Betta Going Downhill..

[catxx]

my poor little yoshi over the last few days has got sadder and sadder with no obvious symptoms except wobbly swimming, stress stripes and slightly clamped fins. however, he's not bloated at all, and not skinny either, and ate pea this morning, had a water change on monday and tankmates (4 habrosus corys & 2 amano shrimp) are absolutely fine. his fins are fine and not tatty, like i said no bloating or skinnyness, no real external symptoms. i can't tell if he poops because it would disappear into the filter or probably pulled apart by the shrimp.

any ideas???

 

[blue_betta]

my poor little yoshi over the last few days has got sadder and sadder with no obvious symptoms except wobbly swimming, stress stripes and slightly clamped fins. however, he's not bloated at all, and not skinny either, and ate pea this morning, had a water change on monday and tankmates (4 habrosus corys & 2 amano shrimp) are absolutely fine. his fins are fine and not tatty, like i said no bloating or skinnyness, no real external symptoms. i can't tell if he poops because it would disappear into the filter or probably pulled apart by the shrimp.

any ideas???

is he in a heated tank? sounds like hes cold to me.. mabey.

 

[catxx]

heated & filtered, been running for several years.

edit: just had a look, it's at a steady 75-76

 

[WILDER]

Clamped fins are a sign of stress and desease.
Perk him up with some frozen foods.
What are your water stats.

 

[blue_betta]

hmm... only time i see males like that is when they have arrived thru the post.. of if i switch the tank light on in the dark.. when the males are alseep.. odd...

is he old?

 

[catxx]

i'd love to test that but all my test kits have expired the nearest lfs is either a 25 min tube ride away, or 25 min drive away, through london traffic
all of them get weekly water changes, never missed a water change
and if it was water stats, surely the other fish and shrimp would be showing signs? they're still active and eating (yoshi still eats)

he could be old, all my bettas are pet store bought (yoshi was a freebie) so ages are just a guess. one of my others, de niro, is emaciated looking but active and pooping fine in every other way, so i've put his condition down to old age.

i did a water test with a quick strip (i know i know, they're rubbish, i keep meaning to buy an API Test Kit but haven't quite got round to go get it) and everything is normal there, under 20ppm nitrate, no nitrite, usual pH and hardness. i've turned down the filter current (and that kicked up all sorts of yuck..eww) and he came swimming to the top to see whats up, but it was more wiggly swimming with slight panic in the eyes than regular swimming.

 

[blue_betta]

i'd love to test that but all my test kits have expired the nearest lfs is either a 25 min tube ride away, or 25 min drive away, through london traffic
all of them get weekly water changes, never missed a water change
and if it was water stats, surely the other fish and shrimp would be showing signs? they're still active and eating (yoshi still eats)

he could be old, all my bettas are pet store bought (yoshi was a freebie) so ages are just a guess. one of my others, de niro, is emaciated looking but active and pooping fine in every other way, so i've put his condition down to old age.

yor average petshop betta is around a year old when you get them, and their average lifespan (in total) is 2-3 years.

 

[catxx]

i'd love to test that but all my test kits have expired the nearest lfs is either a 25 min tube ride away, or 25 min drive away, through london traffic
all of them get weekly water changes, never missed a water change
and if it was water stats, surely the other fish and shrimp would be showing signs? they're still active and eating (yoshi still eats)

he could be old, all my bettas are pet store bought (yoshi was a freebie) so ages are just a guess. one of my others, de niro, is emaciated looking but active and pooping fine in every other way, so i've put his condition down to old age.

yor average petshop betta is around a year old when you get them, and their average lifespan (in total) is 2-3 years.

yep i knew that. all my boys average around 2 years old. my oldest at 3 1/2-4 died a couple of months ago.

 

[liz2]

Bless. it sounds like you are doing all you can. At least he has been happy with you. I shouldn't worry. One of my new cts is swimming a bit wobbly but he is sort of roach backed if you know what I mean...Hope he perks up

 

[WILDER]

I would just change some of his water just to be on the safe side with not having your water stats.

 

[Minni3]

I would raise his tank temp to 80*F (30*C)

Maybe move the shrimp if they are stressing him out.

What a strange case this is lol

 

[Bubblenester]

Old age is definitely a possibility. Have you checked for velvet? If you shine a flashlight on him, it looks like gold dust. That causes clamped fins and general distress and is sometimes really hard to notice without shining a light on the fish.

 

[monica]

This happened to my PK Galileo, and eventually he died (not to put you down) but there were never any obvious symptoms. He just got the stress stripes. Early in this 'ilness' complete water changes helped a lot, aswell as warmer water.

Then I had this with a CT of mine, but he ended up having cotton wool, so check for any cottony patches.

 

[catxx]

he seemed to perk up, but now he's back to being miserable and i think the corys are nibbling his fins in the night. pondering tank-chess to get him into a tank on his own so i can treat him properly. will try the flashlight and see if it's velvet, his eyes still look fairly bright and he's still got enough energy to wiggle to the top at dinner time. ho hum!