Betta Fish: Meet My Special Needs Betta, Casper!

This is Casper, my cutest little special Betta! I got him about two months ago, when he came into the store i work at labeled as a halfmoon plakat. I noticed immediately that something wasn't right with him. He was tiny, he sank to the bottom of the Betta cup he came in, and he couldn't seem to eat anything. We isolated him for treatment,and i watched him for a couple days thinking he must have come in as a baby and had swim bladder disease. I ended up taking the little guy home because i knew he needed more care and treatment than he could get in a pet store.

At first it was touch and go, and i fully expected him to pass away. He couldn't seem to get any food down, and he sank straight to the bottom of his tank and was almost too weak to surface. I gave him plenty of resting spots, and his turning point came when i found a food he could eat; frozen brine shrimp, but only the tiniest ones. He ate them like a little piranha, and he started to get stronger little by little! I treated him for any infections that may be causing SBD, but he never regained his buoyancy. I thought he'd become less translucent and gain some color too, but he stayed practically see through even as he improved.

Now, a couple months later he's the happiest little man in his 5.5 gallon, planted, sponge filtered tank with his shrimp and snail friends. Believe it or not, in this video he's double the size he was when i got him! I think he must have some serious birth defects, but he has no clue he's any different. He's a fraction of the size of a normal Betta, and i can see his organs through his scales. He's learned to swim more like a Cory catfish than a Betta, and he always comes bolting up whenever he sees me or food. His little cherry shrimp buddies are almost as big as he is!