Fish being weird

[ebettalover963]

Housing
What size is your tank? 30g
What temperature is your tank? 70-80
Does your tank have a filter?yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? bubbler
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 5 guppies and two mickey mouse platys

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? blood worms, sometimes he eats tropical fish flakes,and betta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a month
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water 75 Housing
What size is your tank? 30g
What temperature is your tank? 75 80
Does your tank have a filter yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? long blubber
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 1 full grown male guppy 5 baby guppies and two mickey mouse platies

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? blood worms, sometimes he gets tropical flakes from the other fish, and betta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? one a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?once a month
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 75%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? water conditioner/ dechlorinator

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

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

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? dull colors
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? he lays on his stomach at the bottom of the tank and stays by the filter just recently started going behind the filter
When did you start noticing the symptoms? a couple weeks ago I thought it was nothing until three days ago when he started going behind the filter
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)?change? not that old because I got him a month ago and he was very little

[AyalaCookiejar]

I think he might have ammonia poisoning... I'm not sure on the recommended water change schedule for a 30 gal, but I would do a water change if you haven't already.

Also, how heavily decorated is the tank? Maybe he is stressed from too few hiding spaces or his other tankmates? I don't know much about guppies, but I think if they are colorful and large finned, they probably aren't good tankmates for a Betta.

[sainthogan]

The temperature variance might be a problem as well. Bettas need a constant tropical temp between 76 and 82. Going up and down like that can cause extreme stress and the behaviors you are describing.

[callistra]

Guppys do not make good mates for bettas. They are fin nippers.

You need a minimum of 25% weekly, and this is a fully established tank.. more is needed during the two months or so of cycling...

Cycling takes up to 2 months and during this time you should be testing daily for ammonia and nitrite and doing an extra 50% change any time you see even as little as .25ppm - anything more and you are really compromising your fish's health. In addition to this a regular 50% weekly change with siphon is needed. First you will see ammonia spike, then you will see nitrites. Eventually, even after a week of no water changes ammonia will stay at 0, then finally nitrites. At this point you should be left with only nitrates, which should be kept <20ppm and the lower the betta by a weekly 25-50% change with siphon.

Bettas are tropical fish and must be kept at a temp between 76-82, with 78-80 being ideal. The temp must be stable and not be dipping or jumping around..the giant temperature range you gave is not okay. In a 30 gallon you need at least an adjustable 100w heater.. a couple of 75w would be more ideal. Any new heater should be tested for 24 hours in similar size container with in tank thermometer to make sure it will hold a constant appropriate temp between 78-80F. Then the betta must be acclimated to higher temp either by floating in a cup inside the main already fully heated tank for an hour, or by adjusting the heater to increase the temperature of the tank no more than a degree per hour and 5 degrees per day.

Flakes aren't good nutritional value. I would not feed them at all. You should look for a good quality pellets whose first two or three ingredients are whole fish, not fish meal or wheat. He should be fed two small meals a day (how many depends on the pellet you pick up) and one fast day a week. The blood worms are like feeding potato chips - high fat and low nutrition. They should only be fed one once a week as a treat in replace of regular pellet meal.


At this point I would do a series of 3 50% water changes over the next 3 hours or so to catch up and test your tank for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Make sure the new water matches the current tank water exactly by taking the in tank thermometer under the running tap. Then fill up your changing jugs or buckets (you can use gallon water jugs from the grocery store if you are not already doing this), add conditioner, shake/stir it up a bit, then immediately add the water before it has a chance to cool.

[ebettalover963]

Yes it is heavily decorated I will do water changes more often I haven't had a problem with fin nipping, but I'll pay more attention