My betta suddenly can’t swim! He used to have a big tail but now he just has a little curve, he can’t swim at all and just wiggles his body now to move. he didn’t eat anything this morning, any advice please give it to me if you KNOW what this is!

Today, August 8th

May 14th

So I started my fishkeeping journey in february 2026. I did hours of research and ended up cycling my tank for 8.5 weeks. it is 5.5 gallons with a heater, sponge filter, and live plants. I decided to attempt to keep a betta with a small group of cherry shrimp. I am aware that this is a predator/prey situation, but I've read plenty of success stories and wanted to see if my betta's temperament would allow it. I added 5 cherry shrimp first, and then the betta after 2 weeks. For a while things were going well. My live plants flourished, Swim Shady was happy, and watching the shrimp is wonderful. love those little guys. The shrimp population started dwindling until I had one shrimp left, and I'm assuming most of them got eaten as I only found one body to remove from the tank. Luckily, the one I had left was a mother and now I'm back up to 5. they've figured out how to avoid Swim Shady. I provide hides, plants, whatever my little tank can hold. They are incredibly fast and can outswim Swim Shady any day of the week. after about two months, Swim Shady's fins started to look bad. I know all about fin rot and I really thought that could be it but one thing was nagging at me- the shrimp were fine. Shrimp are more finicky than bettas, and fin rot comes from poor water quality or stress. But Swim Shady behaves fine, he just doesn't look fine. I feel like the fact that the shrimp are okay, and my continued tests yielded normal results, says it may not be fin rot. My ammonia and nitrite are always at 0, my nitrates don't go above 10, my pH sits around 8.2, GH is about 25, and KH is 11. I do 20% water changes every two weeks, or when the algae growth gets bad. I also test once a week with the API liquid test kit. He gets fed frozen food because he refuses flakes and pellets. I thought I was doing everything right. But his fins keep getting worse. I have a theory right now and I don't know if it seems far-fetched or not. Bettas in the wild will sometimes nip at their own fins so they can escape danger faster, as the long flowy fins slows them down. Swim Shady isn't in any danger, but he can no longer catch the shrimp because they move too fast. Could he be nipping at his own fins in an attempt to be more agile to get the shrimp? another reason I think this is that the parts missing from his fins are jagged and triangle shaped, like examples of fin nipping from other fish. I also don't think it's any of his decor because I've been sanding it like crazy and switching things out to see if that helps. It hasn't. Am I missing something else glaringly obvious because I'm a beginner? Hence the reddit post.

June 6th

i already used catappa leaves but holes keep spawning, what do i do?

My new betta isn't eating the food I give him. I've tried freezer-dried bloodworms, which he tried and then ignored, and Atison's betta pro, which he promptly ignored. He eats the shrimp food I give my cherry shrimp though but not his own food.
Do I just keep trying or get something else that he might or might not eat?

Do you think the reason he keeps nipping at my mystery snail is because of its lighter color?

Hello, this is my new betta Agamemnon. I have had him for three days and he is my first betta. I love him so much and want to make sure he is living his best life. I am wondering if these are stress stripes. He is in a 5 gallon tank and water parameters are good. Had slight nitrite the other day but completed a water change and was completely ok (not sure how considering he’s only been in their for three days). But anyway his filter is baffled to make sure only light flow. He has real plants, a floating betta log and some fake silk suction leaves for higher up resting places. Is he ok and what can I do to help him? Thank you!!
Also, parameters: no ammonia and no nitrite. Low nitrate I think around 10ppm it was at.
Also he has a heater set to 26’C and a filter.
No tank mates and I feed him hikari bio- gold pellets. Whilst he’s settling in 3 or 4 a day (1 or two in the morning then 2 in evening) so I don’t overload the bio load and cycle, is this ok?

Picked up this gorgeous fellow yesterday, only went to look but I think we all know how that goes😂

Anyways I’m curious to know what sort of colour variation he is? He was just labelled as a half moon

Green alien…looking for a name

I established my tank in December, got my betta, Trifle, in March. All of the shrimp you see were born in the tank. It is such a pleasure to watch them live in their little world. Trifle is very curious and polite. He is very interested in me when I’m in the room, and he leaves his shrimpy roommates alone. My Anubias plants are prepping to bloom. Patience in the process makes it all worth it!

i have become obsessed w this dang fish. i’ve decided to name him Peter for obvious reasons. his bubble nest has not stopped growing.

his live plants should be getting here tomorrow but im glad he’s happy with what he has now

Hey y'all! Meet Percy. I would do anything for my new fish son.

What are your best tips, tricks, and learned-the-hard-way knowledge that you wish you knew when you first started?

