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5 Common Betta Diseases

Is your betta sitting at the bottom of the tank, moping around and refusing to eat? Most likely, he’s suffering from one of these 5 common betta diseases.

Photo by Joshua Paquin (flickr)

No one wants to see a fish sick, especially if you’re already emotionally attached to him. Common betta diseases are often caused by poor tank maintenance. If you by chance forget to change the water one week, any food that sinks to the bottom of the tank can quickly cloud the water, raise ammonia levels, and seriously stress out your fish – lowering his immune system so that your betta is more susceptible to diseases and other betta disease symptoms. His immune system can also be lowered if your betta somehow gets cut or wounded.

But there still may be hope for him if you can identify and treat the betta disease in time. Before treating any diseases, first remove your infected fish from the aquarium and put them in a separate tank. This will help prevent stress for the other healthy fish who don’t need to be medicated. Quarantining your fish will also prevent contagious diseases from spreading.

The following is a list of 5 of the most common betta diseases and how to treat them.

Posted by Christina Crowe | 1 Comment

7 Betta Disease Symptoms (and What to Do about Them)

Photo by Dimitris Siskopoulos (flickr)

There are many reasons why a betta can get sick – poor water quality, bad handling, stress and a lowered immune system to name a few. Poor water quality tends to be at the top of the list, as many first time fish owners just aren’t familiar with the proper betta fish care needed for a thriving betta. However, once your betta gets sick, he depends on you to diagnose the betta disease symptoms and treat the disease quickly (5 common betta diseases) to prevent it from getting worse or killing your betta altogether.

But sometimes diagnosing the disease can be difficult, especially if you’re just noticing the illness for the first time. Some betta diseases are even so harmful that they can kill the betta within weeks or days of when the fish first gets infected. Knowing the betta disease symptoms beforehand will allow you to act quickly and treat your betta before the disease spreads and becomes too fatal.

Noticing that your betta is sick earlier on is crucial when treating betta diseases. The following are 7 betta disease symptoms to look out for.

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Betta Tank Selection – Choose the Right Betta Aquarium

Photo by Katie Brady (flickr)

You should always consider what type of betta tank would work best before buying your fish, both to keep your new finned companion happy and to insure that your new fish has enough room to move around. There are many betta fish tanks available, and they come in all shapes and sizes. However, some betta tank sizes and styles are better than others.

Unfortunately, many betta customers end up buying the smallest tank in the store – thinking that, since pet stores keep these fish in small betta bowls, then such tanks must be good enough. This is where fish owners go wrong. Though pet stores might throw their betta fish for sale into small containers to save space and money, these containers aren’t necessarily best for their inhabitants.

Think about it: If you were thrown into a small room where you could barely move around, let alone walk, and you had to live there for months and even years at a time, you would probably go into deep depression. As a result, your immune system would weaken and you would acquire quite a number of diseases during the time you were caged up. You probably would be able to survive in such a small room, but the time there wouldn’t be very pleasant at all.

Betta fish are pretty much the same way. Yes, they can survive in small betta bowls because of how their bodies are designed, but, no, they wouldn’t like it. In fact, the chances of them really thriving are slim.

With that said, let’s take a look at the various betta fish tanks available. There are three criteria we’re going to look at when choosing a betta tank.

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Betta Bowls – The Positives and Negatives

Photo by Orin Zebest (flickr)

Many pet shops worldwide sell sphere or round-shaped fish tanks, known as betta bowls, that usually don’t have extra space for a filtration or light system. Because of this, many fish enthusiasts debate on whether or not such betta bowls are safe for betta fish. Though betta fish require less maintenance than other fish because of how their bodies are developed, an aquarium without a filtration or light system can still negatively affect the health of the fish. Many people even go so far as to say that betta bowls are cruel.

But are round aquariums really as bad as people say?