# Male beta not happy after 6 months



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hi Guys

This is my 3rd half moon male beta and all of them have same issue. After about 6 months they stat hiding in the container, sit on the bottom of it, stop eating and eventually dieing after 2-3 weeks of such a behavior. Any idea why ?


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## summ3r (Jul 23, 2006)

Sounds like he might be depressed. Is there aquarium salt in the tank? Is the tank big enough? Is it heated? What are you feeding him? Just the same old betta bites every day or does he get the occasional treat like blood worm? Is there enough going on in the tank to keep him active and interested?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

summ3r said:


> Sounds like he might be depressed. Is there aquarium salt in the tank? Is the tank big enough? Is it heated? What are you feeding him? Just the same old betta bites every day or does he get the occasional treat like blood worm? Is there enough going on in the tank to keep him active and interested?


He is actually in the 1/2 gl container with the plant in it. No other fish in it as he is a male beta and I don't think he is compatible with any other fish. No salt in it. But I do use special betta conditioner from seachem when I change the water.The temperature is a room temperature, no hitter he is in my son's room betide him two containers with female bettas that I pull out of my tank due to guppy aggression. They all get blood warms on the daily bases and water changes every week.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Too many blood worms, once a week not everyday. And 1/2 gal is really too small for a betta. Just because they have them in cups in the fish store, doesn't mean they are happy like that. Would you like to live your entire life in a closet?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ppaskova said:


> He is actually in the 1/2 gl container with the plant in it. No other fish in it as he is a male beta and I don't think he is compatible with any other fish. No salt in it. But I do use special betta conditioner from seachem when I change the water.The temperature is a room temperature, no hitter he is in my son's room betide him two containers with female bettas that I pull out of my tank due to guppy aggression. They all get blood warms on the daily bases and water changes every week.


They die because they are slowly being poisoned by their own wastes. Bettas are able to stand high amounts of ammonia for a long time, but they will still die from it eventually.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Well how big the idle male beta tank should be ? They sell in the store beta bowls same size as my container. I had bettas before in 1 gl tank, same result. I change water every week, so no ammonia. Regarding feeding, what to feed them with ? They don't want to take those betta boles and the only food they took is worms or regular flakes.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

They will learn to take regular flake eventually. 

Just cause the stores sell small bowls doesn't mean it's the best for them. They get to sell you a small bowl, then a bigger one and a bigger one....and if your fish dies, they get to sell you another, and another. Yeah, I'm cynical. The larger the tank, the more stable you can have it with partial water changes. Or are you doing massive water changes?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

OK. According to you I should get the large tank for him. So what is my choice I have spare 5 or 10Gl ones ? I guess I should buy 45Gl one for him it will be even better. The only problem is that he will get lost in it. Sorry but for 1 betta to get even 10Gl is little to much. Would you setup $50 system for $15 fish ????? I'll not sorry. It cheaper for me to keep him in the betta bowl and do 100% water changes every week (which takes me 5 min) than maintain full blown 10Gl system with gravel, plants, filter heater, etc... In such a tank I can (and I already do) 100 shrimps or 10+ baby guppies. Plus I already done so with 2.5Gl one with full blown setup and 30% weekly water changes. Male betta died at the end from ammonia anyway !


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

You don't have to be sarcastic, you asked a question, we gave some suggestions, you don't like the answers, that's up to you. Fish stores usually keep fish overstocked in tanks, but it doesn't mean that is the way you should keep them when you get them home.

My betta is in a 5.5gal, planted, with a filter. He also got really sick and I spent probably $40 in meds to save him, for a $9 fish. 

A week of feeding bloodworms everyday in a small bowl changing once a week with no filter will create ammonia spikes. As for your 2.5gal, if ammonia killed it, you clean your filter too much or something. A properly stocked and cycled tank and filter should never have ammonia, ever.

