Fish Hides all the Time, Doesn't Eat

[jessiepbg]

Housing
What size is your tank? 3 gal critter keeper
What temperature is your tank? 76 F
Does your tank have a filter? No
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? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Tried pellets, crushed and soaked, freeze dried blood worms, thawed bloodworms, thawed brine shrimp
How often do you feed your betta fish? attempt to twice a day, he ate two tiny defrosted bloodworm bits last night, hasn't eaten much else in almost 2 weeks

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 50%, 3 X weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime

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

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 8.3
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? none
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? lethargic, won't eat, stays towards the bottom of the tank
When did you start noticing the symptoms? this evening
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? 100% water change, stress coat
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? bought from store 2 weeks ago

I posted about this a few days ago and he's really starting to scare me. I put a terra cotta pot in the tank for him to hide in and he never does anything but lay in the bottom of it. When I moves with it for a bit, then will finally swim out of it and lay somewhere else in the tank for a bit. When he swims for the first time when he gets out of the pot, it looks like his tail weighs him down. I've tried everything I've ever heard of to get him to eat, pellets, pellets soaked in garlic juice, freeze-dried bloodworms, frozed bloodworms, and frozen brineshrimp. I'm getting really worried about him. He's only eaten a handful of times since I got him and it's been a while. He's been getting gradually more lethargic. I put some stress coat in with him just because it's the last thing I could think to do, all his parameters are perfect and his temp is right where I think it ought to be.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I really don't want to lose this guy.

[Oldfishlady]

Sounds like you got a sick fish from the start......you are providing a good habitat and care...water temp is good......just not eating well and seems to be struggle a bit to swim.......what I would do....

QT and start an Epsom salt(Not aquarium salt) treatment.......1tsp/gal the first 2 days and on day 3 increase the Epsom salt to 2tsp/gal along with the 100% daily water changes for a total of 10 days...if you have any tannins from either IAL or Oak leaf...add this too......if you pre-mix the treatment water in a 1gal jug of dechlorinated water you can add the tannin source and salt...this will make water changes and correct dosage of salt easier.....
Keep offering the food every day and maintain the temp in the 76F range.....

Good luck and keep us posted.....

[jessiepbg]

Ok, I'll start the treatments up tonight. I don't have any tannin sources that I know of right now. Is there anything I could possibly pick up from the supermarket or a pet store?

Thanks for the suggestions!

[turtle10]

For regular water changes after the treatment I would go with one 50% and one 100% a week. If you never do a 100% water change the ammonia will always be there and keep building up, unless your tank is heavily planted.

[jessiepbg]

He was up and about this evening when I came home. I put a plain pellet in and he kept grabbing it, chewing it, and spitting it out again, but it didn't look like he got anything off of it. He tried 4 or 5 times, which is what he did when I first got him and an improvement over the last few days. I'm going to be gone nearly all day tomorrow, so I'm going to get up early and do another water change + salt addition before I go. I'll get back Wednesday night and do another treatment as soon as I'm back home, so hopefully he'll do alright with irregularly spaced treatments. I don't have anyone who'd be able to take care of them in between besides feeding. I asked someone to give him one pellet Tuesday morning and nothing Tuesday night, so he'll have a chance at food, but he won't end up with a bunch of sunken pellets if he doesn't eat them. I really need to train my boyfriend to do water changes for me, lol, that would be super convenient.

[Oldfishlady]

Originally Posted by turtle10

For regular water changes after the treatment I would go with one 50% and one 100% a week. If you never do a 100% water change the ammonia will always be there and keep building up, unless your tank is heavily planted.

Good catch turtle...I agree, on a 3gal unfiltered tank without live plants....1-50% and 1-100% weekly water changes to maintain water quality...

[jessiepbg]

Is there any reason I shouldn't just do 2 100% changes a week? By the time I get the 2 tanks halfway drained and 3 gallons of water dragged up the stairs, I might as well make it a 100% water change if that would be better for the fish.

He's up and about by the way. He hasn't actually eaten anything yet, but he's moving around the tank and doing the little Betta shimmy when i come by. He is back to pretending to eat and grabbing and spitting out food over and over again, which I'm going to assume is improvement. I'll give him some defrosted bloodworm tonight and see if that's tempting enough for him.

Edit: Rofl, that did it, he devoured that bloodworm! I'm so excited to see him feeling better.

[Oldfishlady]

Great.....if you want to make 100% twice weekly thats up to you...just saying you don't have to.....

[jessiepbg]

Ok, I'm just short of a week into the treatment and he's acting much healthier, but still isn't really eating. He still takes the pellets into his mouth and then spits them back out like he had been doing, but I don't know how much he's getting off them. The only things he isn't spitting out are defrosted bloodworms and brineshrimp in very small amounts. I give him one every 2-3 days when I feed my cories at night because I'm worried about him getting hit with malnutrition. I can't imagine this is enough to sustain him though. Should I worry about this or give him until the end of the treatment before I start worrying? All of his other symptoms are gone, he just won't eat much.

[turtle10]

Try soaking the pellets in garlic juice, that might help. I am sorry to hear about his eating issues :(