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One of my male bettas fins seem to be... disintegrating I guess is the best word. It's like bits are falling off when he touches anything. I noticed it today when I caught him in a cup for the weekly water change. I use Amquel and weekly 100% water changes to keep the water good and all of my other bettas are super healthy and active, but he seems listless lately and would only take a little food today. Also, he is one of my older bettas- he's very large, so I figure he's well over a year old, maybe even two according to what the shop told me about his age.

Any ideas as to what my problem is?

Is it simply his fin? Does his body seem to be suffering or showing symptoms of any kind? Any lesions?

Last edited by dreamweaver8891 at 03-Oct-2004 08:47

To thine own self be true...

no lesions, but he does seem to be losing color. I've had other bettas who were perfectly healthy lose color as well, so I didn't really think too much of it.

treat it as bacterial, sounds like its just dying further up and falling off.

any red dots on the tips or slight discolouration just above where its falling?

Suggest something like JFE.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I'd definitely go with Callatya's suggestion --- She really knows her stuff!

I am curious though.... You say that you've had perfectly healthy Bettas lose their color... I've never experienced this - in fact, I've experienced the reverse... Where a Betta starts out drab and ends up being some magnificent color or even starts out a good color which deepens into a rich one! Hmm... I suppose this color business could go the other way as well.... But I wonder why........ ????

To thine own self be true...

I've had a few bleach out recently, and i'd bet its our water quality, our dams are low, so they are beefing up the chemicals to compensate. Knocking the fish stupid.

Stress will cause bleaching, so just being a bit sick would do it (tho, not to completely white)

hatever it is, it sounds aggressive. i've only had 2 cases of tails actually falling off so i'd find recognisable pieces of tail in the bowl, and both looked very bacterial and responded OK to treatment (i ended up having to apply stuff topically, but see how you go.)


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Well, I can't tell if his fin tips are red from irritation because that's what color they are.

And what i meant by losing color is that the fish's body gets paler as they grow older- it's happening to my red CT boy and it happened to my purple VT when he was growing up.

Wha's happening to this boy is the bits of his tail that are red (his coloration was what the store called "patriot"- his front was pale almost white and went to irridescent blue and the back half of his tail and fins was red) are falling off. I've never seen this happen to a healthy fish before. Is melafix/bettafix the best thing to use here?

Well, thanks for your help everyone, but my little Arashi passed this afternoon.

CeltGirl: Aww I'm sorry to hear that.

Thanks. He was such a sweet little guy too. He was rescued from a large chain store months ago and he was already old then (he was already larger than my largest betta boy is) and really enjoyed getting out of that tiny cup and moving into a nice big glass bowl with a silk plant. He was the most laid back fish I've ever had- all the others literally jump to get their food on frozen food day, he waited patiently until I actually put the food in the water before tearing the bloodworms to pieces. He will be missed.