Betta Fish Going Blind?? And Slowing Down...

I've recently been noticing that my betta, Shy Guy, has been having trouble seeing his food and is not as responsive to visual stimulI outside of his tank. It's not like he's sick, because if I tap the glass (which I know you're not supposed to do, oops!) he does swim towards me, but he seems kind of disoriented.
Another concerning thing is that he seems to be slowing down in his activity. I often sneak up on him to find him doing nothing - just sitting, not laying, on the bottom (but not breathing heavily) or sitting up on his betta hammock. A couple times he was on the bottom without moving his fins, I thought he was dead and nearly had a heart attack.
The weird thing is, he's not that old. I've only had him for 7 months (he was 4-5 months old when I got him; so he's about a year old now) He shows no other signs of unhealthiness. His fins are fine, he's not pineconeing, and his gills aren't inflamed.
It takes a long time to feed him, and he often swims away before I'm done feeding, even his favorite thing, bloodworms.
It's kind of sad to see him like this when he used to be my little glass-surfing, attention-hogging boy.

So do you guys think that he might just be going blind, or is there something else going on?
Thanks!

 

Have you checked your parameters to see what they are currently? And the temp? Not what it is set to, but the actual temp of the tank?

 

Have you checked your parameters to see what they are currently? And the temp? Not what it is set to, but the actual temp of the tank?

The temp is 78. The parameters...well...
This is really embarassing. I don't have a test kit; I'm a broke teenager who can't afford one and whose Mom doesn't want to spend that kind of money ($19!) on a fish. Whenever I've been in doubt, I've gone to Petco and gotten a readout, otherwise I've been religious about my water changes. But hey, I got a check for $30 from my aunt for Christmas, I can use some of that to buy a test kit!

 

UPDATE: I just fed Shy, and it seems like he's got a harder time seeing the food when it's right in front of him, and then it seems like he gets frustrated (can fish get frustrated?) and swims away. When the food sinks, he snaps it up. Maybe his depth perception is off? Or maybe I'm overthinking things?

UPDATE within an update...
I snuck up on Shy Guy again - he was sitting in a clump of plants. Anyway, I wanted to get a good look at his eye to see if it was normal. It looked fine to me, brown with a black pupil. But when he finally noticed me, it seemed unusual how he turned to look at me; he didn't move his eyes like he usually would, he turned his entire head.
Could this mean he's losing his vision?

 

Bump

 

I’ve actually had a similar thing going on with one of mine. He doesn’t seem to see well. Usually he hangs out in his favorite plant or on his hammock. He does that entire head turn whenever he wants to look at me instead of moving his eyes, and he doesn’t seem to be seeing his food well (he still finds it, but it can be right in front of his nose and he doesn’t notice).

 

I’ve actually had a similar thing going on with one of mine. He doesn’t seem to see well. Usually he hangs out in his favorite plant or on his hammock. He does that entire head turn whenever he wants to look at me instead of moving his eyes, and he doesn’t seem to be seeing his food well (he still finds it, but it can be right in front of his nose and he doesn’t notice).

You think that mine's losing his sight? The odd thing is, he still reacts to light; if I put my hand over his eye, he gets up and moves away. And he still flares, if I hold a mirror up to him, he's right there, wiggling and biting at it.
It's just kind of frustrating to see him struggle to get his food in the morning...any tips?

 

I’m really not sure. Mine is the same way. It’s like they have vision that goes in and out, sometimes they can see and sometimes they can’t! My other has perfect vision from what I can tell, they live in a divided tank so it can’t be any kind of contagious disease or they would both have it.
I’ve only had mine for a couple months, so maybe YOU need to give ME tips .
I think even if they lose their sight they’ll be able to get their food locating it by smell, at least I would assume so.

 

I’m really not sure. Mine is the same way. It’s like they have vision that goes in and out, sometimes they can see and sometimes they can’t! My other has perfect vision from what I can tell, they live in a divided tank so it can’t be any kind of contagious disease or they would both have it.
I’ve only had mine for a couple months, so maybe YOU need to give ME tips .
I think even if they lose their sight they’ll be able to get their food locating it by smell, at least I would assume so.

"In and out" would be the perfect way to describe it!! Didn't really want to say anything about that in case anyone would think I was crazy!
But tips, hmm...I guess just be really patient with the little guy. If you can hold the food in your fingers (if you're feeding, like, bloodworms) that can help sometimes. And also if your fish isn't skittish, giving him a little nudge in the right direction can be a good thing.

 

I’ve trained my goldfish to eat out of my hand so maybe I’ll work on teaching the bettas too. They’re the newest addition to my many fish. Although I have kept bettas in the past I just got back into them after six months of being betta-less.

I really don’t know why our bettas seem to be losing their vision. Maybe they’re like people; some need glasses!

 

My boy is two years old (today marks the day I got him...so it's his birthday!) and a lot of the time he has to lunge at his food a lot before he gets it. It's worse when the lights are off, then I have to use a turkey baster and suck the food that fell and push it into his face. Now he does see the food, but either his depth perception is off like y'all said, or he just has blurry vision.
I think it has something to do with breeding too, maybe if it was a pet store betta like mine, it could have a few defects.

