New Fish, New Problems

[Omega3]

I got a new fish yesterday. I chose him because he had unique colors and seemed to be a physiologically healthy but stressed fish. He sat at the bottom of the cup with clamped fins. I thought he was just cold and stressed; he had no other signs of illness and had beautifully straight, long rays. There was a rather large black spherical thing in the cup with him. Poop or parasite egg perhaps? I cleaned out the tank, went to school, got a fish, floated the cup for a while and plopped him in the tank. He was very active and darted around, flared at his reflection and seemed to be doing well. Last night, I saw that he was laying on the bottom. This morning he just floats in one spot at the top. He didn't eat this morning. This morning I moved him into a 2.5G tank when I tested the ammonia to be high. I don't know why it would be high; I just did a 100% water change yesterday. There is one plant in the tank. He was in the part of the filter where the water comes back into the tank earlier today. I know my sister's fish uses his filter as a hammock, so I don't know if this normal or not.

Housing
What size is your tank? 10G
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have a filter? yes, but it isn't on
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? one live plant

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Betta Gold pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? haven't gotten a regimen yet

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? just changed it 100% yesterday, partial change every week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%-100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? conditioner, added some salt yesterday

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

Ammonia: 0.5-1, those strips are tricky
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? it hasn't
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? went from active to inactive overnight
When did you start noticing the symptoms? last night
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
Does your fish have any history of being ill? unknown
How old is your fish (approximately)? unknown

[Neil D]

Maybe you should raise the heat a bit.

[Omega3]

Wouldn't he stay at the bottom if he were cold? I just checked on him and he was darting around normally, he even jumped over his thermometer rather than going around it. But then he suddenly stopped and floated very still at the surface and then his body made a quarter turn toward the surface. He wasn't quite floating on his side, but floating sideways or caddywampus. I tapped the tank to get him to move and he did it again. I put a pellet of food in the tank to see if he would eat it. I wonder if the rapid spike in NH4 levels in the other tank made him ill. Why would there be a spike?

[Omega3]

Please help! I saw that the small tank was a little cool, so I did a 50% water change in the larger tank, turned up the heater, checked the ammonia levels and he's now floating in a cup in the 10G. He still floats at an slight angle, but otherwise seems to be able to swim normally.

[DragonFish]

First, I suggest ditching the strips; they are notoriously inaccurate. Head on over and see if you can pick up an API Liquid test kit, or poke around and see if you have a Local store that will test your water using a Liquid test kit(you'll want to buy your own test kit eventually; its a definite must to have in your fishy care cabinet).
Once you can get your water properly tested, then you can say for sure if its a water quality issue or not.
Also, see if you can get your tap water tested once you've got a liquid test kit/a place that can test for you with a liquid kit(make sure to ask for the actual levels rather then just an 'okay' 'good' or 'bad' from the employee if you have it tested). Though the strips might just be throwing you off, you may also have some ammonia in your tap water....what conditioner do you use?

The temperature sounds just fine to me, anywhere between 78-81 is just perfect.

If he is floating at an angle, he may have a touch of SBD....

Swim Bladder Disease (SBD)/Bloat
•Symptoms: Betta has trouble swimming, maybe he can’t stay upright and can only swim on his side.
•Treatment: This is not a contagious or fatal illness. If it isn’t congenital (aka a condition that he/she has had since birth), then it is caused by over feeding or feeding the wrong foods. Bettas will typically recover after a day or two of Epsom Salt treatments (1-2tsp/gal) and fasting. You can help prevent a reoccurrence by switching to a better pellet food, feeding less and offering a more varied diet. To make it easier for the betta to eat and breath, you can make the water shallower. You can offer him/her frozen daphnia (sold at Petsmart) as daphnia will help him/her pass stool. DO NOT FEED THEM PEAS.

If that sounds like what he has, just follow that treatment and it should clear up soon....he doesn't sound too bad from the info you've given.

Quick question...why is your filter turned off?
I imagine it would be much less hassle to just cycle a 10 gallon then do 100%s every week or so. o:

[Omega3]

I thought about that, but I can't tell if he has SBD. He only does it sometimes, but I guess the treatment is easy enough I can treat him anyway. He still hasn't eaten and I have no idea what food he was fed before. The filter is off because I forgot to get a filter yesterday. No point in wasting the electricity to run it if it isn't doing anything. I'll look for the better ammonia test. My water tests negative for ammonia, but that's with the strips I have. I have the Aqueon Liquid water conditioner that's supposed to word immediately, though I always wait a few minutes before exposing the fish to the water. I hope the picture shows up. This is what he was doing. My sister thinks he looks like he might have some ich around his gills.

[Neil D]

Are the spots white? Do they have the appearance of salt?? If they do, its ich. But it is easier to cycle your tank, and it will be much less stressful for your betta in the long run.

[DragonFish]

Hmm....he doesn't look bloated or anything..but he does look rather stressed and clamped.
I, personally, would thoroughly clean out the 2.5 gallon with some hot water and keep him in there(so long as its heated of course)with some nice silk plants and a cave for him to hide in. You can keep his water cleaner easier in the smaller tank and keep a better eye on him.

Ich will look like your fish has been sprinkled with little white grains of salt; I don't see anything like that on him from the picture.

I'd also head out and get some frozen daphnia; wait about a day, don't offer him anything, and offer him that....remove what he doesn't eat, and if he eats none of it, try again the next day...keep offering it until he trys/eats some instead of offering him pellets.

Keeping him in a dark-ish area where there is little activity going on around him may also help.

I'm sorry I can't offer more advice :/ Thats all I got for now. Definitely get your water properly tested, the sooner the better. Until then I don't believe there's much else you can do, at least as far as I know...

[Omega3]

Thanks! He's in by bathroom, so I can leave the lights off for him. He seems better for now; he's swimming around at mid level. There has been this strange development of flakes in the cup. His tail looks like it has tiny spiderwebs hanging off. I'm sure you've seen this in pet stores; the cups that have a clear-white debris floating around? It's like that. It reminds me of shedding skin, in a way. I noticed when I got him that he appeared to have new growth on the tips of his rays. Maybe the new growth got damaged?

I didn't think it looked like ich either, but I thought I'd ask anyway. I'll put him back in the 2.5 once the small heater has a chance to stabilize the temperature. It's still a little cool and he seems to be a bit better since I turned the heat up in the larger tank.

Thanks so much!!!

[Neil D]

Yeah, a little warmer, like 80-82 seems to be their favorite, but 78 is the lowest recommended. 76 is like the bare bottom.