Not sure if my fish is old or sick

[Charlieloves]

I have had my male betta fish for a little over 2 years and I got him from the pet store. Lately he appears to be having problems swimming and sits on the bottom a lot and leans towards one side or he is commonly found resting on his plant near the surface. He has not really been eating too much, but does seem to appear more active when I go to his tank to feed him, and he will eat a couple of the small kibbles I feed him, but not what he used to normally eat. His fins are also not as beautiful as when I first got him, but I dont think he has any symptoms of fin rot, since his fins have looked this way for a while. This has all been going on for a little over a week, except his fins havent been as nice for at least a year. Any suggestions at what this could be?

 

[FishGuest5123]

Welcome! Are his eyes cloudy at all?

 

[Charlieloves]

No, they are not cloudy

 

[FishGuest5123]

He is probably 2.5 to 3 years old. Three is old for a betta in captivity as we don’t know what he went through in his early life. I had one that began declining at about 2 years old. His body began getting age spots of lighter color and his eyes began to get cataracts. His fins became more and more tattered as time progressed. He stayed on his favorite leaf most of the time but did still eat. In the end I had to feed him blood worms which I dangled in front of his face. Some on this forum disagree with this but at the suggestion of an aquatic research vet I gave him children’s liquid vitamins for about the last 6 months of his life. I do think it helped him some. Sadly, at about 34 months old he died in his sleep one night. When they get to this point all we can do is love them, give them good clean water, and help them to be as comfortable as possible. I believe mine knew I was as his friend. Good luck with yours.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Are your water parameters all good and do you perform weekly water changes and cleaning? Water changes should be about 75%.

 

[Charlieloves]

I try to change his water every week to every other week and his tank sits at room temperature, about 74F

 

[FishGuest5123]

His temp should be 80F. Water changes of 75% once a week are needed for bettas. I would do daily water changes of 75% for the next 2 weeks and see if he improves. It could just be a water quality issue. How big is his tank and is it filtered?

 

[Colin_T]

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and post the results (in numbers) here?

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of your water supply. This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

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Like Deanasue has recommended, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next couple of weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use it. If you have a filter that contains pads/ cartridges, wash these in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Feed the fish 3-5 times per day for a few weeks. Use dry, frozen (but defrosted) and live foods.

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Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
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