What Can I Do To Help Betta With Tumors/blindness Feel More Comfortable

A while back I adopted Silver from my local pet store. He's a Platinum Dragon Scale Betta.

They took him off the shelf and were convinced he was going to die due to having a few tumors on his body. Well, he hasn't. He's been living fine, eating, so on. I been doing everything I can to prolong his life, and so far it's been working.

However recently I've noticed the tumor peeling and turning pinkish and now he has a white-ish tint in his eyes. I believe he may be in the early stages of going blind. He can still locate food, and still swim normally however. I believe it's moon-eye. As it looks like a "haze". I know that is relatively common with Dragonscales, sadly.

He is still eating, swimming, and behaving like any betta would. I have no intentions of putting him down as he is active and doesn't appear in pain, and I promised to let him die naturally and in his own tank when I got him...

However, it's difficult to watch the process. I knew he was going to die when I got him, just didn't know how long. I know I'm doing all the basics on my end, as I've kept bettas before.

Just curious what treats, plants, decorations, so on I can give him to make this stage of his life easier. When you have an old dog, you give em a nice comfy bed and so on. I'm not sure what to do for a betta. I don't know for sure if he is on his way out, but I do know his condition has not improved. So I'm sure he has about a year left in him at most. I hope he surpasses that because he's a gorgeous little guy, and lots of fun to keep, but based off past experiences, once the blindness sets in it's all downhill.

 

First get him silk plants or real. They won’t damage him if he runs into them and he may brush against the. To steady himself.

I would also get him a sandy substrate so if he decides to lie on the ground, it won’t be uncomfortable for him.

I love how you adopted the betta, and I really hope he lives a long life.

 

First get him silk plants or real. They won’t damage him if he runs into them and he may brush against the. To steady himself.

I would also get him a sandy substrate so if he decides to lie on the ground, it won’t be uncomfortable for him.

I love how you adopted the betta, and I really hope he lives a long life.

Good ideas! He has a few little plants, but his substrate is currently fertilizer. May change it up, or do a mix of sand with fert. Unsure yet...

 

Spot feed him frozen food such as bloodworm or Mysis shrimp, etc. They are much more expensive but very nutritious. Frozen Mysis shrimp and daphnia are also high in fibre, so he will be less likely to constipate. The main food can be a high-quality betta pellet. But yeah keep the tank constant (try to switch to real plants in the tank before he cannot see) and spot feed are probably what you can do. Try blackwater aquarium with lots of tannin from botanicals, it makes them comfier. Those are the information I gathered from the forum and internet, hope it helps.

 

Not to be a downer, but if he's showing signs of deteriorating and doesn't ever get better, you euthanize him.

 

What got me back into fish was my wife wanting a betta.
We found a cool looking one. Fins like the skirts of a can can dancer and blue chrome sunglasses.
Well I do not do business with that fish shop any more. Those sunglasses are what is called diamond eye. Their scales grow over their eyes basically. Always cull diamond eyes.
So we ended up caring for a blind betta for ~6 years. Basically the big thing is we had to tap the water a bit with a finger before feeding him so he could find the food... And my wife melted him once (nitrates melt bettas like heat melts plastic). He did make it 6 years and we were sad when he died but that shop should not have been selling culls like diamond eyes. Diamond eye is common with Dragonscales IIRC.