Odd Betta Coloring..Need Some Advice

[MatthewLaw]

Greetings All- My girlfriend's Betta (Barney) is healthy and seem to enjoy his tank. BUT my girlfriend has noticed his coloring changing from a pink/purple (hence the name) to white; almost as if his coloring was flaking off.

Definititely not ich. Although Barney is in a well planted 3g tank by himself, he frequently puffs his gills (looks like a dinosaur raptor??).

Any advice? Should she treat him with Betta-Fix? (his fins are flowing and full, definitely no signs of fin rot)

 

[PerenGee]

The puffing is called flaring and that's natural. They do that when threatened or when they feel like they need to defend their territory. From what my girlfriend tells me, it's healthy for them to do that every now and then and it's also a sign that they're healthy and functioning. And if I remember correctly, it's not "full" flaring until the two front fins are dropped down.

The coloring problem is another issue. One of our bettas frequently changes color between a dark black and a very light grey. From what I've read around the internet and here on the board is that all fish dim in color to a certain degree under stress. Our betta (Ciocco) seems to definitely change color when he gets sick or stressed but he also seems to turn lighter when the lights are out and quickly darkens back up when we turn the lights back on. We haven't really gotten down to the cause of this, so I'm not sure how much help this is. As far as the betta-fix goes, we've never used it and he seems to be doing fine. Perhaps someone else could shed some more light on the color problem...

 

[homebunnyj]

What does he seem to be flaring at? Occasional flaring is a sign of health, as noted above, but frequent, continued flaring will stress a betta. Is there a mirror or other reflective surface in his field of vision? a picture of another betta? anything that could be mistaken for a betta? If so, remove or obstruct the offending image, and he should calm down. Bettas can't constantly be in territory-defense mode; imagine if you spent all day every day fending attackers from your home.

Just to be safe... why don't you test your water and post up the readings... ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp too, I suppose.... because if stress is causing him to go pale, either poor water conditions could be a stressor, or also he can be more susceptible to disease if stressed, so you want to make sure the water conditions are good.

 

[MatthewLaw]

The betta tank is actually across the room, far away from the other 10g tank. There are no 'fish looking' objects near the Betta. My girlfriend's only guess is that Barney somehow sees his reflection in the sides of his tank and therefore gets aggitated.

I will perform the tests and get back with the results.