New Betta darting along with barely eating

[RabidAliver]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 Gallon, currently his only home until I know if he'll get better
What temperature is your tank? ~78 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes, but it's turned off now.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Bloodworms, and attempted pellets (he refuses the pellets completely, however)
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1 pellet attempt twice a day, 2 bloodworms if he doesn't eat the pellet and I remove it from the tank.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice weekly, used to be once daily.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Jungle water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: Unknown
Nitrite: Unknown
Nitrate: Unknown
pH: Unknown
Hardness: Unknown
Alkalinity: Unknown

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Seems somewhat duller in color, seems like his fins are also receding.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He began to dart all over his tank for a few seconds, and then sinks to the bottom of the tank and seems to gasp for breath.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Today.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No, no clue of what this even could be, let alone how to treat it.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Yes, he just got over ammonia poisoning from the pet store cups.
How old is your fish (approximately)? I'd put him at 6-8 months at least.

[NyaNyanNaa]

Possibly ammonia is affecting his breathing again, I suggest taking a water sample to Petco to test it and ask for the numbers and not just 'fine' or 'okay' from the clerk.

Also, I'm just going to be blunt: Jungle brand sucks. Switch over to API water conditioner instead or Seachem. They both are the best products. Also, what brand of pellet are you using? I suggest going to buy Omega One or New Life Spectrum and if he doesn't eat those, soak them in garlic juice.

[RabidAliver]

Originally Posted by NyaNyanNaa

Possibly ammonia is affecting his breathing again, I suggest taking a water sample to Petco to test it and ask for the numbers and not just 'fine' or 'okay' from the clerk.

Also, I'm just going to be blunt: Jungle brand sucks. Switch over to API water conditioner instead or Seachem. They both are the best products. Also, what brand of pellet are you using? I suggest going to buy Omega One or New Life Spectrum and if he doesn't eat those, soak them in garlic juice.

I don't have a petco in my town-closest one is about an hour away. The only pet store in my town doesn't test the water either >.< I feed HBH pellets because as in the case of the petco, we have no stores to sell the Omega one or NLS around here and to order them online would cost a good bit for me . I'll go back to the 50% daily water changes though, I had to turn off the filter because the poor boy kept getting his fins sucked in.

But what about the odd darting? I have another betta that's in almost the exact same conditions of water (save for he has a filter because he's in a normal 3 gallon tank and isn't getting sucked into it) and he's doing fine and well in it.

[NyaNyanNaa]

Did you just drop him in the tank? Or did you let his bag float?

If you just dropped him in he's probably in shock at the current temp of your water and the bigger space around him, also if you could find ANY aquarium salt I think that might calm his breathing down. And do the garlic juice if he doesn't eat at the next feeding time, because not eating is probably from the stress and shock of suddenly being bounced into his new home.

[RabidAliver]

Originally Posted by NyaNyanNaa

Did you just drop him in the tank? Or did you let his bag float?

If you just dropped him in he's probably in shock at the current temp of your water and the bigger space around him, also if you could find ANY aquarium salt I think that might calm his breathing down. And do the garlic juice if he doesn't eat at the next feeding time, because not eating is probably from the stress and shock of suddenly being bounced into his new home.

I've had him a few weeks now, like 2 at most so I still consider him new. I floated him in the bag too.

Also I've already tried the garlic juice and all of that too, he just outright refuses the pellets. He'll take them in his mouth but spit them right back out. He's just been overall acting weird today, normally he's not like this.

[NyaNyanNaa]

Hmm..

What brand of pellets are you using, exactly? Tetra? If it's Tetra those are WAY too big and plus Betta's HATE the taste of those that's why they'll spit them out.

[RabidAliver]

Originally Posted by NyaNyanNaa

Hmm..

What brand of pellets are you using, exactly? Tetra? If it's Tetra those are WAY too big and plus Betta's HATE the taste of those that's why they'll spit them out.

No, the brand exactly is the HBH Color enhancing pellets, they're slightly bigger than the size of the top of a pin. I outright refused to buy tetra because I know it's a horrible brand. I've soaked them in water, soaked them in garlic juice, all of that, and he refuses them in favor of bloodworms. He just will not eat them even if they're the only food offered, no matter what I do. He didn't start the darting until today, either.

[NyaNyanNaa]

Since I'm a new betta owner myself I'm quite stumped.. Keep bumping this thread until a more experienced owner comes along. Because I really have no idea what else to tell you.

[RabidAliver]

Originally Posted by NyaNyanNaa

Since I'm a new betta owner myself I'm quite stumped.. Keep bumping this thread until a more experienced owner comes along. Because I really have no idea what else to tell you.

That's alright. My experience in disease only goes up into tailbiting and fin rot, outside of that I am at a loss as well =/ I'll take a look in the diseases topics that the mods have already put up to try and figure things out.

[RabidAliver]

Bump~