He's My Problem Fish

[JKfish]

:/ Tux isn't feeling too well. These past few days he's been clamping and inactive, and this morning he was a complete spazz and went into these panic swims ever few minutes. I was a bit freaked out, so I put him in a little tubberware with 1 tsp of salt per gallon. He sits completely still now and won't move his pectorals. He is eating fine, so I doubt he's deathly ill, but I'm pretty worried, because I can't see anything physically wrong with him.

Housing
What size is your tank? 10 gallons

What temperature is your tank? 82*F (I'm trying to bring it down to 80)

Does your tank have a filter? Yes (cycled)

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? Kaimar (divided tank) and pond snails

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Top Fin color enhancing pellets and frozen bloodworms

How often do you feed your betta fish? 2-3 pellets twice a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a week

What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 20% (the tank is planted and I monitor the parameters)

What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime

[DarkMoon17]

The only suggestion I can make from looking at your husbandry is maybe a slightly larger water change (30%) but that wouldn't make a major difference...

From the symptoms:
Darting
Clamped
Lethargic
I would say parasites. However, these symptoms are the same for external and internal parasites. Take a flashlight and look over him to rule out velvet or ick. Make sure you look very carefully at the edges of the body, the area around the gills and the bases of the fins. What do his feces look like? Are they white/clear? Has he lost weight? Has his appetite increased lately?

[JKfish]

I already checked for external parasites, and he is ich and velvet free. Besides, Kaimar is still healthy and happy as a clam (also ich and velvet free).I can't exactly tell if Tux's appetite has increased any, my bettas always act like I haven't fed them in days when feeding time rolls around. As for weightloss, it is possible, but I can't tell. About two weeks ago he did a number on his tail, and so he looks extremely scrawny and smaller than he did before. As for his feces, I don't really see them, but since he's in the tubberware, I can decide in the morning.

I'm going to up his feedings slightly and see if that helps him feel a bit better. I've slacked off of presoaking in garlic juice, so I'll start that back up and see if it flushes out any parasites.

[DarkMoon17]

Well then it isn't external parasites. If you see white or clear feces in the morning then its internal parasites.... I guess they can also dart around if there are lots of heavy metals in the water but you would have seen him having trouble with the water earlier than this. Feeding him garlic soaked pellets should help. Good luck!

[kathstew]

This may sound weird but is he a halfmoon? Or were they any loud/stressfull noises/events that could have scared him?

My halfmoon Femur did this exact thing. I expected him to pass within the few days he was doing this. I'd approach the tank thinking he was dead, and then he would dart around before laying back on the bottom of the tank. I woke up one morning, to his fins quite bitten off, but otherwise back to normal.
For some reason he had been acting extremely stressed, then one night eaten the majority of his fins, before returning to normal. I'm thinking maybe his fins were getting too heavy for him which were making him stressed, so he ate them off, and then felt much better.

Its probably just a coincedence, but may be something to keep an eye out for.

[DarkMoon17]

kathstew-it sounds like your boy might have had fin rot and took care of it himself. They've been known to bite their own fins off when they are painful, which would explain why he wasn't feeling so well beforehand and then improved after he removed the source of discomfort.

That is a good point though, JKfish has there been any noise/disruption around the tank that could cause him to dart?

[kathstew]

Originally Posted by DarkMoon17

kathstew-it sounds like your boy might have had fin rot and took care of it himself. They've been known to bite their own fins off when they are painful, which would explain why he wasn't feeling so well beforehand and then improved after he removed the source of discomfort.

That is a good point though, JKfish has there been any noise/disruption around the tank that could cause him to dart?

Really? Thats so weird.
He didn't look like he had finrot, and he is in a divided tank with my other male betta Chuckie Sue. Chuckie Sue was fine. And I forgot to mention in my first post, that it started after there was a lot of Thunder and fireworks (fireworks one night, the next few nights there were thunderstorms), so I always kinda thought the noises were stressing him out so much he went physco and ate his fins. Strange....

Anyway, JK I hope your guy gets better soon!