Betta Nose Dive!

[Bettaboobie]

Hi there,

I've had my Betta (named Belly) for about 4 months now. He lives in a 2-gallon, filtered, unheated, lightly planted hexagon-shaped tank. He seemed really happy in his environment (blowing bubbles, interactive, etc.), that is, until recently. I should mention that I've been trying to desperatley get rid of the algae that has been clouding his water in the last month or so... performing water changes every few days, using water conditioner.

Just a couple days ago, I approached his tank and he FREAKED OUT like I had never seen before! He then took a nose dive right into the glass stones I use as decorative gravel...and he just lied there, head in the gravel, not moving. I was quite upset...I thought he was dead. When I went to scoop him out, he freaked out again & went to the top of the tank and stayed there.

I'm in the process of getting Belly a larger tank with a heater & filter...I've placed him in another container with clean water. He's still acting scared. I'm really worried about him.

Has anyone ever heard of this?

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum....sorry you are having problems.....

My first thought when I hear something like this...is something happened to the water....like a toxic substance of some sort fell in the water somehow.....and if you had just made a water change right before it happened...it could be chlorine, chloramine or even heavy metals.....sometimes the water supply company will make changes in the additives used and especially if you do 100% water changes and this happens....or it could just be that he got spooked and knocked himself silly and it may take a few hours to days for him to recover.......this is not uncommon and sadly some fish have killed themselves this way......and it not anything that the hobbyist did wrong or even anything that they can do.......its just an accident........good that you went ahead and QT and did some more water changes...I would just watch him for now and provide a dim lit quite place for him to recover.....if he is still acting odd or restless....I would add a little extra dechlorinator and 1tsp/gal aquarium salt....check your dechlorinator and make sure its not expired and you are using enough based on your chlorine and chloramine levels...
Keep us posted.....

After re-reading your post...did you use any algae-cide type products.....if so, this could be some of the reason for the behavior......do you have live plants, is the tank by a sunny window, how much and how often do you normally make the water changes and water temp......

[Bettaboobie]

Thanks so much for your valuable insights, Oldfishlady! Turns out, the water conditioner that I recently bought was old & had expired. I bought some new water conditioner, along with a mini heater for Belly's tank, and he seems to be feeling better. I am so grateful to you!! And Belly thanks you as well!