Well, I'm at a Loss...

[TheCrysCat]

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 79*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? no; at the moment it's too hot
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NLS small fish formula
How often do you feed your betta fish? A pinch once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? A little less than weekly, because the water coming out of the tap is HOT and waiting for it to cool takes a while
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water conditioner, pH tablets (I know they're not needed, but I like knowing my exact pH)

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He's a lot paler, begun either tailbiting or he blew his tail.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He picks at his gravel a lot, even though there's nothing there. He also likes to sit at the bottom with his body tilted up.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Blown tail and gravel-picking on the 29th, when I got back from vacation. He's gotten worse since and begun sitting around.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Haven't, although his water is clean.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Absolutely none.
How old is your fish (approximately)? Got him from Petco in early March, so about 9-12 months?

Yeah, Midnight hasn't been feeling well. I can't put my finger on it, but he seems kinda sickly. Maybe it's just finrot, but I don't know if that also makes them listless. Pictures coming momentarily.


The red stripe along his side is the lighting or something; he doesn't have it IRL.
This basically shows the rips in his tail. I think I might start him on AQ salt, because his fins are so dark it's hard to see any black edging.
Compare to this:

[Oldfishlady]

I would try and figure out a way to start making water changes and get him on a regular schedule of twice weekly...1-50% and 1-100% to maintain the water quality and stop using the pH product since the pH swinging back and forth can really be stressful on him.......unless you have the proper buffers the pH will go back to what it was to start......the less chemicals added the better......stable is what you want.....

Do you have any live plants....

Nice looking Betta by the way.....

What is your pH, KH/GH of both the tank water and the source water as well as the 24h degas on the pH and type of products used to test the water...

Picking at the substrate-lots of stuff on the substrate that we can't see and not uncommon for them to graze on the substrate and walls of the tank picking at the microorganisms.....

[TheCrysCat]

Wow, I had no clue the pH stuff did that 0__0 I need to go out and get a test kit. Supposedly we have soft water in my house, but the water in our area is hard. Next water change I'll acclimate them to the new water. Thank you!! And I'll update with the pH when I can.

[Silverfang]

I hate to say it, but it looks like your boy has done some nibbling. Luckily the treatment for fin rot and tail biting is the same, lots of clean water. Have you changed anything in regards to his tank recently?

[TheCrysCat]

Oh, I knew it was tailbiting, or he blew his tail. I was thinking of finrot getting in afterwards. He was actually like that when I got back from vacation, so I figured it was because I wasn't in front of him for most of the day like I usually am. The only thing I changed was moving his tiki hut a little bit to the right, and that was when I changed his water a few days ago.

[Silverfang]

Well, your best bet for now is to leave things the same, keep up with with the water changes, and maybe turn off any lights he might have for a few days to help him Destress. If his tail continues to get worse, then he might be bored. If you have any API stress coat I would add a bit of that. My boy gets dosed with it after he attacks his tail

[TheCrysCat]

Thanks. He's in my room, so I can't turn the lights off all the time, but I'm planning on doing a partial change tonight. I'm going to try to get stress coat soon.