 

Hello! Recently my betta Yondu started flaring at everything and anything. Is it possible he is going blind or is he just really grumpy.
I checked and it doesn't look like Dragon eye. If you need more info check my profile.

 

Some bettas are a little more territorial than others, leading them to flare at literally everything or anything. Others don't seem to flare at all, its part of their charm.

 

I an aware but this just started

 

How long has he been doing this? I had a betta who went almost all the way blind and if anything he had a terrible time eating and usually just laid around most of the day.

 

Started maybe a week or two ago

 

Hiya

So lately I've suspected my betta could be going blind. So he has some health issues to that play on my mind whether he's happy.
His worst aliment is a large tumor on his side, which unfortunately seems to still be growing, don't think it affects him but if it continues to grow it certainly will.

Next he has cloudiness in both eyes that I'm not sure have got any worse but he's defiantly not as active as when we first got him.
Yesterday I tried to give him with a small amount of blood worm as a treat and its like he knew it was there but couldn't catch it in the water.

I then held it in front of his mouth and he was still missing it, he eventually got it.
Later on I found him basically face down on the sand trying to find the rest of the bloodworm.

My husband then said he tried him to give him a few pellets on Friday and he completely missed them all. Like he couldn't see them.

I'm not sure if maybe he's suffering and in pain which I don't want to prolong. He doesn't seem happy really he either sits near the top of the water or on the bottom.

Water parameters are good
Ph 6.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
Kh 2
Gh 5

Could this be due to breeding? As we've only had him a year. Just feel real bad for this guy he's so gentle and has real personality! It'll be sad to see him go Actually didn't expect to get attached to a fish, he's my husbands but I'm primary caregiver.
I've attached some pictures, these were taken 2 months ago and his tumor has doubled in size. Like you can see the scales almost separating. I'll try and get a more recent pic up later

Thank you

 

How old is your betta?

 

How old is your betta?

Only had him just under a year. Not sure how old he was when we got him though.

 

Ah okay. Blindness can occur in older bettas, but yours likely isn't that old. That means that it's likely comorbid with his other health problems. What are you doing for the tumor? What are your tank parameters?

For blindness, keep all the decor in the same spot and feed him in the same spot around the same time every day so he can find everything okay. He will get used to it.

 

Ah okay. Blindness can occur in older bettas, but yours likely isn't that old. That means that it's likely comorbid with his other health problems. What are you doing for the tumor? What are your tank parameters?

For blindness, keep all the decor in the same spot and feed him in the same spot around the same time every day so he can find everything okay. He will get used to it.

Tried meth blue baths and epsom salt baths. But they didn't seem to do much other than stress him out more. He'd start flipping to his side from stress.

Is there anything else I can do? Being reading up on tumors and it seems to be internal, couldn't see any treatments.
Hes defiantly not active anymore and just floats at the top or on the bottom.
Is it cruel to keep him going ? Hate to see him in this state.

 

It's hard to say. If he's still trying to eat, I'd say keep him. My "point of no return" signs are as followed:

1. doesn't recognize you/is scared of you (this is often paired with flashing, in my experience)
2. not eating
3. very lethargic
4. laying on the bottom of the tank

I've had two bettas in the past that this happened to, and it's sad every time. One hung on for 3 months in an out of states like that before passing, and I still regret not euthanizing him (it started out as bloat that he just never fully recovered from). The other one flipped from perfectly healthy, to that, to dead within about 20 hours (I had only had him for two weeks at that point, so I still have no idea what caused the problem).

If you get all four of those, then I'd say euthanizing is the best option after a few consistent days of that behavior. If he's still swimming around, then let him go for a while. The tumor and blindness will likely never be cured unfortunately.

However, I did see a pretty intense post last week where a betta's bloat/tumor had completely burst of out of its scales, so I'd say that if that starts happening, too, then I'd also euthanize then.

 

It's truly heartbreaking, just tried to feed him his hikari pellets and poor thing couldn't even catch any. Its like it could kind of see them but every time missed every one.
Hes definitely point 3 (very lethargic) and alot of the day can be point 4. Hes just gone down hill very quickly in the last 3/4 days.
I'm going to try and feed him some live food tomorrow via tongs as just now that's the only way I see him eat anything ( even then he misses it when it's right at his mouth)

I'll keep a close watch on him and see how he progresses, it sad that there isn't a cure for him. Was going to try some epsom baths but don't want to stress him further.

Thats pretty scary, that poor betta, I'd defiantly ethuansia him if it came to that couldn't see my boy going through that. I've noticed his scales lifting on and around the tumor. It must terribly uncomfortable for him.
Thank you for your help

 

He very sadly went down hill alot over the last few days. Was struggling to get up to get a breath and refusing food altogether.

I decided he had suffered enough and used aquased to peacefully end his suffering.

Thank you for your help. Think this was the best decision for him.
RIP Vegetta.

 

❤ I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad you did what you thought was best.