i don't know whats wrong .

[sekcii]

hello .

I have had my beta fish for about 6 months now , and recently over the past few days I have noticed that Stiink *that's his name* has been acting strangely .

Recently he hasn't been swimming around much and he ALWAYS loved to swim . He does swim but when he does its as though he gets tired and stops . He also looks as though hes twitching a bit while swimming . He sits at the bottom of the tank and leans against the wall of it .

He also doesnt eat much anymore ; I'm feeding him flakes with bloodworms and he has always eatten it but now doesnt eat at all . The water is changed every week and ahalf to two weeks nothing with these routines have changed .

I have also noticed now that he tends to wanna be nose down between the leaf and the steam of his plant decoration . He NEVER did this before . He has me worried .

Oh, and when hes swimming - like other betas thier back tail fans out and looks really pretty - his doesn't anymore and his fins seem to look a little worn but I don't understand why .

[sekcii]

anyoneee ?

[Chicklet]

Even big tanks require at least once a week partial water changes,
2 weeks is to long between changes,

problem could be simple lack of clean water,

What size tank are we talking about here?

[sekcii]

its a 3L marina tank .
i do change half the water every week .
but by the 2 week point i change the water completely .

[sekcii]

its an adult beta .

[Kim]

Ahh, I see the problem and luckily it is an easy fix. 3L is a really small tank and you will probably want to upgrade in the future for the health of your betta. Contrary to popular belief bettas DO NOT like small tanks. Anyway, your problem is simply bad water quality. In a tank that small you need to be doing 100% changes every few days which should not be stressful for you betta as long as you match the temperature correctly and condition the water (which should be from the same source to avoid pH and hardness differences).

Another thing is that because I'm guessing you don't have a heater, he's probably really cold. Bettas are tropical fish and do best in the 78-82 degree range. I keep mine at 80. You want an adjustable heater with a thermostat so that the temperature will stay stable even at night when the temp usually falls. I love the visitherm stealth model, and because they are so accurate I wouldn't worry too much about the 25 watt (smallest size) being too large for your tank.

I'm willing to bet that once you make those few changes he'll perk up considerably since I've seen it happen many times. Good luck and keep us posted :)

[dramaqueen]

I use the visitherm stealth too and it works great in my 4 gallon.

[LaniBaby]

same here! i have a visitherm stealth in both my 3 gallon tanks. one is a 25 watt and one is a 50 watt and they both work equally well since they click on and off when necessary. bettas don't last very long in cold water. :(

[alexx]

my betta does the same thing,but i just got him yesterday. he just lays at the bottom of the vase like he's exhausted.

[LaniBaby]

alexx: how big is the vase? does he have room to swim? and is he heated? also, how often are you changing the water? These are all important questions if you want to avoid the fin rot you seemed so upset over in the other thread. :)