I need a plan: my girl is a little quieter tonight...

[azjen]

I have a little female betta (Jazzma) in a 4 gallon glass tank with a filter. I have had her for about 10 days. I feed her Nutrafin flakes with little worms in it once a day. I was going to add a different food for a little variety in another week or so. I have read so much here that I am confused on what to do on a few things and she is acting a little weird tonight so I am coming to you for some assistance if you don't mind?

Questions:
1. Do I really need a heater? I live in Arizona and the thought of putting a heater in a tank when I live in a desert makes me nervous. My house temp is always set at 78 in summer and 70something in the winter. For the winter, she will in the room that is the warmest.

2. Filter- my tank came with a filter (Elite hush 5) that is perched on the top of the aquarium. It seems a little strong of a current to me. Sometimes Jazzma will be attached to it for a second before she swims away. Is this normal or does it sound like I need a different filter? She is always able to swim away but she seems to get tossed around a bit when she is on the top of the water.

3. Cleaning and water changes: When I put her in the water, I had added Nutrafin cycle and conditioner to the tap water. I am not sure what my best plan of keeping up the water should be and after reading more is when the confusion set really set in... I have done nothing yet and my plan was to set out about 25-35% of capacity of the tank once a week and add a little cycle to that water. After I let the water sit a day, do the water change. I thought I would get a cyphin to help me clean the bottom a little bit. I was going to do that for the first time after a month and see how often it seemed I needed to do that from there. How does this plan sound?

I am just concerned because Jazzma seemed a bit quiet tonight, she was just hanging more at the top, swimming the perimeter of the tank and when I put the food in, she did not attack it like usual. I don't know if she is cold, if the filter is affecting her or if it is the water. It still looks pretty clear- not crystal clear but not cloudy.
Thinking it may be the filter, I turned it off and after a moment, she started swimming more to the bottom and seemed to perk up. I came to read the forum and when I returned, I did not see food at the top so I am assuming she ate some food.

So I am thinking I need to consider changing the filter or not using one at all, go ahead and do the water change tomorrow and see what happens but since I am not experienced, I wanted to see what you all thought.

Sorry this is so long but I figured the more details I give, the easier it would be to make suggestions.

TIA

[azjen]

Okay, let me add to this..

It has been an hour and she looks different. She had a stripe across her body earlier and I swear (unless it is just because it is the middle of the night and my eyes are deceiving me) that now she is a little darker purple (she is usually lilac) and the stripe is pretty much gone. Does that sound possible? If so, I am assuming the filter was stressing her out. If that is the case I feel horrible and if that is the case, should I get a new better filter (if so which one) or should I leave her water unfiltered?

She also is swimming more up and down and is more active like she was when she first got in her little mansion from that cup last week!

PS- I will have to upload a picture of her and her abode as she is in my girl's room (they are 6 and 3) and her decor and aquarium are... hmm.. how should I put this... much more girlie and bright than I would choose!

Thanks again!

[ElmoFish]

I would suggest doing a water change now.. waiting a month will cause a buildup of ammonia which will stress, harm or even kill your fish.. hopefully this will relieve some of her stress..

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to FishForum. Is your tank cycled? If not, I wouldn't use the cycle stuff. The stripe was from stress.If the filter has a strong current then that could be causing her some stress.

[azjen]

To clarify, I was going to change the water today but not clean the bottom with the cyphin for a few more weeks.