My betta story and need some help. . . .

[dazael]

Ok, so my wife went to a wedding shower and each table had a little bowl with a fish in it, kind of an odd favor I know lol. Anyway my wife took the fish and got a 1.5gal bowl for him. Not really knowing anything about bettas, he was eating fine. Now heres the fun part, we have 3 cats. After about a week and a half of having the fish on the bathroom sink 1 of the cats decided to play, so while watching tv we heard a loud crash and immediately knew what it was, the bowl fell off the sink. So we ran in to save him but could not find him, thinking the cat grabbed him. Well my wife looked in the garbage can and sure enough there he was in the bottom sitting in a few inches of water. So we put him back in his little cup and the poor guy looked really shaken up, I was mad at the cat hehe. So I came to this site and was amazed at the info I found from everyone elses posts. I went out the next morning got a 5 gal tank from walmart, gravel, plastic plants, filter. Now we cleaned the tank and everything and let the filter run pretty much a full day, only thing we might have not cleaned good is the plastic plants. There is a little film that looks kinda oily like on the top. Also ever since we put him in there he doesnt eat, he puts the betta pellets in his mouth and spits them out like they are too big, and he spits the flakes out as well. Also just to mention we have a heater in the tank so its 78 degrees. Any suggestions on what might be the matter? We also dont run the filter all the time because it makes too much of a current, so my wife just went out today and got a new one that makes no current so it'll at least be a bit cleaner. Thanks for your help.

[Calmwaters]

Not sure what it could be but I wanted to say welcome and you guys did a good job getting him a bigger tank. Do you have city water? If so did you put water conditioner in it? You should also probably get a product called prime it detoxifiys the ammo, nitrites, and nitrates, and another product that is called stability it has benificial bacteria in it that all new tanks need to cycle. If you have a petsmart I know they carry both these products.

[dazael]

thanks, and forgot to mention i do have city water, and the tank did come with water softener called tetra safe. I also got him blood worms to eat and everything he just spits right out. And the new filter we got today is a whisper internal filter and it spills out bubbles all over lol.

[Calmwaters]

How long has he been in the new tank? Sometimes it takes them a few days to get use to a new home. Did you get a water test kit? With it being a new tank you need to keep an eye on the ammo, nitrite, nitrate levels. If you don't have a test kit and can get one of the drip kind like the API master kit it is very reliable.

[dazael]

he has been in there for about 4-5 days. just now i actually notice him swimming around more which since we put him in the new tank he hasnt really moved at all. just have to see if he's going to eat. and i do not have a test kit yet, maybe i'll run out to petsmart and pick one up and the prime and stability you mentioned before. Also I got http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=10291765 because like i said the one that came with the tank was making too much of a current, but I notice this filter is making alot of bubbles on the surface, is this normal or safe for the fish? I eventually would like to get him a female companion and if they have babies I dont want that do disturb the surface lol. thanks again for the help :)