If you get the chance, I'd upgrade him to a 2 gallon or larger tank. It'll be better for him health wise and he will like the extra space.
In that size of tank, you should do a 50% and a 100% (or more) each week. Ammonia builds up fast in small tanks which might be the cause of his symptoms.
Bloodworms are also a treat. Get him on a good quality pellet like Omega One (not the flakes) or New Life Spectrum. Since he's used to bloodworms, he might not eat the pellets at first but keep offering them and don't cave and give him bloodworms. New Life Spectrum might be a better choice because they contain garlic which makes them more appetizing.
Many fish get picky and refuse pellets when they are used to bloodworms. Get him to start eating pellets and you can feed him a bloodworm once or twice a week as a treat.
I wanted to check the brand name of the pellets I have, Wardley Betta Food.
,...The water I use for his tank now is soft water, filtered with a water softener.... .
Should I put him in distilled water? I have been using water conditioner for him since day one.
Many (most?) water softeners use a salt to lower the hardness (GH) and absorb the minerals (KH) of hard water. Freshwater fish do not like salt of any kind. You're lucky Betta are pretty rugged and adaptable.
Can you get at the water before it's run through your softener? Can you get any unsoftened tapwater?
Distilled is not the way to go as it lacks minerals your fish needs. Most tapwater has these minerals. Glad you know about conditioning your water.
I was wondering. I'm sure it is obvious now that my originally six female betta sorority is now a four female betta sorority due to two of them actually being males. Some of the females in my sorority are going to be bred, but now I only have four left, so I'm worried about taking one out (for conditioning). Will this cause major issues within my sorority? If so, I will simply wait and purchase more off AB/ the pet store. However, if the two week conditioning/spawning time is a short enough time to pull this off, that would be really great news. Coincidentally, the most aggressive female is the one that I will be breeding.
Three females isn't probably a good idea. Often, two of them will gang up on the third and kill/injure her. Since four is the minimum number, I would actually recommend at least five just in case one ever needs to be removed. If you take one out, the remaining three will have to re-establish a pecking order.
So, I purchased two girls from the pet store today to go into my sorority. 100% sure they're girls and 100% sure there is nothing wrong with them aside from ammonia burns from being in their nasty cup water (there was so much poo!!!). I was wondering: when is the soonest that I can put them in the sorority so I can pull out my other female for breeding? I know about the re-acclimating everyone, etc.
I feel silly asking questions to things I already feel like I know, or things I would tell other people. Since I have trouble following my own advice, though, I feel like I should still ask.
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