Betta is extremely lethargic and is losing interest in food

[klslone]

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 80-82F
Does your tank have a filter? yes
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? Flakes (Betta Medley maybe? I forgot the specific brand)
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1-2 times a day with occasional fasting days

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Depends on water parameters
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 40%-70%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Betta Safe

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

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 6.4
Hardness: na
Alkalinity: na

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Only difference is clamped fins.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Extremely lethargic and disinterested in food.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? about a week ago.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No, I'm not completely sure what is wrong with him.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1 year old.


For the past week or so my betta has been really lethargic and sometimes he doesn't even come up for food. Every now and then he will move but mostly he just sits inside of the log I have in his tank. There are no external signs of sickness or disease, so I don't know what is going on.

I am a college student and I kept him with me when I was at school this past year. Here is what has been going on since I have been home this summer.

When we first got him back home and set his tank back up he was fine as always. He would swim around, eat like a pig, and build bubble nests.

Here is what has happened over the course of the past couple months. I noticed that my snail's shell was deteriorating (the snail has since then died). But in order to give the snail more calcium, I added calcium pills to the water. I also added some cuttlebone. My betta never showed any signs of being in distress or anything from these additions. He continued on just like always. A few days ago I checked the water parameters and the nitrite had spiked up to 1.0. I detoxified it with prime until I could change the water later that evening. Now the parameters are back to normal but my betta isn't. A couple of days ago the snail died so I removed him and the cuttlebone. I also did a large water change (around 80%-90%) in order to remove anything that the snail may have released into the water (I wasn't sure exactly how many hours the snail had been dead). Even though the water is clean and the parameters are okay, he is still not back to normal. I am not 100% sure on what could be wrong with him.

Something I did notice though is that usually the pH of his tank is higher, around the 7.8-8.4 range. Today when I checked it, the pH was 6.4 and the pH of the tap water is around 7.6. Could this be something that is affecting him?

[lvandert]

he might be in shock from the sudden change in hardness. It wouldn't hurt to give him some aq salt and stress coat to see if he doesn't perk up. If there is no change within a few days then there is something else going on here.

When you clean the tank do you stir up the gravel and suck the junk out?

[klslone]

Yes, I vacuum the gravel. I used something to buffer the pH and it was around 7.6 last night. Hopefully, it didn't jump too fast on him. He is still alive. I am going to try and keep his water stable and clean. Also, how much aquarium salt should I put in?

[lvandert]

read the box. It should say to dose "for repairing fins"

[deso]

Yup, agreed with lvandert. It's probably shock from the change in pH. I had the same thing happen to my betta when I changed the brand of bottled spring water and the difference was only .4 (went from 7.4 to 7.0), as opposed to nearly 1 entire unit like your situation. He looked so awful for four days that I thought he was on his deathbed...then one morning I woke up and he was back to normal. Just keep his params stable, environment quiet and stress-free, and don't try to buffer the pH anymore, as it often does more harm than good to mess with it.

Also, cuttlebone gradually raises the pH of water. I am almost sure that the complete removal of it caused the pH to drop so rapidly in the tank.

[klslone]

It has been probably over a week now and there has been no improvement. My betta is still alive but is still not as interested in food as before and is still just sitting at the bottom of the tank inside his log.

Any other ideas as to what could be wrong with him?

[lvandert]

Can we get a picture? There might be something we dont see. Shine a light on him does he have golden specs all over? Does his body look like a pinecone (fins are stuck out from body)? Are there white specs anywhere on him? are any of his fins fuzzy? is he bloated or does he have a lump anywhere that there shouldn't be one?

[klslone]

I will try to get a picture up tomorrow (Saturday). I have looked at him from above and I don't think he is pine-coning. If anything is abnormal I would say he is bloated but other than that I don't see any difference in his appearance. His fins are clamped but other than that he looks fine. His coloring is good, no white or gold spots or anything like that. Someone said that maybe he is just old but I have only had him a year.

[lvandert]

if he's at all bloated looking then we could have our cause. As long as your not overfeeding (which it doesn't sound like it) then you've got internal parasites. They bloat up in the belly and cause him to be very uncomfortable. I would start treatment with 2tsp unscented epsom salt per gallon for 5 days. If at the end of 5 days there is no improvement by day 5 up the dosage to 3tsp for another 5 days. At the end of the 10 days if there is still no change give him a week without the salts before trying again

[BlueRose7]

You haven't had a heat spike in your area, have you? Where the water is warmer than usual? That sometimes makes my fishies unhappy (although I imagine he'd be at the top instead). Just a thought. Do you have a mirror/other fish you might sit him by for a while to perk him up a bit/give him something to be interested in?
I'm no expert, just trying to offer suggestions. I hope everything turns out okay.