Is my betta dying or old

My betta is 2 Years old his color went from bright white n red to this full greyish color. He has always been deformed wen I first bought him I thought he had dropsy n was expecting him to pass. He has ended up being my most nosey betta full of life loves to watch me n eat wen he is just oddly shaped. Now he is always laying on the gravel is seems n he comes up to eat still like normal but isn't as active or bright in color he is my favorite guy... Will old age take his life or will he continue to live with me as a grandpa for another year it'll break my heart wen he is gone one of my first fish and the oldest one I have

Tank size is 10 gal been cycled for 2 n half years filtered and heated

 

What are your nitrates like? Those fins look melted which is a sign of nitrates that are through the roof.

2 years seems young. We usually get 5-6 years out of them. He doesn't have the shape of an old betta (humped back).

 

My nitrates are at 5ppm or less rn I test with API master test kit and I did a weekly water change yesterday I do my water changes on all my small tanks every Monday. Zens fins are not burnt off he doesn't have rot fin and they're not disintegrating lol he is a crown tail betta and that is how his gorgeous fins look and have always looked he is doing his daily rest on the gravel in the attached pictures so his fins are resting. He is my only crown tail betta n his fins are very long and shredded looking that's what makes a crown tail a crown tail I believe all the pictures online of crown tails look just like him... Zen was my only fish bought from City pets. We're I live we have pet co PetSmart and had city pets it was shut down completely now the nearest are PetSmart n co.... City pets was a exotic pet store they sold birds n reptiles n had a small fish selection... Typically ppl didn't buy fish from them so u would see the same bettas on the shelf every single month even the order of were they sat on the shelf never changed there is no telling how long zen sat on the shelf... I lived literally a block away from City pets so was there every week I kept seeing zen he was deformed his belly looks bloated as if he ate a bunch or had dropsy. The last week of the store being opened they had a major sell I went n seen zen still on the shelf he was 19.99 n got marked down to 1.99 I bought him n took him home put him in a 3 gal tank I'll actually attach a photo... He was in the 3 gal tank for about 4 months it was a upgrade from the cup on the shelf but I assumed he had dropsy n was gonna die bc of his shape... He never died so I decided to give him a 10 gal tank for being a survivor lol... Now he has been in this 10 gal tank for about a 2 years now. He still has his deformed belly he still shows excitement wen I throw in live brine shrimp he eats them before they can even get into the water lol he just is losing color resting more no longer flaring at his reflection he's still swims to the front of the tank to see me I just don't want to ever look In my 10 gal tank and not see zen anymore n I agree with u wen I was a kid we had a fish named red that we got 8 years out of n he had a hump back also zen doesn't have this he is just losing color and sleeping more I wonder if he is getting old bored with life sick or giving up on me sounds crazy but I'm actually concerned here is a picture of him the day I got him

Here is him now I just added a betta leaf I ordered bc it says it has natural medicine... Maybe he I've had him 2 years but he has been alive for longer maybe I should pull out my decorations and redecorate his tank offer better mental simulation what do u suggest I do

 

My nitrates are at 5ppm or less rn I test with API master test kit and I did a weekly water change yesterday I do my water changes on all my small tanks every Monday. Zens fins are not burnt off he doesn't have rot fin and they're not disintegrating lol he is a crown tail betta and that is how his gorgeous fins look and have always looked he is doing his daily rest on the gravel in the attached pictures so his fins are resting. He is my only crown tail betta n his fins are very long and shredded looking that's what makes a crown tail a crown tail I believe all the pictures online of crown tails look just like him... Zen was my only fish bought from City pets. We're I live we have pet co PetSmart and had city pets it was shut down completely now the nearest are PetSmart n co.... City pets was a exotic pet store they sold birds n reptiles n had a small fish selection... Typically ppl didn't buy fish from them so u would see the same bettas on the shelf every single month even the order of were they sat on the shelf never changed there is no telling how long zen sat on the shelf... I lived literally a block away from City pets so was there every week I kept seeing zen he was deformed his belly looks bloated as if he ate a bunch or had dropsy. The last week of the store being opened they had a major sell I went n seen zen still on the shelf he was 19.99 n got marked down to 1.99 I bought him n took him home put him in a 3 gal tank I'll actually attach a photo... He was in the 3 gal tank for about 4 months it was a upgrade from the cup on the shelf but I assumed he had dropsy n was gonna die bc of his shape... He never died so I decided to give him a 10 gal tank for being a survivor lol... Now he has been in this 10 gal tank for about a 2 years now. He still has his deformed belly he still shows excitement wen I throw in live brine shrimp he eats them before they can even get into the water lol he just is losing color resting more no longer flaring at his reflection he's still swims to the front of the tank to see me I just don't want to ever look In my 10 gal tank and not see zen anymore n I agree with u wen I was a kid we had a fish named red that we got 8 years out of n he had a hump back also zen doesn't have this he is just losing color and sleeping more I wonder if he is getting old bored with life sick or giving up on me sounds crazy but I'm actually concerned here is a picture of him the day I got him

Here is him now I just added a betta leaf I ordered bc it says it has natural medicine... Maybe he I've had him 2 years but he has been alive for longer maybe I should pull out my decorations and redecorate his tank offer better mental simulation what do u suggest I do

Test your water now. That betta is sick. He has fin rot and it looks like some kind of infection/damage to his skin. Be sure to refer to, and follow the nitrate test instructions carefully. He looks like he is suffering from prolonged bad water. Do each test exactly as the API instructions say. I suspect erroneous testing. A 2-4 year old betta is not old.

