betta not very active

[zchild]

3 weeks ago I bought a betta fish. It lives in a 5 gallon tank with an average temperature between 75 and 80 degrees, the water ph is 7.6. I've tried making the ph lower but my water is so hard it doesn't seem to make a difference when I put ph down in.

Anyway a week ago he would swim around all the time and not eat when I fed him, now when I feed him he comes up and eats all the food I give him, which is a pinch of bettamin and a couple of blood worms (he seems to have quite an appetite for such a little guy) but now he doesn't swim as much and mainly lays around on his plants near the top.

Do their moods change from week to week? He seems pretty healthy otherwise.. I just wanted to know if it was normal for them to "sit" around a lot.

[Jpet]

I would stop putting the ph down in. Like you said with your High ph it doesn't make a difference. Are you doing weekly partial water changes?
Also bettas dont need to eat alot. So he may be bloated let the little guy fast for a day and see how it goes.

[herefishy]

One of the things that I do to help with pH, and algae for that matter, is to add elodea. This plant for years has been used in the hobby for such things. It is a floating plant, so your betta will love it. He will be able to seek shelter and anchor his bubble nest to the plants.

[zchild]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will not feed my fish for a day ( I don't know how he will take that, since every time I walk up to the tank in the morning he will seem to beg for food!)

where would I get this elodea?

Also I just wondered, I have the tank in the window so he gets some light.. would all that sunlight be scaring him? If so I plan to move it to another location and just add a lamp

[zchild]

oh and to answer your question about the water change..
I find that the tank loses water pretty quickly I guess from evaporation so I am constantly replacing the water every 4-5 days. I don't know whether you would consider that a water change or not.. the tank seems crystal clear though

[SST]

Adding water due to evaporation is not a water change. It is diluting the bad stuff, but not removing them, so they are still building up.

Natural light isn't bad. I'd be worried about temp. fluctuations. I've my 5. gal. in a place that gets full sun in the winter for several hours a day (cause the leaves are off the trees) and so I have to put up something to block the sun so the tank doesn't go over 80 degrees, which it would if I left it unblocked. Do you have a decent thermometer (one that goes inside the tank, not one that glues to the outside) to monitor the temp?

There are other ways to bring the ph down naturally, such as driftwood. I've not much experience with that as my problem runs the other way and I have to add crushed coral to my tank to bring my ph up.

Do you have a test kit to monitor your water parameters? I know you mentioned ph, but are you also testing for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? If not, it's been recommended on this forum to get the API master liquid test kit and do regular tests. When you ask for help with problems, the first questions asked are "are you doing regular water changes and what are your water parameters".

Welcome to the forum.

[zchild]

Well I changed half the water out and vacuumed the gravel and I moved the tank away from the window and put a lamp near the tank and he seems to be moving around much more now! :D
I noticed by the window the temperature was going from 75 degrees in the morning to 80 degrees in a couple of hours, so i guess the temp change was too much.

I think i will pick up one of those kits to test the ammonia and nitrate. Can you tell visually if the nitrate is too high?

Thanks for all the responses