[californiastarfish]

I got my betta, Ezio, a little over two weeks ago. He seemed fine until recently, calm, eating well, and quite vibrant. But half a week ago I noticed chips of back tail missing (it was easy to notice because he is a butterflytail). I do not think it is fin/tail rot because it has no blackish brown edges and it appeared too fast. So I'm guessing he bit his tail . I bought some aquarium salt to help the recovery. But then today (4 days later) he looked really stressed and agitated! He just seemed mad. He was flaring at every object in my room and was pacing the glass angrily. And he keeps... yawning? (Do bettas even yawn???) He would 'stomp' around then just pause and open his mouth nice and wide (yawning). Could it be the heat since it's summer where I am? Or is he stressed? Help please!

 

[Bikeridinguckgirl14]

He's defending his territory from something, maybe he can see his reflection? He is looking for the other male and trying to threaten it. Sometimes archy opens his mouth to threaten me but then he knows better and loves me again 5 min later. That might be why he bit. Do you have a light in his tank or any ornaments the same color as him? Can he see his reflection? Find the stressor and eliminate it, it isn't an unhealthy behavior as long as he isn't gasping/getting dizzy/exhausted

 

[RussellTheShihTzu]

Please copy and paste and answer all the questions so we can help you better. Photos would be a big help, too.

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233

 

[californiastarfish]

Housing
What size is your tank? 4 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 76 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? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Tetrabetta floating mini pellets & some other small pellet I no longer have the packaging for.
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3 pellets in the morning and 3 before I go to bed.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Every one or two weeks depending on how much of the tank I clean
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? (I don´t know if this is what your asking) Aquarium salt

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? no

Ammonia: n/a
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: n/a
pH:n/a
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He has bitten his tail.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He used to be calm but now he´s frustrated.
When did you start noticing the behavior? 3 days ago (about)
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No just aquarium salt to help heal and prtect his bitten tail.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? Almost adult

 

[californiastarfish]

Bikeridinguckgirl14 I don´t think so because he has been in the same tank all 2 weeks and he just started acting this way. So unless he suddenly begun to see his reflection I don´t think that´s it. Their is nothing in his tank that is his color, I made sure of that. But I did add a new plant and then a day later he started getting agitated. But I don´t know why, because that plant is a nice silk plant and he hangs out in it a lot. He also has had a bridge ever since I got him and when he´s scared he goes right under the bridge. However his heater has a bit of red in it, and Ezio is red... But his anger seems to be directed at something outside the tank. And when he ´yawns´ he doesn´t face it toward something as if he is threatening them, it´s just like a yawn, you are going about you business and then you yawn. Now you can see why I´m so confused.

 

[KFoster]

What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? (I don´t know if this is what your asking) Aquarium salt

Do you add a dechlorinator to your water when you do a change?? To take the chlorine out?

I don't know what the "yawning" is... but he could be "gasping" due to poor water quality?

Ammonia builds up in an uncycled tank and you need to do water changes to remove it.... but you need to be doing more frequent water changes. In a four gallon tank you should be doing two WEEKLY water changes. One 50% and one 100%. See this thread on water changes:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=115758

If you are not adding dechlorinator to the water, please go out and buy some! "Prime" is a brand that is very recommended on here.

 

[KFoster]

You also don't need to add aquarium salt, betta's are freshwater fish.

Aquarium salt is a good additive when you are treating something, such as fin rot, wounds, or a bacterial infection.

Daily exposure to salt for a freshwater fish can be damaging to it's internal organs, such as the kidneys. Some people do add it to their tanks, but it's a very very minimal amount. Most do not, however.

EDIT: I see now that you bought the AQ salt to help with the fin biting, and that it wasn't added in the beginning, sorry!
Fin biting can be cleared up on it's own with proper water changes.

 

[KFoster]

Hopefully that helps! Sorry if I came off a little blunt I am just trying to type fast to help you!!!