 

When you test the water, make sure the nitrate bottle #2 is shaken very well. As in, bashed against a table well. The crystals in that bottle settle to the bottom and if not shaken well enough, will cause the test to give false readings of low nitrates.

 

When you test the water, make sure the nitrate bottle #2 is shaken very well. As in, bashed against a table well. The crystals in that bottle settle to the bottom and if not shaken well enough, will cause the test to give false readings of low nitrates.

I actually get extremely high nitrates wen I purposely don't shake it properly. I use master API freshwater tester kit I have over 7 aquariums n one of which has very delicate creatures so I am very dependant on my API kit. I use a test tube n fill the tube up to the marked line I then drop it bottle one of nitrates adding 10 drops cap then shake the tube I then grab bottle 2 nitrates shake for 30 seconds then after shaking nitrate bottle 2 I add 10 drops to my tube cap n shake for 60 seconds as directed

 

I made a post on my betta everyone said he looked to have rot fin. I bought him from a place called city pets years ago it is closed permanently. When I bought him I always noticed that they had the same bettas on the shelf every month. My mom would always comment awh poor guy to zen bc he was huge in a tiny cup n had a bloated belly. One day when they store was having their big sale because they were only going to be open for one more week before permanently closing. I went in on this cell and I scenes in same better same self 6 months later or maybe more or less. it didn't matter to me he just have been on that shelf for long enough so I bought him he was marked down from 19.99 to 1.99. when I bought him I brought him home and I put him in a quarantine tank 3 gallon. we medicated him with betta fix when that didn't work we bought a bacterial infection medicine for fish that was in powder form on Amazon it had good reviews very pricey. That didn't help. So then my mom said he's eating he's not acting lethargic maybe we're medicating him for something that he doesn't have and he's just weirdly shaped. From that moment on I moved him into a 10 gallon tank I no longer treated him for infection and I continue to just feed him the regular frozen food and live foods. It's been a few years since that day and he still looks the same deformed guy who loves live brine shrimp n hates frozen blood worms bc they're to big for him to eat. When he eats he's crazy. the only change I've had in him that has me concerned is that he's not as active he used to swim back and forth back and forth back and forth and now he's arresting a lot more he still loves to eat just color red has gotten a lot less vibrant. I appreciate everyone's concern with Rot fin but it isn't rot fin those are how crown tailed bettas look natural. I also explained how I take my nitrate test and I how I use the API Master test kit I showed a picture of my results also. I do weekly water changes every single Monday night. I can out rule my water quality is what it's wrong with him maybe he has an infection maybe he has something wrong with him that's making him less active if 4 years old is not that old but it isn't rot fin. It isn't his water quality. and being told that 4 years old for betta isn't old and he should still be active and shouldn't be doling in color kind of has me concerned if my water quality is okay and if he doesn't have rocks in maybe he has a parasite or something else. I would love comments on which you guys think is wrong with him. I'll share a picture of my water quality. I'll share picture avoid Zen look like when I first bought him and was in looks like now I'll even attempt to attach a video if we can do that of him eating. My mom's telling me that she thinks he's just old and doesn't have as much energy but like everyone said on my other post besides saying he had rot fin they said 4 years old isn't old for bettas

 

I'm looking hard at your pictures but I can't see any fin rot I just noticed his fins are tucked to himself unlike when you first bought him. Just do water change and test the water. To keep him interested every time you do WC try to change the position of the decorations also try to add some more silk plants or live plants for him to swim around since for me the tank is slightly bare. He survives for quite some time with that condition so maybe is like that all the time. If you worried that he might have some parasites or some sort just try to add some Indian almond leaf for a while at least it's more natural than dosing his tank with different chemicals that you aren't sure if he is really sick or if it's just his behavior. I missed my previous betta he looks like yours but mine is a veil teil who stuck himself died in the filter.

 

My betta is 2 Years old his color went from bright white n red to this full greyish color. He has always been deformed wen I first bought him I thought he had dropsy n was expecting him to pass. He has ended up being my most nosey betta full of life loves to watch me n eat wen he is just oddly shaped. Now he is always laying on the gravel is seems n he comes up to eat still like normal but isn't as active or bright in color he is my favorite guy... Will old age take his life or will he continue to live with me as a grandpa for another year it'll break my heart wen he is gone one of my first fish and the oldest one I have

Tank size is 10 gal been cycled for 2 n half years filtered and heated

If you betta stays on the bottom all the time and loss his color, then I think he might possibly have an internal bacteria infection. I would treat him with furan-2 and kanaplex for 10 days or so. It is especially true that he has an internal infection if he hides a lot too. Without treatment, he likely would stop eating too.