Reading over your posts, you have issues with guppies dying, other guppies dying, assassin snails dying, planaria in your shrimp tanks, maybe something is in your water or something if everything you are keeping is dying.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

getochkn said:


> You don't have to be sarcastic, you asked a question, we gave some suggestions, you don't like the answers, that's up to you. Fish stores usually keep fish overstocked in tanks, but it doesn't mean that is the way you should keep them when you get them home.
> 
> My betta is in a 5.5gal, planted, with a filter. He also got really sick and I spent probably $40 in meds to save him, for a $9 fish.
> 
> ...


I'm not sarcastic just a realistic. Let's put it that way. Today is father's day, right ? Do you know where it's coming from ? Yes for Hallmark greetings card company. They created it originally to make more money on the fish. same thing applies to the fish keeping business. @0 years ago, when I had my tank I had kept successfully over 50 guppies in the 5 gl tank and they wore multiplying to the extent that I use to put them to the near lake and they survived there. Today try to keep successfully 30Gappies in 30Gl tank (specially with other fish) for more than 1 year without loosing any ????

Yes I do have issues with my tank but not unusual or major ones. And specialty issue with planaria I had I got 1 good advice that I followed but but most of the forum guys criticized it because the medication that 100% legal in US some idiot decided to make illegal in Canada. I originally come from Russia and know for a fact that a lot of medication from Europe is illegal in Canada only for one reason because it cheaper less damaging and has better results. So Canadian companies will not stand the competition !!!!

The point I'm trying to make that if I'm asking the exact question I'M EXPECTING TO GET THE EXACT ANSWER. And if you are telling me that you never had issues with your tank you do not have any experience in keeping the fish !


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ppaskova said:


> Today try to keep successfully 30Gappies in 30Gl tank (specially with other fish) for more than 1 year without loosing any ????


I've kept 6 adult guppies, dozens of guppy fries, 29 cardinal tetras, 6 amano shrimps, and over 100 cherry shrimps for 18 months in a 20 gallon tank without losing any. Then I upgraded and put them all into a much bigger tank.



> The point I'm trying to make that if I'm asking the exact question I'M EXPECTING TO GET THE EXACT ANSWER. And if you are telling me that you never had issues with your tank you do not have any experience in keeping the fish !


The exact answer is that your bettas died of ammonia poisoning due to long term exposure.



> I change water every week, so no ammonia.


False. If you changed water every *DAY*, you would still have noticeable levels of ammonia in a container that small, with a fish that big.

Here's a question, did you ever *TEST* for ammonia levels?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

You are right. I think I'll give my bettas back to store as I got them for my son and now he does not care about them and I have 2 other tanks to maintain.
Regarding other stuff I use to have 6 rummy nose tetras, 6 neons, 3 cherry barbs, 4 guppies, 9 corries, 12 amanos and around 80 RCS and CRS in 10Gl tank very successfully for almost 2 years. But when I decided to move my fish to 30Gl tank and convert my 10Gl to Shrimps only tank I started to get problems with both tanks. Major ones wore parasites, Ick and planaria. Rest is incompatibility between different types of fish.


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

ppaskova said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> This is my 3rd half moon male beta and all of them have same issue. After about 6 months they stat hiding in the container, sit on the bottom of it, stop eating and eventually dieing after 2-3 weeks of such a behavior. Any idea why ?


Have you been purchasing the fish from the same store or retailer? It could be just poor stock. I have kept many male betta's. I have found that the small bowls and betta containers are useless. Realistically I would recommend a 2.5gal to 5.5 gal tank with a 40% water change on a weekly basis using a small submersible filter like the Fluval nano. A well planted tank will also go along way to fish health and happiness. For feeding i prefer using tetra bettaMin tropical medley and give bloodworm treats once a week sometimes 2 times a week. Keeping some small nerite snails in the tank will help keep any food waste to a min and will also help control any algae.