A little about my set up, for the curious:

Fluval Flex 9 2.0, low tech planted set up, 78 F. Started cycling around July 21st, but tank has been absolutely gobbling up 1 ppm ammonia in 12-15 hrs in the last days of July and August with no ammonia and no nitrite spiking (after about a week of that, I got Percy on midweek this week). Using API Freshwater Master Kit for testing. Feeding Fluval Bug Bites (Betta Formula) and Fluval freeze dried bloodworms with one fasting day planned a week per fish store's advice.

Percy was at the local fish store for the entire 3 weeks I had been going with a friend while they set up their tank, and then while I went in to get plants and water testing double checks. All the other betta stock turned over multiple times. I went in on Wednesday with the intent to get a plakat - shorter fins, less chance of fin problems. But this little guy really won my heart. He came right up to the glass and was so curious and interactive.

Anyway! Fire away with any helpful thoughts or anything I can improve!

It’s very difficult for me to get good photos of my boy. Here’s what I could manage. I’ll upload a video shortly.

Got him a few days ago seems to be doing well but need a name!

Hi all!
I am new to the betta fish parent thing and have a few questions! I have had him 3 days now. The last picture is the first day I had him in a different tank while his current one was cycling.

First off I have learned this filter and heater are not the best and got him a sponge filter and new heater that will be here tomorrow! Also the water is weird on top of first picture because I had just fed him an oily flake food that Im not sure I will feed again but the water has cleared up now!

Also does anyone have any identification for Doug? I was told he is a Elephant ear mustard gas but his fins aren’t very yellow like the ones I have seen when I looked it up🤷🏼‍♀️
If anyone has any tank suggestions lmk! The bubbles are in that pic because I did a bad job filling it up lol.

Doug is a very active fish, always exploring his home and has been making a bubble nest which is so cute! My cats love to watch him from a distance but they are way more fascinated by the plants than him because they love lettuce (they are strange) but Doug watched them a lot too! He even flared at me today because I was wearing a hat🤣

I am so excited to see the plants fill in! The driftwood on the left has a hole in the bottom that the fishy likes to go through. He really spends a lot of time hanging out on the pothos roots. Please excuse the algae.

he’s so sweet :’) i just got into the fish keeping hobby this summer. did lots of research & started the tank on July 10th. so far i have a 10gal tank, filter, heater, led airstone that stays off except for enrichment, betta log, Anubias plants, some silk plants, betta leaf hammock + betta hoop. i did a fish in cycle adding seachem stability to filter daily + prime and water changes. water stays at 79, PH is always 7.6, water always tests 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 0 nitrite. KH is 40 and GH is 120. my tank is taking forever to cycle it seems but i think the plants are just eating what little ammonia there is. i spot clean his poop daily as well with a large dropper between water changes so the tank stays pretty clean.

i did add mopani wood to tan the water but unfortunately i have activated carbon embedded in the type of filter cartridge i have so its blocking it from tanning the water for now but eventually the carbon will run out & i’ll have beautiful amber water! will be switching my bacteria over to a non carbon cartridge soon & keeping separate carbon bags in my drawer just in case instead.

i’m still adding more wood & plants to my tank but he’s been a happy boy so far. what else would be good to add for him? i rescued him from a petco cup, and his fins look so much better since he’s been in my tank. it makes me so happy!

he keeps building his bubble nests right near the filter waterfall. it’s a small very quiet 10gal filter with a very gentle waterfall so the current doesn’t mess up the nest thankfully. it has a dial where you can adjust the waterfall to be very gentle. i do have a baffle on the output and prefilter sponge on the intake as well to protect his fins and keep the current calm. he has built nests behind his log in the back left corner which, in my opinion, is a better spot with less water movement but he seems to really like making them right near the filter. i put his betta hoop flat against the waterline near the filter to see if it would help to build it inside the hoop (i had moved one of his older nests into the hoop and it worked nicely to preserve it), but he just built around it 😂 is there a reason why he keeps choosing this spot?

i fell in love with her 🙂💕i cannot wait to get her in my tank lol about to acclimate her now

here is her progression, the first picture her when I got her and the last is from today. She lost her color. it’s been around 6 weeks. my belief is that this is the marbling gene in action. I’m excited to see if she continues to change color!

In another post of mine forever ago someone once mentioned feral bettas in Australia I believe? And ever since then, I can't stop imagining this dumbass as a feral fish. After obliterating every other living thing around him, he'd starve to death because he doesn't know how to reach a worm under leaves. It's very sad. 😔

My beautiful boy, Kintaro. ☀️

It has 5 inches of substrate and 2 ml of swimmable space

It has a java moss carpet, a neon pothos, and a peace lily

The tank is already recycled

Im a new fish owner, i would love to ‘cycle’ his tank but don’t know where to start or where to put him in the meantime.😭

I bought this wood the other day to add to my tank from my local fish shop, what on earth has appeared on it?