Lethargic?

[Capricorn]

So Nettle is sort of lethargic right now, he has been all day.. I can see that he's a bit bloated so I'm going to fast him. Just did a water test this morning and the levels seem mostly fine, and I just changed a portion of the water. Any ideas, or should I just chill and see what happens? All of the ghost shrimp are foraging around on the bottom and seem fine, and since inverts are sensitive to water quality I'm not sure it's that.

Let's see..

Housing
What size is your tank?; 5gal hex
What temperature is your tank?; Right now ~80*
Does your tank have a filter?; yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?; no
Is your tank heated?; yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?, couple of ghost shrimp.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?; New Life Spectrum betta pellets, frozen brine shrimp once or twice a week
How often do you feed your betta fish?; Six days a week, he gets three pellets in the morning.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?; Roughly once every 5-7 days.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?; About 20-30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?; At the moment he's regrowing his fin so I add a small amount of aquarium salt in addition to the Tetra water conditioner I have.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Nitrite: ~10
Nitrate: ~.5-1
pH: about 8, not sure how to safely lower it.
Hardness: ~75
Alkalinity: ~180

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?; his belly is slightly bloated, but that's it.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?; less swimming, more hanging out at the tank's bottom. sort of lethargic.
When did you start noticing the symptoms?; very late last night/this morning.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?; I did change a portion of the water.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? I haven't had him long, so no.
How old is your fish (approximately)?; He's a petco fish, so probably 6-12 months?



I'm thinking I just need to change more of the water, just wanted a second opinion. Thanks.

[Oldfishlady]

You need to make enough water changes to get the nitrite down to 0.25ppm or less....0ppm is ideal
The high nitrite effect the oxygen transport in the blood and most likely the reason for him being lethargic...he is suffocating

What is the ammonia reading?

[Capricorn]

Thanks OFL.

My ammonia test kit is actually in my smock at work right now, I'll have to grab it tomorrow.. e.e if I change out the rest of the water do you think that'll bring it back down? He does seem a little bit more active since I changed it earlier, so I'm thinking I'll do more of it right now.

[Oldfishlady]

I would keep doing water only changes until I got the nitrite down to 0.25ppm at least...your goal is 0ppm nitrite.

[Capricorn]

Yesterday I got it down to someplace inbetween 0 and .5 on the chart, going to do a couple more changes when I get home from class tonight. He looked much, much more active after the changes yesterday. Thanks OFL. (: