As an adult, I have had 20 plus male bettas (at one time 12 different looking ones each in their own bowl and a very busy water changing schedule!). In about 4 of them over the years, they began to have trouble swimming as senior citizens. It was as though their flowing tails were pulling them down. I have never talked about this with anyone and was wondering if this is due to "old age", swim bladder disease, or a preventable/treatable problem? In each case I lowered the water in the tank to 3 inches or so and made sure they had a floating plastic plant to "lay in". That made it easier for the fish to get to or stay near the top for feeding. They lived a long time that way- at least 6 months for one, and never stopped eating from this problem. I was wondering if anyone else had seen this in older bettas?

I have an old fart Betta in with my goldfish and he swims fine. I think he swims better because his tail is scarred from fighting.

Uh-Oh!!!

Don't put them together the goldfish can kill your betta!!!!! Try to seperate them with a divider, goldfish don't really mind seeing bettas through the divider.

hmm most of my bettas that got old usually died from either SBD or i think blindness? or bad eyesight? they would have difficulty seeing the food. those bettas i think were maybe 2 years old or so? not sure. it was a while ago.

What type of symptoms did you see with SBD? Mine were always in normal swimming position but would struggle to keep afloat. I figured it was due to changes from old age.

Sweetheart, I've usually got a Betta in with Cracker and Tye. Those two never touch Kasem. Kasem stays in his own little area and Cracker and Tye swim around the rest. They eat together and everything.

The scarred tail is from him jumping the border in a divided 10 gal I had. He would jump over to the other side and fight his tankmate. It's not from the goldfish, don't worry.

when mine had SBD, it kinda floated on it's side the majority of the time, and had to struggle to swim upright and eat. it also looked like he had a "lump" of some sort on his abdomen. i'm not sure if it was SBD, it probably was, but at the time i knew nothing about fish, and the pet store people said it was probably SBD. i don't remember the exact symptoms anymore, this was like 6-7 years ago... so yeah.

Bettas can live for five years so if the eyes are clouding over at 2 years and the stomach is swelling up and causing swimming problems you have either a poorly bred fish or the conditions haven't been good for him.

A lot of elderly bettas seem to be prone to growths in their stomachs and this can cause them to have trouble swimming. Try treating them for constipation and worms to make sure it's not something else first.

If the fins are deteriorating and the eyes clouding then try an anti-bacterial/fungal and see if that improves things.

Sometimes they show symptoms of blood poisioning with stomach swelling, the tips of their fins going red and not necessarily deteriorating like finrot... I think this may be something picked up from live food. It's hard to say.

Goldfish are pushy but the only way it can kill a betta is by polluting the tank with poop. The betta is the guy with the sharp teeth.

When I had 12 bettas at once I finally got tired of cleaning 2 bowls every day and decided to put 6 of them in my other tropical and goldfish tanks. Everyone did fine except for one betta. I had to remove him because he was tearing up a 6 inch commons tail! Bad Boy!

Well that happens sometimes, especially the time when my betta killed my red ruby betta. I feel sad . Sobbing

Can anybody be my friend? I feel lonely . Pretty please with a cherry on top .

Have a great day!

On Koko's, everyone is more than just friends. We are like one big 'ol family. And, just like any real family you can compare us to fudge: mostly sweet with a few nuts.

I like that.

I couldn't agree more!

Thanks, guys.
*is proud to beone of those nuts*
But only at times.

I thought that we were all nuts?