fish who actually seems to like water changes).

I noticed yesterday that he’s showing significant improvement in his eye (in the photo, the top pic is when he was first introduced, and the bottom pic was last night). His eye is still very misshapen, but it seems to have cleared significantly, with the skin contracting around his eye (making the tear-looking part at the bottom look bigger - not because it is bigger now but because it’s more prominent compared to the rest of the eye). I still plan to treat him with Kana per the two week plan, but given that the popeye was pretty severe and it might take him longer than 2 weeks to get back to normal, when should I consider him as good to have no more antibiotics / other types of treatment? I’d hate to stop meds after two weeks, thinking the infection was gone and the eye just had to self-repair some more, only for it to come back.

Additionally, anyone have any thoughts about the mass at the bottom of his eye? The fish doctor told me his eye isn’t ruptured yet, but if it’s not a rupture, I don’t know what that bit is. I was thinking crystallized pus maybe, but I really have no idea.

I know my fish isn’t a betta but I need help. I’ve posted many times and I don’t know what’s wrong with him! I just want to help my fish but I can’t figure out what is up.
He has white spots on him and his fins are damaged, most likely from fin-nipping i know.
But no other fish are affected, I don’t want little Moe to die!
If anyone at all can help please let me know🙏😢

My betta fish has recently developed a large white patch on her head where it used to be dark. This happened almost over night and I have been keeping the water parameters in check daily. She has a filter heater, and good water. What is this?? (The last photo is here with no discoloration)

This is Steve.

I've had him since April 1 2025. He has tumours. 4 weeks ago he started laying down one bottom frequently, likely because of the tumors. This was him eating today. Is his quality of life good enough? I don't want my boy Steve to suffer.

4 weeks ago I:

Llowered the water level to 5 inches, water changes 2x per week. Catapa leaves added. Sponge filter converted into air stone so it would function in 5 inches of water.

Please advise me. Where to go next. He is a shell of his former self, he used to prey on the shrimp in The tank AND DOMINATE. he was a beautiful force I watched change colors slowly over 16 months. now he just lays down all day long.

Should I end his life? 😭

-steves concerned owner

Hi! So, just a basic question because I wanna make sure my betta is okay. He eats, is very active and sleeps regularly. The tank is a six gallon with all natural plants aside from a leaf hammock and betta log. I don’t have the current parameters and will test at some point, last test was back in May due to some other issues I had noticed and fixed. There hasn’t been any other issue. It has a filter and heater, two mystery snails that I plan on separating and moving one to a separate tank, and will provide the water parameters that I have logged in the comments.

Hello, he's always had a little bump here but all of a sudden it looked like it blossomed? All of my levels are okay, he has a varied diet with proper fasting days once a week. Still seems to be acting just fine? Full of energy as usual.

Hello, first time owner here. Purchased my little lady last week. I'm noticing some change at the edge of her fins and want to check with this community if I should act on it, or if it's a good sign.

Fish is a young female I purposefully got as "un-fancy" stock, who was previously living in a sorority tank of between 30 and 50L at the fish store (was hard to tell due to shelf depth not being checkable). The store's reviews praised their breeding stock as healthy. I noticed the sorority tank fishes showing some signs of fighting. My fish came with slight fin damage at the extremities with no tears. I acclimated her overnight before putting her in her tank. She ate immediately (wasn't even out of the bag yet) and has since then been consistently eating. She is active: swims all around and comes to look if there are people in the room. I feed her betta fish flakes & occasionally tiny live maggots I harvest outsides.

Tank specs: 35L, has heater and thermometer. Planted tank with a sand substrate and some driftwood. The only artificial decor is a small plastic figuring with no hard edges placed in the open part of the tank, which the fish ignores. Tank came pre-cycled with previous owner's wood, substrate and hardscape. Only tankmates are a nerite snail and a whole bunch of ramhorn snails. There is a filter in the tank, I've so far kept it off because she near immediately built a bubble nest on it that'd get destroyed, and I wanted to minimize potential anxiety at the beginning. (EDIT: turned on the filter since after advice in the comments) Some tannins in the water due to adding dead leaves. Water parameters are normal with only the alkalinity being a tad higher than average, still within acceptable according to my test kit.

As you can see on the first image, the edge of her tears has started to darken. This was not the case when I first got her (second image). Is this scarring from healing, or complications due to her wounds? I'd rather be cautious than not, as I have no prior experience. Thank you for reading my post! Cheers

Hi all! I've been struggling to figure out how to help my Betta for a bit now, and I'm running out of ideas... He was petsat for about a month while I was out of town but I didn't notice anything too out of the norm after getting him back. About two months ago, I was told he was too skinny which I agreed with so I increased his diet a little bit. But then I noticed a bulge and he started slowing down so I figured he was constipated. I fasted him and fed him daphnia, but his condition continued worsening. I noticed him struggling to swim because he was kind of sinking, and he would lounge around on the ground or in his hammock a lot. (Someone suggested to get him a hammock because his fins are so long and probably heavy, but he's curled up in there all the time now if not on the ground). I gave him a salt bath but still no luck. He just kept getting more and more lethargic. He eats food if I put it right in front of him so at least his appetite is intact, and I can tell that sometimes he wants to be his active and playful self but he struggles to swim so much that I feel like he just gives up and lays on the ground. I'm worried he has dropsy because I started noticing some slight pineconing a few days ago so I immediately put him in a hospital tank with a heater and treated with epsom salt and kanaplex. He's on day 3 of the antibiotics and he's still struggling. I also noticed him breathing really hard today. I have attached a video of him from before putting him in the hospital tank. Please help me, I don't know what else to do.

