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Betta acting lethargic, hiding

879 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Hikari 
#1 ·
I did a 100% cleaning of my betta's 5 gallon tank yesterday which I do weekly since his tank isn't filtered, and ever since he's been acting strange. He sits at the bottom of the tank when he used to always hover around the top, especially around his heater even though the tank is kept at 78. He's constantly hiding away too. He used to never use the little house I have in there with him, now he's constantly in it, or hiding behind plants. He interacts with me as usual, though. Whenever I look in at him, he'll swim to the top, and swim around like usual. But when I leave, he goes back to the bottom. There is no physical signs of illness. He's eating normally too. I don't want to do another water change because I think he's stressed, and I don't want to scare him more. I think he might have temperature shock because I did find the water he was sitting in a little colder than usual, and I only realized that when I was putting him back so he was in it for about half an hour or so. His tail got a tiny split in it too from being transferred. I just don't know what to do because I don't know exactly what's wrong with him.
 
#2 ·
Depicting from the information that you have kindly provided us with to help you out with your troubles, the most likely situation here has to be from PH, Hardness or temperature shock from the 100% water change, usually this isn't fatal, and as long as you can monitor him safely he should do well, just make sure you take precautions and make him as comfortable as can be
 
#3 ·
Thanks. He does seem better this morning. He's at least swimming around more, and has taken up his usual place by the heater. I really suspect it was temperature shock. He's had it before about a year ago when I used to keep him in a 2 gallon glass bowl and it broke while I was cleaning it. He had to stay in the container for almost an hour and a half while I got a new one, and he got cold. But I think he was just hiding more this time around, so that's why I was more worried. But maybe it was because he has more places to hide now that he's in a much bigger tank. I will be much more careful with making sure his water is warm enough from now on before I put him into his cleaning container.
 
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