Male Betta Color Change?

[mystichorseangel]

I have a masked blue Crowntail male Betta. However I just noticed his normally rich colors have become very pale and he has some distinct black horizontal stripes down his sides. He is the only betta I own, and I have owned bettas my whole life, and have never seen this before, but I do know females display vertical stripes when ready to breed, but not males..?

 

[Wildbetta]

The paling of his color and the horizontal stripes indicate high stress.  Anything changed with the tank recently?

 

[mystichorseangel]

I just added some water to his tank that's may be the reason. However he at first was swimming around and darting around his tank and now he is just laying in the corner and swimming minimally.

Oh, and I do remember out of nowhere something freaked him out and caused him to start flaring at the back wall of his tank, however nothing was there and I couldn't figure out what it was.

 

[mystichorseangel]

Update: He has since calmed down and is doing much better. I don't know what spooked him, but at least everything is back to normal

 

[l_l_l]

maybe he saw one of his betta ghost mates

 

[BettaFishCrazy]

If you could post a picture of him here, I'm sure a lot of us could help out with a diagnosis.

 

[betta fish]

Hi it sounds as if the water you placed into the tank was vastly different to the water within the tank, most likely the temperature, the stress on the fish would be more pronounced if the fish is in a small tank as opposed to a bigger one as the change would be more sudden, what size tank is the betta in? and what temperature do you keep him at? also do you dechlor the water? it is best especially in smaller tanks to make sure the water being replaced is at more or less the same temperature as the water the fish is in.