[sarah___]

I bought a male halfmoon betta from PetSmart 6 days ago for my dorm room. I bought him a 1 gallon tank, preconditioned water, a heater, filter, and some gravel and small tank decor/plant. After one day he stopped eating but otherwise appeared normal. A few days later I left him alone for about a day and a half, and came back to his tail deteriorating with white fuzz around the edges. I knew he had fin rot and immediately started daily 100% water changes with 2tsp of aquarium salt. Two days later and his tail now appears to be healing, but I switched to Imagitarium pre conditioned water last night and ever since he has been acting very strange. He’s been at the top of his tank all day, but isn’t breathing heavily and his gills aren’t turning red as they usually do with ammonia poisoning. He still hasn’t eaten either his pellets or bloodworms. Water temp is at 80°F. I’ve added a picture of him. Any idea what the problem could be? I’m worried for him!

 

[Mbpoppy]

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[sarah___]

Housing:
How many gallons is your tank?: 1 gallon
Does it have a filter: yes, Topfin filter that came with tank
Does it have a heater?: yes, Aqueon 75 watt
What temperature is your tank: 80°F
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?: no

Food:
What brand food do you use? Aqueon pellets, Omega One betta- treat bloodworms
Do you feed flakes or pellets?: pellets
Freeze dried?: freeze dried bloodworms as treats/ to encourage eating
How often do you feed? How much? I try to feed a few pellets about twice a day, but he hasn’t been eating since the day I got him

maintenance:
Before betta became ill, how often did you perform a water change?: he’s been acting ill since I got him, planned in doing a major water change weekly.
What percentage of water did you change? I’ve been changing 100% of the water daily because I’ve been treating with aquarium salt
What is the source of your water? Preconditioned water jugs
Do you vacuum substrate or just dip out water? I remove substrate and rinse throughly in strainer with hot water
What additives do you use other than conditioner? What brand of conditioner: I’ve been adding Jungle brand aquarium salt and no conditioner since I use preconditioned aquarium water

Water parameters:
What are your water parameters: Haven’t tested water because I use pre treated water and have been changing it every day

symptoms and treatment:
When did your first notice symptoms?: day after I bought the fish (6 days ago)
How has your betta’s appearance changed? Fins noticeably deteriorated due to fin rot, but appear to be getting better now. No strange appearance for current symptoms
How has your betta’s behavior changed? He’s been spending all his time at the top of the tank near the surface. He hasn’t eaten since the day I bought him. After a while he starts floating on his side, but eventually fixes himself. Lethargic and doesn’t move much or breathe heavily
Is your betta still eating? No
Have you started treating your betta? If so how? I’ve been treating his fin rot with aquarium salt solutions of 2tsp and 100% water changes every day. I’m not sure if his new symptoms are because of the fin rot, or something different.
Does your betta have any history of being ill: not sure since he was ill when I got him
How long have you owned your betta? 6 days
Was he ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased?: He acted fine the night I bought him, but became ill within the next 12 hours. His price was also marked down when I bought him so I’m assuming he was known to be ill.

 

[AlphaBettas]

Have you started treating your betta? If so how? I’ve been treating his fin rot with aquarium salt solutions of 2tsp and 100% water changes every day. I’m not sure if his new symptoms are because of the fin rot, or something different.

I wouldn't suggest doing 100% water changes. Are you sure he has fin rot? Can you include some pictures? You can get Indian Almond Leaves or Rooibos Tea because they will help with stress.

 

[sarah___]

this is how he looked the day I got him:

then 3 days later when I diagnosed him with finrot:

and now today. After 2 days of aquarium salt treatments his fin appears to be looking better, but now he’s been near the surface all day and has started floating on his side often but then fixes himself. My friend who also has bettas is thinking it’s swim bladder. Opinions?