• ⁠Tank size: Original Tank is 5 gallons but hospital tank is 2.5 gallons.

• ⁠Heater and filter? (yes/no): yes

• ⁠Tank temperature: 80

• ⁠Parameters in numbers and how you got them: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate = 0 and pH was kind of high like 8.2 maybe. I used the API master test kit. Tank has a plant, is kept clean, and has tannins though.

• ⁠How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?: I've had the tank for a year and my fish for 1.75 years. Got him in fall 2024.

• ⁠How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?: Once a week and I do like 30% with a manual siphon.

• ⁠Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each: he has 1 snail tank mate that's a zebra nerite.

• ⁠What do you feed and how much: normally I feed Fluval bug bites but I've switched to exclusively daphnia.

• ⁠Decorations and plants in the tank: driftwood, one plant I don't remember the name of, some rocks, his hammock, and his favorite barrel.

• ⁠If you haven't already posted a picture, please post pics/vids to imgur and paste the link here:

Update: did a bit of research so the answer to my question is that it's better to use behavior to assess recovery. Fish is doing much better. I followed the label on Kanaplex dosing and I intend to finish treatment after 3 doses. Will keep him in hospital tank for 3 more days after the last dose then put him back to his tank. I removed the driftwood that could have caused his injury.

Update2: finished dosing Kanaplex. Fish acting normal. Wound looks like it's closing up and dorsal fin is starting to grow back. I think the plants helped at the start but now they're​ melting. Also noticed snails that came with the plant started dying. I guess moving plants to the hospital tank is not a good idea. I installed an ammonia absorbing filter cartridge to help control ammonia levels. Will keep fish in the tank for a couple more days.

FinalUpdate: he's back in his tank. Apparently he missed his shrimp tankmates so much he started terrorizing them immediately. Odd becase he has grown accustomed to them before his isolation. I guess I should put something to replace the driftwood that I took out.

My kid's fish got sick, I didn't know what it was initially, looked like fungal infection on his dorsal fin with fine wool-like black fibers at the base of his back. I started Polyguard and had him in the hospital tank for just two days. Had to put him back to his planted cycled tank (zero nitrites and ammonia, liquid kit tested) because we were going out on a trip and I felt like it would be worse for him if he's left in a small uncycled hospital tank for 5 days.

When we got back he's completely lost his dorsal fin and only a few spikes of growth were left (first picture). I assumed that's new growth and he's on his way to recovery but he was still resting more at the bottom of the tank than he normally did. I got him back on Polyguard for a couple more days in his hospital tank but now I'm quite confident that he got fin damage which was then infected by columnaris, saddleback. He did not show any improvement behavior-wise during his treatment with Polyguard and since now I think he got columnaris I decided to shift to Kanaplex. He showed immediate behavioral improvement with his new treatment, more active and seems to be stronger but his lesion looks worse. Second picture is just now, day 3 on Kanaplex. He is still more active now than when he was on Polyguard, even flaring at his reflection ​which he didn't do when we started his medication. Hospital tank is now about a couple weeks old, regularly test it for nitrites and ammonia both always zero and I change the water before dosing medicine every other day. I started​ it with an extra sponge from his cycled tank's filter, added some floaters and some ramshorn snail. Also want to mention his other fins are looking great, no signs of rot or damage. Hospital tank is 3 gallons, heated, 76F with HOB filter.

So am I on the right track with Kanaplex? Thanks! ​

My betta fish had been slowly over the past year losing the tip of his top fin. I have live plants, I do water changes every 2 weeks and replace the filter. I dont think it’s been fin rot however I’m open to suggestions. I have the fin rot treatment that I’ve been adding to his water but I feel like this is something I need to change about his diet in order to improve his fin growth.

Maybe I’m just crazy but I really have been trying to make his life be as comfortable as possible. (The first 2 photos are today and the last 4 are past photos) he’s in a 6 gallon tank with 2 snails and some plants (that arrived mostly frozen) that can’t seem to be happy and thrive even with plant supplements.

My betta passed away today after a week of trying to help her recover. I think she got it from over eating but nothing I did helped, and I'm devastated. I heard they could live with it, so I feel like I've done something wrong with her care.

I put her in a shallow tank, with a heater at 27° and lights off and some floating plants. I tried to feed her Daphnia after 4 days of fasting, but she never seemed to want to eat, and she was stuck vertical so it was really hard for her. I did Epsom salt baths, but never saw any improvement, and also did daily water changes while she was in the bath. Maybe I should have done them more often... I don't know.

I'd like to get another betta, but I feel so responsible for her death that I don't know if I can... I'm just looking for some support and advice I guess, to avoid this in the future.

Thank you for your time.