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HELP! Urgent! Betta might be in pain

473 views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  CopperBell 
#1 ·
So I just bought a heater for my betta after 1 week of no heater and the temp is 80F, I just saw my betta at the top of the tank sitting so still but the gills are moving... what should I do?
 
#2 ·
Can you post a picture? Bettas often just "hang out" at the top of the tank when resting, but if there are other symptoms this may be an issue.
 
#4 ·
Hmm, I may be wrong but the position of the fish looks like he may be having buoyancy issues (I've seen it a lot in my rescues). Is he able to swim down to the bottom of the tank? Does he list to the side when he isn't propped up behind the filter? I'm thinking this is probably completely unrelated to the new heater....did you just purchase this betta last week?
 
#6 ·
I wouldn't. In the absence of any other symptoms, he could just be getting used to his new environment.

How often/how much are you changing the water? What size tank is it? Is the tank cycled? What are the water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? What are you feeding him? How much are you feeding him? The answers to these questions will help us figure out if there could be an environmental cause for this behavior.
 
#8 · (Edited)
If the filter isn't baffled and that's the Whisper in-tank I think it is that has an airline tubing intake, you can temper the flow by getting a airline control kit. It's usually pretty cheap and will allow you to control the amount of flow coming into the tank. I use this method with these filters in my 2.5gs and was able to find a setting for the airflow that gave a less strong current and still filtered decently.
 
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