Betta floating belly-up.

[elijahfeathers]

So last night was hectic. Long story short, a betta went into a new 2.5 gallon tank that had a heater that was overheating him, and a malfunctioning thermomiter. He started to display this behavior then, was removed from the water, and perked up after a few hours. I thought it was related to the heat.


Well, I put him back in. Sometime in the night (after I was up for several hours) he started again. This time he's much more energetic-- if he sees me moving he starts to swim around. But if he stops he goes compleatly belly up. He's in a QT cup, again. With just enough water to cover him and let him spread his fins comfortably.

I'm thinking now it must be a contaminant. Has anyone ever dealt with a similar issue?

[elijahfeathers]

Well I gotta go to work. In five hours I'll be home. I'm going to just hope he'll be alive when I get home. In any event, when I do it's time for some serious water changes in the 2.5 gallon.

[newbie32]

You may want to dump the water in the tank and clean everything in it very thoroughly. I suggest using vinegar and incredibly hot water. Rinse over and over and over and OVER again. Then let it sit out and dry in the sunlight. Then set up your tank again. See if that helps. Maybe something nasty got in there that you just can't see.

[elijahfeathers]

He's fine now-- he was looking terrible before, upsidedown and with his tail toward the surface. I cope home and he's dandy in his little cup. It's a frightening thing to see, a fish like that. I'm gonna clean the tank really well and give it another go.

[roadrunner]

when you do the tank cleanup, make sure your hands are also clean (especially free of hand cream and other stuff that you may have touched during the day). Don't scrub them with soap, just water.