My beautiful and huge red betta is dying. He just has no strength left and is very old. I took him out of his tank and set up a small two gallon with very shallow water (about three inches) for him. He just lays on the bottem. He'll swim up to grab some food but sinks right back down. He has really frilly fins and they are kind of pulling him on his side when he lays on the bottem. He was starting to become less and less active over the last few weeks. He used to live in my salon and I got to watch him all day at work. He was constantly moving around. Lately he's just been laying on the bottem unless there was food to be had. Now, today he was so tired by the time he got to the surface for the food he sank before he was able to get any (that is why I moved him).

He's still managing to eat but I feel bad for him. He is swiming around on the bottem of his new tank now but still only a very little bit. Do you think that I should euthanize him or leave him go for a bit?

Well if his dieing from age
im not sure if there's something that you can do
Im guessing you can just make him comvortable

Im so sorry to hear this. Is this the pretty red one you posted the pic of before? It really does just sound like old age. I dont know if hes going to get better or not, but probably not from my experience. Its really up to you if you want to euthanize him or not. I have a very, very hard time doing that on my own fish, especially if I think theres even a chance for them to recover. I would say as long as hes eating to just let him live, because that shows that he at least does have the will to live. If he stops eating then maybe consider it more, but like I said, its really up to you. Good luck in whatever decision you make, I know its not easy.

That's to hard to kill your own fish
i know i would never do that .
We have so many feelings for are fish
there like your babies

Yes, jsrtist, it is the same one. Today now he is not interested in food, not even bloodworms. I think I'll have my husband euthanize him tomarrow. I left one die of old age before because I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it and it took absolutely forever. I don't want to see another one go through that. I was hoping that once he was in more shallow water with no current he'd get a bit more strenght back but he just keeps going downhill.

At least he didn't have to live out the rest of his days at Wally World!

Thanks

Or in a plastic cup or bag at the pet shop
Some day im going to have to do the same
thing

Im not looking forward for that day at all

I'm so sorry to hear about your betta. It is such a hard decision to make, but when they stop eating, it is often just a matter of time I euthanized a goldfish fry last spring because it had stopped eating and was just wasting away, although, as you mentioned, it was a slow process. Finally, I thought that enough was enough for the poor thing.

Take care.