I would:

1. Go buy a water conditioner - Prime as suggested (you can also use API stress coat, it conditions water as well and can be good for fin healing, but it does not bind ammonia to make it less toxic like prime does. I personally have both. I use Prime all the time, and I use stress coat when my fish bite their tails during a water change)
2. Do a water change! I would do a 50% one right now but add the dechlorinator to the water you are changing

 

[californiastarfish]

I don´t really know if he is gasping for air though. I´ve only seen him yawn/gasp maybe three times, but I wanted to put that in his unusual behavior because I didn´t know if that was a sign of some disease that could kill my betta... It might be poor water quality but literally everyone in my family is trying to tell me that the water we use is fine and you don´t need to go crazy with a bunch of water testing. And just from common sense (my common sense that I don´t trust too much) since they can breathe air from the surface I think that if he needed to gasp he would just be going up to the surface more to get air (which he hasn´t been doing). Thank you for the help but I honestly don´t know how I am ever going to afford a testing kit with all of those other water modifiers.

 

[KFoster]

Water conditioner is not expensive. It's something you add to the water to take the chlorine out to not make it toxic to your fish.
Chlorine can kill your betta.

 

[lilnaugrim]

california, do you have well water or city water?

Yawning is just the fish taking air into their swim bladder to inflate it, they can inflate or deflate (burp out air) their swim bladder when they need to. Much like we yawn and take in extra air, it's similar but it's more about balancing themselves in the water and is very normal.

As far as the care, it seems okay but I do agree that you need to bump up those water changes. Water changes will be yours and his best friends! It's amazing what a simple water change can do for a little fish and you'll be happy that he's not sick! When his fins are bitten up or rotting it's best to do at least twice a week water changes to keep the water healthy, at least do 50% of his water. If the water is healthy, your fish will be healthy too.

 

[californiastarfish]

I am pretty sure our water doesn´t have chlorine in it... but if I do get some and our water doesn´t have chlorine in it but I use it because I thought it might would that kill my fish?

 

[californiastarfish]

lilnaugrim I have well water.

 

[lilnaugrim]

There we go, so you don't have chlorine in it then. So now that we have that settled, back to water changes.

It's still best that you keep his tank very nice and clean so he can be happy, do you have a gravel vacuum to clean with? Or did you say and I missed it somewhere?

 

[californiastarfish]

No that´s another thing I probably should have. But I didn´t see one when I was in the store yesterday getting a thermometer. Are they expensive?

 

[lilnaugrim]

Not terribly if you know where to look. Which stores do you have around you? I find PetSmart generally has better prices for equipment but PetCo is better for their animal stock. That's just a general rule and might just be for my area but I'd start with PetSmart either way to price check.

A small one that is around 5 inches should only be around 10 dollars or so, don't take my word for that though as each store has slightly different prices on each of their items so you'll have to look for yourself or call them.

 

[californiastarfish]

We have both petsmart and petco near us. However I just looked up prices and the Topfin Small Gravel Vacuum was $10 at petsmart and the small Aqeon Siphon Gravel Vacuum was $8. Those are both good prices but which brand is better (if you know)?

 

[lilnaugrim]

I personally use Aqueon over TopFin always so I'm biased for Aqueon lol. I've used both though and neither are 'better' than the other, I feel like all gravel vacuum's are basically the same except for when you get up to pythons which are automatic changers but not so useful in small tanks like yours ;-) so I'd just go with the cheaper one!

 

[californiastarfish]

lol okay thanks! Also one more thing(if this doesn´t arouse any more questions) my mother thinks that I am completely over reacting and that my fish is perfectly okay. I´m wondering if this might be true because I know that bettas are aggressive so maybe now that he´s used to his new home he´s just being normal... but that doesn´t explain the tail biting :/ . So then she suggested that maybe he got depressed cause he doesn´t have a mate XD. So if I did (and it´s not likely) get a female betta could they live together(bigger tank of course!)

 

[californiastarfish]

XD