Please Help

[hiimbob7]

I must let you all know I have no idea what some of these questions mean, but I will do my best.

1. What is the size of your tank?
5 gallons

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.
Not sure. No test done.*

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?
Feeshwater

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?
A bit over a year

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?
One male betta. Ive had him for a bit over a year as well.*

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?
No quarantine cause hes The only one in there.*


7. What temperature is the tank water currently?
Mid 70's

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
None.*

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.
Tetra wisper? Not sure. It came with The tank.*

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?
A thermometer.*
*

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?
No.*

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?
5 days ago. I changed out all The water when i noticed he was acting differently. I changed The water once a month. *

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?
Aqua culture pellets twice a day a couple pellets. But i havent seen him eating recently.*

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?*
I notice some holes in his tail a day after i had turned off The filter which is why i had turned it off. Then he started swimming funny and would rest on The bottom of The tank on his side and was very slow to respond to My presence. I thought The holes in his fin was from The filter cause one day i saw it had suck him in which was weird in itself because he can normally swim out of it and because he just let it until i touched The tank. I dont see him eating either.****

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.
No. Nothing. Except for changing out The water.

[kelly528]

Looks like he just has some fin issues from poor water quality. It won't be hard to fix. Before we go any further I want you to graps the concept of the nitrogen cycle that plays out in your aquarium. Please read:

Rotting food and fish waste produces a toxin called ammonia. This is usually what kills fish when the tank isn't cleaned often enough. Given enough ammonia, bacteria called Nitrosomonas start living off it and starting a colony in the tank. They live on all the surfaces, primarily the filter because it contains the most surface area. They eat the ammonia and produce a less-harmful waste product called nitrIte.

When nitrIte builds up, it attracts another kind of bug called Nitrobacter bacteria. They do all the same stuff as Nitrosomonas, only with the nitrIte instead of ammonia. What comes out the other end is a chemical called nitrAte. It's only harmless in big amounts. You then vacuum the nitrAte out of the tank when you do the water change. It doesn't take alot of vacuuming to remove.

In an uncycled tank, you skip the bacteria by sucking all the ammonia up yourself. Since you are cleaning out all the ammonia before the bacteria get a chance to dig in, they never really colonise the tank. So you take care of all the ammonia yourself, which requires bigger water changes to eliminate.

AMMONIA >nitrosomonas bacteria> NITRITE >nitrobacter bacteria> NITRATE => Water Change

So cycled 5 gallons should actually be changed about 25% every week. When you clean the tank 100% (I assume) every month, essentially what you are doing it eliminating all the bacteria in the tank. So you have just cleaned all the bacteria out and there is nobody to eat all the ammonia, which is hurting your fish. If you tested the water in your aquarium over the span of a month you would see an ammonia spike for the first days right after you cleaned, then a nitrite spike, then nitrates steadily rising until you next clean the tank. This is not good for your fish.

Until we get back on track you are going to have to remove all the ammonia yourself for the next little while until your fish is strong enough to handle the cycle. Change it 100% now to get rid of all that ammonia and we will go from there.