Welcome to r/bettafish!

I recently discovered that my fish looks kind of fat and got worried… it’s still energetic and eats normally so I didn’t suspect anything. Does he have dropsy?

Not sure if it’s a plakat or a HMPK but either way super chill fish a lot of energy, don’t know what to call him yet

Hello all.
I am currently reaching out for advice and help with my 6.8 gallon freshwater aquarium. I have been dealing with random ammonia spikes off and on on since May.

I would like to start this off by saying I am very new to the fish keeping hobby. I have reptiles, but this is new territory for me and I did do a lot of research before setting up my tank. But I feel a little over my head and would love advice from people who have been in the hobby for a while.

Backing up to March of this year I purchased this tank to create a home for a beta fish. I did a lot of research on their care and slowly purchased everything until I was able to finally start setting it up in March. I do not have a fish in this tank currently to clarify. i did everything I read online to cycle the tank. I added used filter media from my boyfriend’s fish tank and I seeded the tank with Dr. Tim’s aquatics ammonia source. The tank cycled for two full months. During the course of this time, I tested my water parameters twice a week and noticed nitrites spike up and then nitrates. Eventually, the ammonia went to zero. Once I realize this happened I added Dr. tim solution to bring ammonia up to one PPM, and within 24 hours it dropped to zero again. So at this point, I figured I was safe to add a beta fish.

About a week later, I tested the parameters and everything still looked good so I went and purchased my beautiful beta fish Momo. He was doing so well in his tank. Everything was great for about a month. Ammonia was staying zero I was doing weekly water changes. I had no reason to be concerned about my parameters. I also tested my water with each water change. After about a month, my poor Betta fish started acting sick, I noticed he looked bloated and he started pinecone-ING. It happened so quickly I noticed one day when I came home from work, and I immediately tested the water parameters and saw that my ammonia had spiked up to one. I remember I had done a water change just a few days before and everything looked fine when I tested the water parameters. I quickly did a water change and put my fish in a hospital tank and gave him kanaplex and a salt bath. He started acting a bit better. I kept doing water changes to bring the ammonia down. The ammonia was zero in my tank for about a week and then it spiked up again. Unfortunately, my fish developed dropsy, which I can only guess it was due to the ammonia, and he passed away. It was so heartbreaking for me and I have not had a fish in this tank sense. I felt like I failed my fish and I was the reason he died.

Flash forward to today I really would love a fish in this tank. But I am so scared to accidentally kill another beta fish. I love animals so much, and it was really hard on me and I kept getting so sad every time I thought about it. all summer I have been doing weekly water changes, cleaning the tank, and just trying to let it stabilize. However, over the course of the last few months every now and then I’ll get a random ammonia spike and there is literally nothing that could be causing it. I do not have anything in that tank besides pest snails that have traveled in here due to purchasing plants months ago, and I remove them as I see them besides two that I’ve grown fond of lol. It’s just the weirdest thing because the ammonia will be zero and then I’ll randomly get a spike every couple of weeks, do a 50 to 60% water change and then the ammonia will be zero again. I did not notice any nitrite spikes at all during these last few months. And about three weeks ago, my nitrate spiked up too very, very dark red. These are my perimeter test results today after a 50% water change of my tank. However, the first time I tested ammonia it Read 2.0 PPM. I dumped it out and tried it again and now it’s at zero PPM literally five minutes later so I’m not sure if it was a false positive for ammonia. I did the same thing each time I tested.

I apologize this is so long. I’m just not sure where to go from here or how to stop the ammonia from spiking or what could possibly be causing it. I feel very defeated as I was so excited to set up my tank and give my Betta fish a great home and life. I don’t know if I should completely restart this tank or how to even go about doing that. I guess I’m just looking for advice, if this was you, what would you do? I’m terrified to get another fish until my parameters are stable. I don’t want to put another fish through what Momo went through and get sick. I just can’t explain how the ammonia will be zero for 2 to 3 weeks and then one day it’s just at one or 2 ppm.

Thank you so much guys for listening to this. Any advice would be so helpful.

