Betta fish acting scared and lethargic and refuses to eat?

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Johnny Friendly

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My family has a betta fish that we purchased last fall. Until recently he was very active, enjoyed watching us as much as we watched him, and always got excited at feeding time. About a month and a half ago, he started having problems eating (freeze-dried bloodworms). He would try to bite the food but miss, and had to try several times before he finally got it. Sometimes he would give up. Now for the past 2 weeks, he has refused to eat anything at all. He mostly sits still at the bottom of the bowl, and gets frightened if we even look at him. His personality has completely changed!
Is there anything we can do to help him? I'm afraid it might be too late.
 
thats strange.

You mentioned he was in a bowl. Is there any type of filtration? How oftern is the water changed? I have a Betta on my office desk in a 5 gallon filtered tank. He is about 2 years only now and still VERY active.

Tyr doing a 50% water change and adding a little aquarium salt. It helps a lot with stress. be sure to only add the amount listed for your size bowl. Let the salt disolve in a cup before adding it to the bowl also.
 
I think the best thing for you to do is to get him out of that bowl and into at least a 2.5 gallon tank (preferably 5gal) with filtration and heating.

If there is no heating, he is probably having a hard time trying to eat as this takes energy to digest and he is conserving as much of it as possible because it's too cold for him. Bettas are in fact tropical fish and need heating between 77 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make sure you get a filter that doesn't have a strong current since Bettas generally don't like it and it can weaken them.
 
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