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## Jordin (Sep 14, 2011)

ppaskova said:


> OK. According to you I should get the large tank for him. So what is my choice I have spare 5 or 10Gl ones ? I guess I should buy 45Gl one for him it will be even better. The only problem is that he will get lost in it. Sorry but for 1 betta to get even 10Gl is little to much. Would you setup $50 system for $15 fish ????? I'll not sorry. It cheaper for me to keep him in the betta bowl and do 100% water changes every week (which takes me 5 min) than maintain full blown 10Gl system with gravel, plants, filter heater, etc... In such a tank I can (and I already do) 100 shrimps or 10+ baby guppies. Plus I already done so with 2.5Gl one with full blown setup and 30% weekly water changes. Male betta died at the end from ammonia anyway !


You're being quite dramatic here....

A full blown system? Tons of $$$? Let's get real here.

You're keeping the betta in a 1/2 gallon cup... Using the 5 gallon tank you have won't cost you anything and will be much healthier for the beta. (They cost like $15 new or heaper on Kijiji). Adding a cheap bubbler and heater from Walmart will do wonders for the health of your fish and will only cost a couple bucks.... You don't need gravel or a filter... Use marbles from the dollar store if you're that worried about cost, there are always super cheap/free alternatives...

Some people gave you some simple, easy and great tips so you're not killing your bettas as you've said they keep dieing and then you act like everyone told you to buy a high tech 100gallon reef setup with crazy lights....

Give me a break...


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

I actually have 5Gl full setup with heater, filter, gravel, etc... But I'm not going to keep 1 betta it 5 gl tank. In any case he just died and I'm returning remaining female bettas back to the store


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## belo (Sep 25, 2010)

If I were you, I would keep the male specially half moon betta in a 5 gallon well lit, well filtered , well heated and well planted tank. Believe me give it a try you will thank youself.

Every fish has a character so does betta. The colors you can see in such undemanding fish is out of question.

If you don't want to keep only 1 betta in 5 gallon you can divide the tank in 2 using tank dividers in this way you can actually keep them active and able to see them more often.

IMHO seeing a fish happy, healthy and thriving is one of the best feelings.

Betta's are very intelligent fish after a while they will recognize you and will also play tricks.

I feed my betta fish with small ramhorn snails, mosquito larva, flakes, blood worms , daphnia and shrimp babies. make sure you make them chase the food before feeding in that way they will show you their real colors and it will also keep them active.

I always keep anubias or bushy plants on which the betta can rest when they are feeling stressed or tired.

We are all friends on the forum and no one is trying to put anyone down, we all benefit from each other experience and suggestion.

Hope this helps.


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## Mlevi (Jan 28, 2012)

My experience with bettas:

I only have the one fan tail betta. I made sure it was "fresh stock", as in it had just arrived at the pet shop (lucky's), and wasn't already listless when i got it. I keep it in a 5 gal, with an 'AC mini/ AC20' filter with a baffle, and a heater set at 28C. I add an almond leaf (changed once a month). Water changes 40% every other week or sometimes every 3rd week (seachem prime for chlorine). Lights are on a timer for about a total of 6 hours of augmented light (daylight does reach the aquarium, and more than 6 results in algae buildup in that tank). I feed it primarily hikari betta gold (round pellets), with tetra bettamin as an alternate (flake food), and freeze dried blood worms once in a rare while. 

With bettas, from my research, you can't leave them in a room where there is no movement of people (for example, a room where one only enters in the evening etc). They have to be stimulated, else they get depressed. My tank is in my dining room which is the focal point of movement in the house, and i try to 'play' with it everyday - if I trail my fingers gently along the glass, it will follow. It does it for about 3 mins at a time, after which it will swim away. Also, at times...maybe twice a day, it will flare up by itself and aggressively swim end to end as if defending its territory. Some people say you have to use a mirror to show it its reflection so it can flare up, but I've never done that.

So far, its been 6 months, and it is doing well. This is my first time with bettas, so I can't say what is the 'right way' or 'wrong way'. Can only share what is working for me so far. Hope this helps...


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

Mine just passed away on Saturday. We had him for a few years and no idea on age when we got him, so he had a full life.


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