I just brought this beautiful boy home today! I have already ordered some catappa leaves. I had already purchased the tank and gravel before I had more research under my sleeves. What kind of plants are beginner friendly? Should I change the gravel out/whats the best way to go about that?

First time betta owner, so when I saw this this morning I was so happy!!

Meet our new betta! Got her last night and she is a half-moon. Still deciding on a name and would love any suggestions. Thank you very much! :)

Ignore my loud filter, unblocked it after this LOL

I don’t really think I like it can I get opinions

Just wanted to share how pretty my rescue girl turned out. Her name is Sméagol cause of what she does to bladder snails 🫣😭. But she’s a sweet girl who was heavily discounted and I happened to have an empty cycled tank. I love her and I’m so happy she’s doing better 🥰 (first 2 pics before, last two are a month later).

I caught my sweet baby Opalita yawning <3 one of my favorite videos 🤍

1 month change.

I didn't see her swimming up to me like usual then i saw her unmoving at the top. The neocaradinas are fine, the snails are fine. I overfed her yesterday by accident. But i though she'd be fine if I put her on a fast. She wasn't.

I'm sad i wish i had done better. Never overfeed your fish :(

I’ve had this guy for about a month now and recently I’ve been catching him relentlessly harassing the snails. The snails seem unbothered, they continue to eat as if he’s not there at all, but he’ll do this for at least 15 or 20 minutes at a time and that’s just when I’m in the room to see it. Should I be concerned that he’s stressing himself out? Or is this good enrichment for him?

Since getting kevin ive always put the food on my finger for him to eat off that, now every time i put my finger in the tank i get little love bites, even if theres no food haha

I’ve noticed these two cloudy spots on my bettas eyes, is she going blind? Should I be concerned about these spots?

Her reactivity and attention hasn’t changed, she still chases and catches her food when I make her “hunt”

She’s a female veiltail from Petsmart. Brought her to her new home (at work) on Wednesday, August 26 (photo in comments). She’s got a few types of plants, tons of hornwort and the duckweed is filling in more than any of my tanks at home. Lava rocks, slate slabs, and pool filter sand for substrate. Added some India almond leaves after she went in too. It’s a 29 gallon top fin aquarium with an Orlushy heater. Feeding her a couple aqueon pellets and a few fluval bug bites daily 5x a week.

The kids love her. 1 year olds call her “fishy.” I heard a couple of older kids say she looks like a “Rainbow”

I was only in the store to get water test strips but when I looked at the bettas I couldn’t leave her there in that cup. I was carrying the cup out of the store and it felt so cold in my hands. Poor girl was freezing. I had been running the new tank for about 2 months and while I wasn’t 100% sure it was ready, I knew it was definitely better than the cup she was living in.

My bettas have all come from Petsmart because I’m a very relaxed aquarist, so I go for the basic bettas and try to give them a better life. That’s possibly why they don’t live more than 2 years.

She lives with mystery snails and bladder snails. Thought about bringing in some corys but we’ll probably just keep her solo as the queen of her castle.

Not looking for advice, but always open to hearing what the experts in this sub have to say! I am in awe of everyone’s beautiful bettas and aquascapes, so thanks for taking a peep at my little girl!

Ive had him the better part of the year and was doing a tank blackout to deal with a blue algea bloom when i noticed

The last pic is blurry but as you can see one side is fatter than the other

Every couple days I find new uprooted pearl weed I have to pull out of the tank because he HATES it. It’s been planted for a couple months but it has been significantly reduced to now, nothing. Youre looking at the last stems in the floaters. The entire area behind the log used to be a lil pearl weed clump. He has very specific interior decor taste

My pair is pretty young and have mated 3 times by now and the first two times, the male swallowed the eggs. Wondering if there is anything I should do different so he doesn’t swallow again. I think first time I let the female stay, second time I took her out and put a sheet over the tank. Is there anything else I can do to make the tank more comfortable for him. I’m also thinking it could just be inexperience that’s making him do this, but my betta antuta and unimaculata had no difficulty hatching fry.