I dont know if theres something wrong with my bettas

[person]

I just got two new bettas from petco a few days ago and i have just noticed something odd about both of them. The blue/green female coral seems to e very stressed all of the time. whenever i walk by her tank too much she gets horizontal strips on her. it seems like shes afrade of me or something. she seems very small and a bit male nurished. she dosnt seem to be able to eat the pellets i usualy feed my bettas so ive bin feeding her freeze dryed blood worms and diatoms. shes always hiding at the bottom of the tank even tho shes the only one in there.
Second, the male i just got, sunset. i named him that because the purples and pinks and oranges on him make him look like a very pretty sunset<3 he looks very very skinny. and his swim blatter, (or whattever that long thing down their abdomin is) seems to be sticking out of him on both sides of his tail. it looks like the fish equivilent of anorexia. and he looks a bit yong to be sold in a pet store anyway.
is there anything i can do to make them more comfortable or eat more? the freeze dryed food might be a bit big for them to chew. should i crush it up a bit? and any ideas on why the female is so scared of everything and is there any way to calm her down?

[HatsuneMiku]

you just got them a few days ago .. it takes at least a week and could possibly be up to a month might even be more for them to get used to everything that just happened to them ..

imagine if you were your little betta ... from you picking up their tiny cup at the store .. staring at them to see if they are healthy .. poking ur finger at their cup to see if they are alive (sometimes at the store you really can't tell T_T those poor things are in such bad conditions) .. then being put in a bag if petco gave you one .. and then being put in a car .. with them in their little cup swishing around at every left or right turn .. then eventually being at a whole new environment different from the pet store .. wondering what's going to happen to them while your setting up their new tank ... then when your ready to put them in their new home .. you have to dump all their water in a net so you don't get their old yuckies transfered to ur new tank .. so now they get dumped in this whole new body of water .. that they have no idea where they are .. and who and what is this identity that comes by to look at them sometimes .. then magically drops food for them to eat sometimes .. i mean .. if that were me .. i'd be freaking out too ..

but don't worrie .. =D give them a while .. and they will love you ^_^

just keep your feeding schedule constant .. before you know it they will recognize who you are and that your not there to harm them .. and if they seem really stressed .. and your really worried you can always add those de-stress drops .. but that's just for extreme stress ..

also for females the horizontal stripes can also mean that she's ready to release eggs .. but i thought that only happens when they get stimulated by a male's presence .. i'm sure a breeder here can clear that up ^_^

all of the bettas i got from the store were very tiny .. even now their body is less then 1 in long and they still look very small and skinny .. even though all of them eat like pigs and keep begging for more .. but yuki .. my newest .. and was in the worst condition when i bought him .. he eat's less then the other 2 that i have since i'm still nursing him back to health .. lol sorrie i've started to ramble @_@ ..

any ways =D don't worrie .. just give them more time to get used to their new homes .. also if you crush the pellets and soak them so they are softer before feeding it to them it may help =D

good luck !!

[youlovegnats]

As I recall, the last time you had a problem, you had your male and female in the same tank...
Are they together or separate?
And please fill out these questions:

What size tank are they in (each)?
Water temperature?
Is the tank heated?
Is the tank filtered?
Do you have any plants in the tank?
Any hiding spots?
What kind of additives are you putting in the water?
When do you do water changes?
How much of the water do you change?

[person]

i only had them to gether when i had just gotten home while i was cleaning and setting up thier tanks. theve bin seperated and wernt together for very long. and i do have a heater but i dont know if its the right kind of heater. i dont want them to be too hot and the room thier kept in is always around 75-85 degrees anyway. i didnt think they needed a heater sence thats the recomended temp. i havnt gotten filters yet. i have a few snails in with each of them to. but the snails are very tiny and i can almost never find them. but they do help with waste a little bit. im just scared to do anything with the water because i dont want to stress them anymore then they already are. I was planning on putting in filters once theve calmed down a bit. i made sure that they have fake plants and some things to hide in. they seem to like the floating ones ^_^ As for water cleaners i use TopFin Tap water dechlorinator. and some fizzy tablets to add oxygen and antibiotics to the water. I forget wat their called. but they make the water kinda blue. its the stuff they use in the pet stores to prevent disease. this morning they looked like they were improving tho :D

[youlovegnats]

Ok. Once again...
How many gallons are the tanks?
What % water changes do you do?
How many times do you change the water?

I'd stop using the fizzy tablets- you don't need those.
And clean water isn't going to stress them out. Just make sure you aren't doing 100% changes all the time- that might stress them.

[person]

I have a 10 g tank and a 2 g tank. I do 100% water changes tho. If that stresses them out ill stop.Ill mabey do 30% or 25% changes instead. and they started eating more food and they look like they have more energy. :) their so cute!

[youlovegnats]

Ok. Thanks.

hmm yeah I think the 100% changes would stress them out.
On the 10 gal. tank, maybe do 50% right now and then do 25% weekly? 2gal. you will have to do 80% changes. See if that helps any.
I'm glad they're feeling better ^^

[person]

this may be off subject but, do you know of any pet stores anywhare that would sell a 5 gallon fish bowl? the most i could find online was 2.5. I think it would be really cool to have a huge fish bowl with live plants and such. and do they make filters spesificly for fish bowls?

[Tikibirds]

There is a circular tank that I have seen in 8 and 16 gallon called a biOrb but they are expensive.

http://www.everythingbiorb.com/biorb...-4-gallon.html

[person]

I think ive seen those before. i would definately get one if i found one for a good price. Ill look into it. Thank you=)