My 4-6year old betta/siamese fighting fish won't eat?

[kaching13215]

I cleaned his tank, i got his tank warmer, all he does is float at the top, swim if i move the tank, but within 10seconds he's back asleep at the top. He won't eat and if this keeps going on he will die. What should I do? Is this what happends when they are too old, he is pretty old...

[BettaChris]

after a water change it is common for bettas not to eat due to stress.

But the plan ialwayed used is water change, warm water, aquarium salt... and in 2-3 days the fish is back to normal.

The warm water is key due to the fact that the metabolism rate will increase causing the fish the need to eeat. Also the aquarium salt is needed to kill any internal bugs the fish has and to help relive the stress of the WC.

more on bettas can be foud on my betta site http://www.bcaquatics.com

[koala4poly]

The life span is about 4-5 years, so he is old. Try raising the heat ever so slightly in the tank if he's unwell

[Stevie]

Ive never had a betta live that long, usually a year or so max.....(could have something to do with the fact i was younger than 10)

but your fish is doing exactly what mine did right before he turned belly up... im sorry to say, but your fishy may be getting ready to pass away

[Meggie Rothe]

Your betta fish (siamese fighting fish) is probably getting too old. I remember when I had my bettas (I had three bettas) they were all getting pretty slow. One of my bettas would start having a panic whenever I turned my light on and the other two would only move when I tapped their tanks. I had my bettas is separate bowls and the bowls that I had were too small. How big is the tank you have? If your tank is only 13" high by 6" wide or something like that then your tank is too small. Your betta fish needs more room to swim. If your betta isn't swimming at all then your betta might be on the verge or dying because my bettas all died because they were too old and they were getting reallly slow.

Anyway, I think you should try getting your betta a bigger tank and if that doesn't work then your betta might be getting too old that he might die.

If there was a vet that you could take a fish to, I would recommend that you do that, but I don't know of any vets that will examine a fish because betta fish can be extremely hard to examine.

The only thing that I could possably recommend is that you give your betta fish a new tank because the one that he has now might be too small. I know my tank was too small, my bettas were getting too old, and they were slow so they all died. Once my bettas died I cried for about a month or so.

I hope that my advice helped because I've been through the same thing with my betta fish (all three of them died about 3 or 4 months ago).
I hope all goes well with your betta!!!!
Good Luck (and trust me, you're going to need some luck if you don't want your betta to die).

P.S. Before I finish my answer to your question I'd like to point out that your betta fish might be bored. If I were you I'd join a betta fish group on www.groups.yahoo.com because they would be able to help you out a lot more than anyone else would be able to help you out on your question.

P.P.S. I hope that if your betta fish is just bored, you decide to get him a bigger tank because all betta fish need a lot of room to swim, otherwise they just get tired of swimming and "sleeping" in the same place every day.

How do you know if your betta fish is really sleeping? Just curious because most fish don't really sleep. Instead they rest while they're at the top of the bowl / or tank, but they never sleep. They just rest at the top of the bowl / or tank to see what's going on. If your betta fish's eyes are closed whenever you go by his bowl then your betta fish might be on the verge of dying.

Anyway, I hope my answer helped.
Again, Good Luck, you'll need it!!!