Please help my boy :(

[Bombalurina]

Hi all

My betta Apollo has been really listless of late. He just lies in in the bottom front right corner next to his little Asian pagoda, doing nothing. He has stopped eating. He is breathing really heavily. He occasionally swims the length of the tank, but not often.

Stats:
- 5 gallon/20 litre tank
- Heated to 80F
- Filtered and cycled
- 25% water changes once or twice a week with Prime, except last week when I got really busy and didn't do any. I've done two this week.
- He shares the tank with a few RCS, maybe 6 or 7, some of whom are just babies, and some unwanted snails
- Most of the plants are silk but I do have two java ferns and a sword plant
- He gets 3 pellets night and morning. Two nights a week he gets blackworms instead. On Saturday nights he gets fed a pea, followed by a day of fasting.
- He is about a year old

I haven't treated him in any way yet because I cannot figure out what is wrong. He hasn't lost colour, got any bruising, become bloated or anything like that.

I cannot figure out what is wrong, and, thus far, neither can the good folks at fishlore. Please help me. :(

Bomba

[Myates]

He is showing vague symptoms.. it sounds as if it's water quality problem, high ammonia or nitrate/ites.. have you tested it recently? Even though you did 2 25% since an absence of water changes, it may not of been enough. You may have to test it and do another water change if the results are high.

Also... peas are used for goldfish who are bloated/constipated. A few people use it on bettas, but normally not more then once or twice.. since a betta is an insectivore/carnivore they cannot digest the pea at all. All you are doing is giving him something to put in his system that shouldn't be in there and could potentially harm him. If you are afraid of bloating, frozen daphnia is what is best used, as it is the proper type of food/nutrition for bettas. A pea has no nutritional value, nor digestive value to a betta whatsoever.
Not trying to sound rude or tell you what to do.. but you're the first person who I've ever heard of feeding it to their betta on a regular basis. Normally it is highly recommended not to give it to them.

[Bombalurina]

Sorry, I should have mentioned in my previous post, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites. My nitrate kit isn't working so I can't give you a reading on that. Ph is 7.

Seriously? I've always been told a pea once a week was a good thing because it acts as a laxative. Plus he loves it. But I'll stop if it's going ot cause him any harm. I'll see if I can get hold of some daphnia.

[Myates]

Yeah.. unsure where or when people started saying peas are good for bettas.. but they are for goldfish. It's a constant debate. Unless he is constipated, he doesn't need a laxative. They poop only a little bit and not all that often. Nothing like most other tropical/goldfish. He just doesn't get anything out of the pea. If he truly loves it.. I don't think maybe a half or a little less every so often won't hurt him as a treat.

[Bombalurina]

Ok. I'll give him some maybe once a fortnight.
I give some to my tetras once a week, but recently they've started sharing their tank with six female bettas. Should I cut back?

I have dropped an IAL in Apollo's tank and I'm boiling up an IAL solution for when it starts to disintergrate. He perked up enough to explore it after my water change again today, but now he's back in his same old spot.

[Bombalurina]

After no visible signs of getting either better or worse, I came downstairs this morning to find he had passed.

I don't get it - he's the second betta I have lost in less than a month, without being able to discern a cause. In both tanks, levels where perfect, my cleaning schedule was absolutely religious, they had everything a betta could want. It's even more mysterious with Apollo, because as I said, the only thing wrong with him was this extreme lethargy - he could swim fine still and had no bloating, no tilting, no pale scales, no cloudy eyes, no lumps or bumps, nothing! I feel incredibly guilty - what I am doing so wrong that is killing my fish in their pristine conditions, when my sister's goldfish is in a tank that is way too small for him and never gets cleaned and has been going strong for 6 years now? Aren't bettas supposed to be hardy?

I'm sorry for ranting, but I can't figure out what on earth I am doing wrong and I don't want to get another betta if I'm just going to kill it.

[vaygirl]

I'm so sorry. :( I had a similar experience with two bettas back to back, within weeks of getting them. They were showing stress stripes too though. They were even from different suppliers. I would say there was some kind of internal thing going on. It's not your fault. These fish go through a lot of stress in their young lives. Sometimes it takes their toll on some of them.

[Bombalurina]

I am supposed to be helping a friend pick out his first betta tomorrow. It's going to be absolute torture - my mother has asked me to break down Apollo's tank. I prefer getting another betta ASAP after one has died, kind of letting the legacy live on. Breaking down a tank just feels like killing them twice. :( In the end it's her house, her rules, but I am going to hate myself for doing it. :(