Age Of A Betta

[smallpond]

Well I guess I am going to come out of lurkdom to ask a couple of questions. First, how old are the bettas in petsmart? How long do bettas live and are there ways to tell age? Oscar is a crown tail and the long tassly parts (am I making sense?) look like they are getting knotted up and his tail is getting shorter. He doesn't have the same nice tail he had when I got him. Is that maybe a sign of age? I love my little boys and Felix is starting to look like that too, I don't want to lose them.

 

[HODDY]

when the tail sticks together its normaly a sign of bad water quality and the loss of fin may be fin rot.Check your water stats and see if they are ok.What tank is he in and has it got a filter?

 

[Jaded12]

Bettas can live up to 7 years, but the average in home aquaria is around 3 years. Petstore male bettas are generally about a year old, but not always. I've seen a male about 5 months old at a petco once and seen females that couldn't have been older then 4 months. How long have you had them?? if its been a year or more chances are they're around 2 years old. The curling fins can be a sign of old age, but it can also be a sign of poor water quality, check your water stats. Are they active boys? when a betta is starting to suffer from old age they tend to get more lethargic, lay around more etc. Hope I helped a bit

 

[smallpond]

How long have you had them??

I have had them for about 4 months now. But I have no idea how long they were at petsmart. They are active little guys, always out and about, if you come near them they come out and do the little food dance for you I just put in some little underwater hidy-holes and they seem to like them.

Check your water stats and see if they are ok.What tank is he in and has it got a filter?

They are in a 10 gallon tank with a divider so they each have 5 or so gallons to swim in. I would have gotten them their own tanks but I don't have that much room. The filter came with the aquarium, its by AquaFin and is for a 10 gallon tank, nothing fancy.

I did about a 60% water change on Sunday and their water stats are Nitrate- 20ppm Nitrite- 0 and pH- is about 7.8 I am new to water stats and this is the first time I have ever checked them. I'm not a bad mommy I promise I am just still getting used to bettas, all my other fish were goldfish back when I was a kid and they only lasted about a month. I have been thinking about taking the gravel out of the tank and going bare bottom, does that make it easier to manage the water quality?

I don't think it is fin rot because my friend had a fish with that and they don't look like that at all. They are just curling up, not all at once but from what you guys have said it is probably water quality. What are normal water stats for bettas and how do you get them. I am on a well so I don't have to worry about chlorine but what kinds of conditioners would you reccomend to stabilize the water. Thanks!

 

[liz2]

Some of my old boys have curled up rays. Do you let them flare as this exercises their little fins...also sun bathing is good but this is difficult to do in a big tank....

 

[smallpond]

Do you let them flare as this exercises their little fins...also sun bathing is good but this is difficult to do in a big tank....

They flare it eachother everynow and then but maybe I should get a mirror for a bit more regular exercise. How do you do sunbathing?

 

[knt5005]

If you need water stats: www.Bettatalk.com

Faith is a betta guru in my book. Any questions I've had I was able to find the answers there.