How do bettas change when they get older?

[VulcanNinja]

I don't know how old my Betta is, but he has gotten noticably bigger in the past few months. His eating habits have changed a bit also. He doesn't eat as much at first. He used to take a few bites of bloodworms, and lately he's only taking one. Like I said he is bigger, bulkier, and he just looks old. He isn't unhealthy though, he acts the same as usual...maybe a little slower, and hangs out in the corner of the tank once in a while, which he never used to do.

So....is this all normal or should I be planning for the worst??

 

[ral]

How old is he?

 

[VulcanNinja]

Ral I don't know. I got him at Petco about 6 months ago.

 

[yeeviabetta]

How old is he?

He or she already mentioned that don't know how old. LOL
Is the tail fin are too long? Sometime betta have a tendency being lazy after caring his own weight like long tail.
I trim my betta especially the tail are long an heavys.
I mean I select the good male that want to breed.
They started to act active agian like when they were young and wanted to breed.
Below is the a betta been trimmed twice in my hand. He growth back very pretty. He is a HM. A got him as a freebie in bad shape. Broken tail and want to died. Old?
I got him since early september. And he been breeding for 3 batches. He is still capable to breed and he is a good father. I let him takecares the babies for 10 days. I am getting a great hm steel female and breed with him again in january.

 

[ral]

Sorry, missed that one. Iwa informed that Betta's are usually 4-8 months old when sold, so he should not be too old yet. And since he may has grown I guess he was fairly young when you got him.

One bloodworm does not seem like enough. Mine eat 5 per meal, and 6-7 for the larger Plakats.

Do you feed him things other than bloodworms? Maybe try a change in diet? See if he likes that better. One of my Betta's did not eat bloodworms one night but gobbled up Hikari bio good pellets fast enough

 

[mlaugh]

Below is the a betta been trimmed twice in my hand. He growth back very pretty.

Er...you cut your betta's tail, or am I missing something here?

 

[lovebuzz]

Theres really nothing wrong with cutting the tail, I think. Humans have bred bettas to have these huge tails on them, kind of unnatural when you compare to the plakat and he's only making it easier on the betta by cutting it.

 

[bkk_group]

ahhhh, yeeviabetta, you are like a breath of fresh air in this "old" betta forum tail trimming should fire people up...one way or another..i think

 

[zelandonia]

Maybe tail trimming should be started as a new thread (one that will likely get closed ) so that we don't hijack VulcanNinja's thread.

VN, I am looking after Bettacrazy's Betta right now and he is at least 3 years old. He is HUGE!! Anyway, he tends to hang out at the bottom more than my younger bettas and he seems a little more thoughtful about eating his food than the young'uns who just suck it down before even looking at it! Your description sounds similar to Boo. Maybe someone brought a betta in to Petco that they couldn't keep anymore and Petco sold you an older Betta? As long as he looks happy and healthy and is eating then you probably don't have too much to worry about. Perhaps you could put his tank near another Betta's tank to give him some stimulation. Or else you your show him a mirror for a minute to make him flare at himself and perk him up. My Bettas always swim around all excited after they see the mirror. Do you have a recent picture you could post?

z.

 

[yeeviabetta]

Wou wou wou! I didn't say I cut the fish tail. hahaha I said I trimmed the fish tail. CUT and TRIM is totally different thing. Cut off is not going to growth back but trimming will go back! Hehehe So far, I have trimmed four bettas in my hand. LOL The females broke the male tail by biting them while mating. Yes, I got two silly red females thats bite and don't want to lay eggs. Don't care how many males you pair them up and they will bite their tail off bad. Something is wrong with the females.
Yes, you can see the above picture that the lacy part is grown back after trimming. He is pretty bad when I got him. Long and broken tail. I saw him bite his own tail because it is too long and heavy. Hard to swim so I get a small scissor and trimmed it. After trimming, he just feels like
. After three weeks, he is look like above picture.

 

[VulcanNinja]

Z,

Thanks for the advice. I think he is ok, but I really don't stimulate him at all, maybe I should start to do that. (By the way, he's the one in the 10 gallon in my sig). I don't have any pics, and I'm actually not home for Christmas, so I can't post a pic yet. (Don't have a digi camera anyway)

When I say he looks big, it's true he has gotten bigger, but the front part of his body looks bigger than the rest. Like he has a big head!

I don't think I'll be trimming my Betta's tail, yeev. How do you get them to stay still?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Wouldn't trimming his tail hurt? Or am I a twit? Don't answer that.

 

[ral]

When I say he looks big, it's true he has gotten bigger, but the front part of his body looks bigger than the rest. Like he has a big head!

Was doing some reading and bloating and loss of appetite are mentioned as indications of dropsy (gulp).

"swollen bloated body with protruding scales, clamped fins, lethargic,
loss of appetite"

http/www.nazarenenexus.com/betta_ed/betta_m_d.htm

But best wait for one of the experts. Am just a newbie.

 

[SRC]

What tail type betta is this..Veil?

I have a crown that is a really big, thick body type. He is really big in the facial area and upper torso. He looks like a weight lifter betta lol, very strong looking imo.

Who knows how old a retail store betta really is? I have seen the same fish sit on a shelf at Wal-mart for months before it finallly "dissapeared".

I say try to visual stimulation and see if that doesn't perk him up a bit...He may just be bored....but then again I have a betta that likes to lay on the bottom of the tank for one reason or another (I haven't figured out the reason yet though lol..but it's not sickness), so maybe yours and mine are alike..and are just rather lazy boys lol.

 

[VulcanNinja]

Thanks, ral, but I hope not. It seems that that type of thing is deadly. But he is still eating, just not as much. And I can't check him out until Monday.

Merry Christmas all.