Excessive Lying Down

[kahepfin]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 to 2 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 75 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? N/A
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? He lives with another betta, but there's a water net separating them.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Freeze dried blood worms and BettaMin
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Before the filter, once every week. Now, probably every month, due to the filter.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water Conditioner

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

Ammonia: Not sure
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.0
Hardness: 25 (mg/l)
Alkalinity: 180 (mg/l)

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His crowntailed fins seem shorter
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He swims normally, but sometimes he just lies on the bottom of his tank and doesn't really move unless I put my hand to the tank or feed him.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? A month or 2 ago.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I gave him a Fungus Guard Tablet yesterday, but I don't think it did anything.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not until this.
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had him almost a year.

[Adastra]

Oh goodness, the problem is that you're not changing the water often enough at all.

It seems that what you were trying to accomplish with your filter was a bacterial colony to help take care of the ammonia, however, even a filtered/cycled tank of that size would need to be changed 50% once a week. The tank is simply way too small to get away with being only partial changed once a month--the bacteria in your filter simply cannot help you deal with this much fish waste polluting your water.

I am sorry to say that you also went about this the wrong way. Cycling a tank is an involving process--it's not something that you just leave to nature. Plopping the filter in doesn't mean you can cut way back on water changes immediately--especially since before you got the filter you weren't changing the water enough anyway. Cultivating a bacterial colony in your filter without harming your fish takes time and effort on your part. You need to monitor your progress with a reliable test kit so that you can make the necessary adjustments so that your fish doesn't become poisoned by the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spikes that occur along the way. Until you get a test kit, we should assume the tank is not cycled for the safety of the fish.

The first order of business will be to determine exactly how much water the tank holds so that we can recommend a water changing routine that will get him healthy again. You can use measuring cups to do this during your next water change (which by the sound of it, should probably be done immediately)--16 cups = 1 gallon. If the tank is 1 gallon in size, you will need to do 100% water changes every other day. If the tank is 1.5 gallons, every two days, if the tank is 2 gallons, every 3-4 days should suffice.

This sounds excessive, but you need to understand that the ammonia fish excrete through their gills as waste is extremely toxic. It can poison and burn the fish, which is why his ray extensions are gone. They've been burned off.

If you can find some methylene blue, it can be very helpful for fish with ammonia poisoning and it will help prevent secondary infections. Once you get him in clean water that is consistently clean, he should really perk up. Once he's completely healthy again, purchase a good liquid test kit like this one: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+4454&pcatid=4454 , do your research on how to cycle a tank properly, and then you can put your filter back in and maintenance will be much less imposing on your schedule.

[karlhague]

In a 1-2gal tank you need to be doing more water changes than once a week..

Even with a filter, you will still need to do at least one to two water changes a week..


lack of Water changes results in bad water quality, Which will then put stress on your betta's Immune system and could cause him to become really ill

[Oldfishlady]

In a 1-2g divided filtered tank with 2 adult Bettas-it sounds like water quality issue and cool water-I would start increasing the water changes to 4-50% per week with 2 Bettas in the tank and increase the water temp by at least a couple of degrees in the 76-80F range
Give the filter media a swish/rinse in old tank water 3 times a month in over-crowed conditions and when the water flows slows to get the big pieces of gunk off.
Be sure and get the substrate vacuumed/cleaned with one of the 4 times a week water changes.

[kahepfin]

I already do water tests, hence how I even got the information.

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

[Oldfishlady]

Can you post your numbers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH

Also, welcome to the wonderful world of Betta keeping...would love to see pic of your Bettas and set-ups.....

[kahepfin]

It was in my original post.

[Adastra]

Wow, I didn't even see the part about the tank housing two bettas. You should really jump on those water changes and consider upgrading to a larger tank. When bettas, or any other animals, for that matter are kept in such small spaces they often develop behavioral issues like tail-biting, glass surfing, and other neurotic behaviors. You will enjoy them so much more in a larger, more stable environment where they have room to show off their personalities and feel secure. I don't recommend anything less than 5 gallons for two bettas.