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New Betta Not Eating/Lethargic

2K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  jessiepbg 
#1 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? 3 gal critter keeper
What temperature is your tank? 76 F
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Tried pellets, crushed and soaked, freeze dried blood worms, thawed bloodworms, thawed brine shrimp
How often do you feed your betta fish? attempt to twice a day, he ate two tiny defrosted bloodworm bits last night, hasn't eaten much else in almost 2 weeks

Maintenance

How often do you perform a water change? 50%, 3 X weekly
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? Prime

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

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 8.3
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? none
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? lethargic, won't eat, stays towards the bottom of the tank
When did you start noticing the symptoms? this evening
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? 100% water change, stress coat
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? bought from store 2 weeks ago

I just got this fish about 2 weeks ago. He won't eat pellets, no matter how small they're crushed. He takes them in his mouth, looks like he's going to swallow them, then spits them out. He even does it with defrosted bloodworms and brineshrimp. I heard something about soaking pellets in garlic juice, so I'm going to look that up right now and try it.
What I'm really wondering is if these sound like symptoms of malnourishment or if there's something else going on. I just moved some glass beads from my other Betta's tank into his, along with a small terra-cotta pot and a few blades of a fake silk grass from the same Betta's tank. I moved the other Betta into an identical 3 gallon critter keeper decorated exactly like my sick one's two days ago. That betta has just started showing dark, orangy-red scales over his head. I'm taking the decorations out of both tanks and doing 100% water changes.
The skin in his gills is dark, but it looks like part of his coloration more than a symptom. He's had that since the day I got him. He really doesn't look like a sick fish. The two big things are that he's pretty much either sitting on the bottom of the tank or just beneath the surface of the water at all times and that his gills are moving a little more than when I first got him.

Here's some pics, just in case I'm missing any symptoms:


 
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#2 ·
EDIT: He's up and moving now. There hasn't been a soul in the house except when I popped in around noon today and yesterday to feed the fish. Even the young cat who used to pop up and watch the fish during the day is gone. I wonder if he was just sleeping hard and took a while longer than usual (30 minutes to get back to his active self vs. 2-5 mins most days when I get home) to wake up. Still, any tips on how to get him to eat would be great!
 
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