 

[sarah___]

I wouldn't suggest doing 100% water changes. Are you sure he has fin rot? Can you include some pictures? You can get Indian Almond Leaves or Rooibos Tea because they will help with stress.

this is how he looked the day I got him:
View attachment 1028021

then 3 days later when I diagnosed him with finrot:
View attachment 1028022
and now today. After 2 days of aquarium salt treatments his fin appears to be looking better, but now he’s been near the surface all day and has started floating on his side often but then fixes himself. My friend who also has bettas is thinking it’s swim bladder. Opinions?
View attachment 1028023

 

[Feanor]

I wouldn‘t focus so much on the fins at the moment but rather on his overall condition. And I would skip the salt

He is more or less a Double Tail. That means his tail fin (caudal) is slightly divided into two lobes by nature. So the seperation in the middle is no issue.

I would keep to this recommendation concerning fish-in-cycling:
CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial

and that one for water changing schedule:
Oldfishlady water change recommendations
For you with a 1 gal t‘ll be: Water change twice weekly: 1-50% water only and 1-50% with substrate cleaning by vacuum or stir and dip method.
Filter media needs a swish/rinse in old tank water a couple of times a month).
No 100% water changes are recommended as it is to harsh for your Betta.

You also don’t have to wash out the substrate.

As already mentioned I would either brew a strong tea of plain rooibos or get some Indian Almond Leaves, boil for 15 min and let sit preferably for a few hours - than condition and add one of the teas to the tank (watch for same temperature as tank water) until it gets a caramel/brownish teint.

I hope other, more knowledgable members could help you further.

 

[Aries&Gucci]

he almost looks like a slight double tail with a butterfly coloration. The double tail is one of the most vulnerable Caudal types as it is more prone to diseases. please try some natural remedies

 

[KekeTheBettaDoc]

Hiya there! It honestly doesn't seem to be a disease, just stress and fin nipping. There really is no set "minimum" for a tank, but I always rec. 2.5+ gals as anything under that can be difficult to cycle and have very unstable bacteria colonies, basically meaning it can crash easily and cause stress/illness. If you can I would upgrade the tank. Petsmart has a nice 3.5 gal that comes with a light and filter, and it is very good quality! What kind of food do you give-is it Aqueon Betta Formula or Aqueon Pro? LIke someone earlier said 100% water changes are stressful, so stick to 50% daily water changes. Also-what kind of water jugs are you using? Depending on the type it may have no minerals added which could make him sick.

 

[sarah___]

I’ve been feeding him Aqueon color-enhancing betta food. As for the water, at first I was using aqua culture brand pre conditioned betta water, which he had no problem with. Yesterday I switched to imagitarium pre conditioned freshwater because it comes in larger sized jugs. Today he started floating near the top of the tank, so I was thinking that the water might be the problem if it’s not swim bladder. I bought a bottle of imagitarium betta water conditioner so I can start conditioning my own tap water and making less trips to the store. I’ve only been doing 100% water changes while doing the salt treatments, which I’m going to stop doing now. I’ll start doing 50% water changes a few times a week so it’s less stressful on him. Eventually I plan on getting him a bigger tank, but this was my first fish so I wanted to start off pretty basic and see how everything works out.

 

[Aries&Gucci]

floating upside down on his side or just his back facing up

 

[sarah___]

floating upside down on his side or just his back facing up

He’s mostly been floating correctly but occasionally he’ll start floating on his side at the surface

 

[Aries&Gucci]

like once every day or hour

 

[sarah___]

like once every day or hour

This afternoon he was doing it once every couple minutes. Now it’s only been happening like once an hour that I’ve noticed, but he’s still floating right at the surface and not moving much. When he tries to swim downward it looks like his abdomen is pulling him back towards the surface so I was thinking he has a swim bladder problem.

 

[Aries&Gucci]

most likely I cant give you further advice due to my un-experienced past with swim bladder. hope he gets better

 

[KekeTheBettaDoc]

Seems like a small case of swim bladder-fast him for 3 days and see if it improves.

 

[AlphaBettas]

Also, you don't need to buy pre conditioned water as it is pretty expensive. You can get a small bottle of SeaChem Prime and it will last a lot longer. I think it is 2 drops of prime per gallon...