Morning all. I have a board meeting I need to leave for in half an hour and I am still sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. I woke up this morning and my poor fish looked worse, despite the fancy water conditioner and the "slime coat" I put in the water (supposed to help their health when they are stressed). I called a friend who used to breed bettas, and she said it could just be age. She suggested googling the symptoms. DUH. While I was on the phone with her, the cats got into a huge chase game and knocked the tank off the stand. I was frantic and trying to get him up before the cats noticed and save some water so I didn't have to plunk him into chlorinated water. Got him back in his tank with some water, conditioned some new water and added just a little (have to add slowly so you don't send the fish into shock). Anyway, finally searched the symptoms, and it turns out that three years old is REALLY old for a betta. Because of inbreeding at the betta farms, their life expectancy is only about a year and a half at the most, according to all of the articles and web sites I found. These symptoms mean he probably only has a few days to live, and most of the sites suggested killing the fish because the symptoms also mean he is in a lot of pain. Double I don't think I can kill him, but knowing he's in pain is also horrible. And then there is this voice in my head going, "It's a FISH. WHAT is wrong with you." Yeah, well, he's MY fish and he's cool. I got him when he was tiny and white with little pink fins. He looked like an unripe cranberry, so we called him Berry. He kept getting bigger and bigger and more and more flamboyantly colored, so we changed his name to Barry (said in a very deep Barry White kind of voice). Anyway. I should go shower. Just wanted to share my pity party, I guess.