Signs Of Old Age / Impending Death

[Taridan]

Well, George is almost 4 years old, bought from a LFS (Don't remember if It was walmart or a diff one) and he's living in a 10 US gallon tank with a Mystery snail, Java moss, silk plant, piece of Bogwood, and a heater and filter with Current killer on it. He's been in there for about two months now, and just lately he's started slowing down... his color had already started to fade, going from a vibrant blue-red to a pale pink body with blue on random scales, and his fins are a really light red... Although, up until yesterday he still looked heathly. I did a 50% water change on friday, and he was fine yesterday, but this morning he looked like he was moving sluggishly... usually, when I cut on his light he'll dart to the top looking for food, today i had to move my finger on the glass and get him to follow it up to the surface. His reactions seemed slower as well. Water temp is steady between 78-80 F everything else stat wise is okay...

I guess I was just wondering how old your fish have gotten, and if any of them acted well... old, before dying? He's never acted his age before, and it seemed like last night / this AM he's gone downhill.

 

[liz2]

Wow, 4 years is excellent. Longest I have ever had one is 2 and a half. Sounds like he is just getting old. just TLC for you and the fish I think.

 

[ILM]

My very first betta (a veiltail) lived to be a little older than 4 years. And, yes, he seemed fine one day and then suddenly acted like an old geezer, propping himself in the weeds so he wouldn't have to swim much, just slow and not too active anymore. Most of my elderly fish have either developed tumors that eventually kill them (my current old guy, only about 2.5 years, has a tumor under his chin which is preventing him from eating normally, I try to hand feed him until he gets enough worms in his mouth to amount to a daily feeding but he works real real hard to be able to get a worm in his mouth) or they just keel over dead--one moment they are alive, I return from washing up so I can feed them and they're dead. You've done a marvelous job caring for him, BTW, plus he must have real good genes too. Just keep him clean and warm and feed him nutritious food, that's all you can do. Yesterday, I put him in a smaller tank in the middle of the girls' tank so he wouldn't need to dive so far to get to the bottom when he drops food but he can still be surrounded by the young girls that seem to keep him amused--he's happy. If you're good enough at math, you can probably do some equation (I'm lousy at math so I can't do it for you) to figure 2 years of life (betta) is to 70 years of life (human) and get a real rough estimate as to how long a week or a day is in betta years.