Hello. My first pet fish and the first fish ever I bonded with is not looking good. He's a male Betta named Gloober. I got him in Jan this year as an adult. Hes a halfmoon Betta but his fins are not as full and long as the use to be a few months ago.
I had him in a heavily planted 10 gallon but I noticed he was breathing hard , lethargic, and laying down on leaves or the substrate a lot. In the 10 gallon his color was normal. I moved him to a seasoned 4.5 gallon and he improved, and went back to being alert, swimming around, and a normal breathing rate. His color was good up til today. He's been in the 4.5 gallon for a week and he looks worse than ever, despite looking ok yesterday. Gloober is in a tank with red rili shrimps, and 5 CPDs (doesn't bother or trys to kill any of them. He never tried to even when he was well in the 10 gallon.) There is a faded patch above his head that wasn't there before... It's a yellowish discoloration. He was a solid dark blue head and blue body with no yellow. He's not a mustard Betta.
My water parameters in the 4.5 gallon he is in now are these: this is after a water change. I used the co-op test strips.
Nitrate 25ppm. Nirute1ppm, GH 50ppm, KH 40ppm, PH 6.8, Chlorine 0. Temp 78 F.
In the tank is the co-op nano sponge filter and a zwiss air stone.
The CPDS and shrimp r all fine, active, swimming, and eating... I don't think it's disease cuz these tiny fish are doing fine. It looks like Gloober has lost color and has a cloudyness on his eyes... It reminds me of cataracts that humans get. Is he just dying of old age :(?.... Or is this a disease.