Please Help!

[kellgirl]

My CT Betta, Dante, has been acting sick. I got him for Christmas, and he is my first betta, I don't want to lose him. On Christmas, he was acting normal, nothing was wrong. The 26th I did a full water change, because he had been in his tank since the 23rd, and I detected .5 ammonia in the water. That night, he was fine, swimming around, flaring at his food, the like. Yesterday, he was dramatically different. He was pacing in the morning, and later just floating around, apathetically. This morning I woke up to find him just laying at the bottom of the tank. Not dead, just laying there. What's up? As I said before, I love him and don't wan't to lose him...

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.5
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have a filter? no
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? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? betta pellets, has not eaten any
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2/day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? I've done it once
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? Stress Coat plus, aq salt

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

Ammonia:.5
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:7.0
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? n/a
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Stopped showing any intrest in anything, just floating around
When did you start noticing the symptoms? yesterday
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
Does your fish have any history of being ill?n/a
How old is your fish (approximately)? He was bought on friday from petco, so....?

[Myates]

Welcome, sorry to hear your guy isn't being his usual self right now..

Firstly, remove him from the AQ salt- as was mentioned to you in your other post in the Care section, AQ salt is not good for them on a long term/permanent basis.

I would do a 100% water change, and acclimating him back to clean water by floating his cup in the tank for approx 20 minutes, and 2-3 times during the 20 minutes, remove some of the water from the cup (toss it out) and replace with water from the tank.. that will help him adjust to having no salt.

He is swimming around just fine, correct? He doesn't tilt or seem to have issues staying upright?
His laying on the bottom- when you came near or did anything near the tank, did he immediately swim up and swim around the tank? Or did he just stay there? Or did he go up, then immediately go back down and laid on the bottom?

If he is swimming around fine, then he may of started adjusting to the tank, and therefor didn't feel the need to "threaten" anything that moved, such as his food.
Fish will swim all different ways and will act a little different day to day.
"floating" around (as long as it isn't on their side) is something else they will do when they are resting, or there isn't anything gaining their attention.

They will also "sleep" in different areas- if you have a cave he may choose to sleep in that more often then not, or a tall plant he may use as his bed close to the surface of the water, and some will sleep on the bottom of the tank. All of mine have their preferred sleeping places, one of them being on the bottom of the tank.

What you are looking for in an ill fish is loss of coloration- usually becoming paler, clamped fins, lethargy (not sleeping, but won't swim around hardly at all), darting (scratching on objects), and other physical signs such as fungus and rot.

Is there any plants, or a cave of sorts for him to swim around in? Lack of decorations, or enough, could also cause them to not do as much, as there is less mental stimulation for them.

It sounds as if he isn't ill, just adjusting to his new home and being a fish.. the eating part, sometimes when they are brought home they won't eat properly for a week or longer- so at this point I would still offer him food (removing any uneaten immediately) and in time he should start eating normally.

Keep an eye on him though- but for now I just want to say it's most likely him still adjusting.

I'm sure Oldfishlady has mentioned this in your other thread as well, but in an unfiltered 1.5 gallon you are wanting to do 1 50% and 1 100% water changes per week.

How did you acclimate him to the new water on your last water change?

Good luck, and let us know if you notice any other changes in his behavior.

[kellgirl]

So I just checked on him, and his fins were really badly torn up, so I removed the two plastic plants that were in his cage (put there before I had him) and did the pantyhose check, which they failed, so I put in a silk one. Hopefully, this will help, I'll update tomorrow!