# Sitting at the top of the bowl - losing color in fins.



## laurenmarie (Sep 11, 2011)

I have a male crowntail betta fish. I've had him for 3-4 months now. He normally resides in a 5 gallon Fluval Chi with one snail. He has never shown any trouble until lately. A few days ago, he started getting a bit lethargic, I noticed he was sitting at the bottom of his tank and not moving much. His gils were not inflamed (I had another betta that died of ammonia poisoning, so this is the first thing I look for.) I noticed he began to be gasping for air. He would quickly swim to the top, almost jump out of the water and gasp for air, then swim back down to the bottom and continue to gasp. I did a 100% water change, I know this was silly of me I think I saw someone suggest it elsewhere, and after I put him back into the tank he continued to do the same thing. As the day went on he would barely move, leaning against the small castle like object I have in there. After a while he was just floating at an upward diagonal angle inside of the castle hardly moving. I moved the castle so I could make sure he was okay and he just floated to the bottom and stayed pretty static. At this point I was frantically reading online about what it could be. I settled on SBD because the symptoms seemed to fit. I moved him to a smaller bowl, with some of his water from the tank as well as new water with epsom salt in it. This morning was when I added the salt, he showed a minor improvement swimming sporadically around the bowl at times. However as the day ends he is just sitting at the top at a diagonal angle only moving his front fins. His gils don't seem inflamed, maybe a very small amount at most, but he is losing coloring in his fins at a very rapid rate.


I think I may be treating him for the wrong thing, can anyone help direct me in the correct direction? I do not want to lose another fish


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## laurenmarie (Sep 11, 2011)

He has now moved back to the bottom of the bowl. He is sort of laying on his side. He will swim up a bit every so often, and sometimes sit on the bottom normally. I'm not sure if this adds anything, but he is like sinking to the laying position and then swimming back up and sinking again slowly.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

Is you tank fully cycled and what is your water change schedule? And what conditioner do you use?

For swim bladder they do have issues swimming but I don't think they would be gasping for air like that - I am not sure what else has that as a sympthom but I know ammonia and nitrite poising do. Are there any LPS's that can do a water test for you? 

When you say he is floating diagonally, does he look stiff as a board? 



> *Symptoms:*
> 
> Fish gasp for breath at the water surface
> Purple or red gills
> ...





> Nitrite poisoning follows closely on the heels of ammonia as a major killer of aquarium fish. Just when you think you are home free after losing half your fish to ammonia poisoning, the nitrites rise and put your fish at risk again. Anytime ammonia levels are elevated, elevated nitrites will soon follow. To avoid nitrite poisoning, test when setting up a new tank, when adding new fish to established an tank, when the filter fails due to power or mechanical failure, and when medicating sick fish.
> *Symptoms:*
> 
> Fish gasp for breath at the water surface
> ...


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## laurenmarie (Sep 11, 2011)

I am pretty sure it was fully cycled. The ammonia levels had spiked and returned to zero before I put them in. That was about 4 months ago though. I have a testing kit and it is showing nitrate levels to be at zero or very get low levels. This is why I am reall unsure of what is wrong. I'm pretty sure he passed last night. He just laid on his side on the bottom not moving. I am at work though, so I am not sure of his condition.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

well, there went my theory. The reason I suggest ammonia/nitrite is because my 1st betta - he kind of acted the same as you described. I am not sure exactly what killed him but i think the nitrogen cycle was to blame. Some idiot at petco told me if I had a filter I never had to change the water :evil: Right before he died, he just floated diagonally and looked like his fins were stiff as a board. And his color faded to almost white with like greenish/blue and he was normally a red double tail. I couldnt find any disease that had his symptoms till someone suggested ammonia poisining. I am still not sure that was it, he never gasped for air or anything like that but I do think something in the water poisioned him and the next 3 bettas I had. They all died with the same symptoms.


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## laurenmarie (Sep 11, 2011)

Yeah, mine passed this morning. My other betta died of amonia posining, but that was when I was under educated on betta care and didn't pay attention to the water changing schedule. 

Mine makes no sense. His gills still were not too inflammed last night, all levels of nitrate and hardness were very low if any. He was losing color, but it was only half way down his tail to a translucent color. I could see through the lower half of him and his fins which was really odd as he was a blue betta with red crowntail. The scales near his head though were turning a silver color, but only a few. Then around 10pm last night he just floated to the bottom and layed down on his side and that is when I think he passed. I went to bed and made my mother take him, because I couldn't bear to see another dead betta fish as soon as I woke up. I have no idea what could have been wrong. The symptoms he is showing do not fit any one disease just a bunch. If anyone has any idea, let me know. I'd like to try and keep bettas at one point in the future, and want to make sure I do not make this mistake (however he died) again.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

Do you have a picture?

There is this mystery illness that seems to affect only blue bettas. It seems to start with the fins and then travels to the body but they all seems to turn like a rust color. It's like the body tissue died off and turned rusty and kills rather quickly. None of them turned transparent though

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=76747&highlight=mystery+disease


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

A mystery illness that only affects blue bettas? I've never heard of that before.


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