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Is my Betta Depressed or Sick?

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Destinystar 
#1 ·
So I have had my male Betta for 8 months now. Normally, he swims around his tank happily, builds a nest, and flares at me, my fiance, food, or really anything that comes in his tank.

His name is Arpha and we keep him in a 3.5 gallon tank by himself with a plastic plant, in tank thermometer, and a leaf hammock. He has rocks at the bottom too. And he also has a lid with a LED light, we usually have it on Blue.

We recently came home from college, and for the past few days, he has been acting weird... he's been hanging out at the bottom of his tank and just laying there. It takes a few pokes of the tank to wake him up and get him to swim. He'll hustle to the top of the tank and breathe, then do something for a couple of minutes, then go back down to this one spot in the tank and lay there.

I've googled a whole lot, and he does not seem to have any obvious diseases. He has no physical deformities or anything. He just isn't being active and keeps laying at the bottom...

His water temperature is always in the "green" range on the thermometer (76-80 F), and the PH is 7.4 . We do 100% water changes each week, and we just did one. We always drop in some Dechlorinator when we change it. We also have started using something called Betta-Safe to drop in as well.

Could he just be depressed from the move?

Or could it be something having to do with the environment change? At college, his tank was next to a window and the tap water was city water. Here at home, his tank is no where near a window and the water is well water.

Ask me anything x.x I'm so worried about my fish.
 
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#2 ·
So I have had my male Betta for 8 months now. Normally, he swims around his tank happily, builds a nest, and flares at me, my fiance, food, or really anything that comes in his tank.

His name is Arpha and we keep him in a 3.5 gallon tank by himself with a plastic plant, in tank thermometer, and a leaf hammock. He has rocks at the bottom too. And he also has a lid with a LED light, we usually have it on Blue.

We recently came home from college, and for the past few days, he has been acting weird... he's been hanging out at the bottom of his tank and just laying there. It takes a few pokes of the tank to wake him up and get him to swim. He'll hustle to the top of the tank and breathe, then do something for a couple of minutes, then go back down to this one spot in the tank and lay there.

I've googled a whole lot, and he does not seem to have any obvious diseases. He has no physical deformities or anything. He just isn't being active and keeps laying at the bottom...

His water temperature is always in the "green" range on the thermometer (76-80 F), and the PH is 7.4 . We do 100% water changes each week, and we just did one. We always drop in some Dechlorinator when we change it. We also have started using something called Betta-Safe to drop in as well.

Could he just be depressed from the move?

Or could it be something having to do with the environment change? At college, his tank was next to a window and the tap water was city water. Here at home, his tank is no where near a window and the water is well water.

Ask me anything x.x I'm so worried about my fish.
Water parameters:

ph
gh
kh
temp
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
fins clamped?
take a flash ligh and shine all over looking dust particle, funky or fuzzy areas
fish do not get depressed, there is something going on with fish. If there was a bigh ph and water quality change it may be part of the issue. But you probably do not know what you had so how much you changed. The change could have stressed him and opened him up for disease to take hold.
 
#3 ·
ph: 7.4
gh : Dunno what this is
kh : Dunno what this is
temp : 76 F
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate: Should be zero or very low, just cleaned the tank
fins clamped? Nope
take a flash ligh and shine all over looking dust particle, funky or fuzzy areas: None

I dunno what was going on. My fiance and I have been monitoring him all day, and the Betta seems back to normal. He's swimming around normally and resting near the top on his hammock, rather than on the bottom. He's also flared up a couple of times at me. I'll keep watching him closely, but he seems back to normal.
 
#7 ·
Glad to hear he is back to normal ! I would do two water changes a week, one 50 percent and one 100 percent. Really you could do a 90 percent or enough water in the tank to cover him and that way you dont have to remove him from the tank and its less stress, you would need a gravel vac to do that though which do not cost much, 7 or 8 dollars and that way you could also vacuum his gravel or around and under the rocks if thats what you have. They are really time savers I just love mine.
 
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