[LittleWatty]

Ok, so I've had my fish for less than a week. He's in a smaller tank while my 6.6 is cycling, but its not overly small. What I'm seeing looks to be like a little bit of bloat, and color change - I would have gotten a better picture, but he doesn't like my camera. I have no idea what it is, or if its normal. If its not normal, I wouldn't know what to do with it. He seems to be acting normal (or normal enough since I scared him really bad on accident the other day and he hit the edge of the tank pretty hard). I've wanted this fish since I decided to get a Betta weeks ago, and I was amazingly lucky to find him the day I went in to get my tank. He's so close to being the perfect fish for me, that I'm desperate not to let him get sick.

Housing
What size is your tank? 3 gallons
What temperature is your tank? pretty consistent 78, but occasionally dips down to 76 (heater is a bit slow to bring it up), and without AC it can get up to 82.
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? New Life Spectrum
How often do you feed your betta fish? Twice a day: 3-4 at dawn and dusk. Occasionally I'll give him one at lunch time

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Every other day (or when Nitrogen levels get high)
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? StressCoat, and AQ salt (didn't add salt it this last time as he seemed healthy)

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

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 5 (no idea how it got this high. Changed water immediately)
Nitrate: n/a
pH: 7.6
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He seems a little bloated around the gut, and the scales there are golden in color
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? I scared him really bad, and he rammed into the side of the tank. Since then, he's been rather scared of me. Yesterday he was fine and active. Today he seemed to be sleeping a lot. But any time he was awake, he'd be darting around like normal.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? This morning (6/5/12)
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Just added a small dose of AQ salt after changing his water this evening
Does your fish have any history of being ill? I just got it, so... no?
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had him for less than a week, and he was from a brand new shipment when I picked him up from Petco.

Just for reference, I last changed his tank 2 days ago (Sunday 6/2/12) and only added Stresscoat. I've got a video that I took while I was cleaning his tank, just to show how he's been acting. He flares at the camera often (I don't think he likes the bright blue) and he tends to freak out if my hands move too fast by him, like when I was turning off the video at the end. The video is fuzzy, forewarning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlS4VFOPXCo&feature=youtu.be


Please help?

 

[LebronTheBetta]

When you mean a Color Change to Gold, do you only see the Gold when there is a Light on him?
If that happens, he may have Velvet. It's like a Golden- Rusty Dust.
Are you sure he looks Bloated? If your sure, you only need to feed him 3-4 per Day in different times.

 

[LittleWatty]

No, I can see gold if there's no light. I thought maybe it might have been because he was bloated, but I did fear Velvet. I thought I had the better picture uploaded, but I guess I didn't. Here's the better one: Its not on his fins or anything, just his tummy

 

[Pogthefish]

I would say the bloat is etiher fat or constipation, either way, feed less. I feed pog one pellet every 2 days and he is fine. He needs less than ur avg betta though, so I would reccoment 1 morning pellet and one evening, NO EXTRAS (although it is tempting). Whatever peopel say, don't tey the pea, it is a myth. We'll see i we can clear it up! I know nothign about velvet though :/

 

[LittleWatty]

I was going to fast him until tomorrow evening, at least, but I had to change his water. And... the only stress-less way I can get him out of the tank is food for bait. So, he got 3 pellets this morning, and two this evening. I don't plan on feeding him tomorrow, as tempting as it may be.

 

[LebronTheBetta]

Wait, was he a Local Pet Store find? If he was, was he in Bad Condition? Color Change can happen when they get better care. But, Truth be told, I never have heard about Changing to Gold. Oh, and I don't think he's that much of Bloated.
You could go to bettatalk.com and it will show you about the Bloat thing when you read about the Type of Foods you can feed your Betta. And, I won't worry yet. Unless he is getting Lethargic, Pale, and Sickly Looking.

 

[LittleWatty]

He is a PetCo find, but he wasn't in bad condition, that I could tell. His colors were just a little muted (I've got a picture of him in his album from the moment I got him home).

He was really lethargic yesterday. When I was actually home, he slept probably 50% of the time. But, as I said in my initial post, except for sleeping a lot, he was active as always.

 

[LittleWatty]

Well, he wasn't sleeping as much today, as far as I can tell. Just as active as before. But, I'm having trouble with Nitrites and Nitrates. My tap water has elevated levels of Nitrates, and after only 24 hours my Nitrites are rather elevated.

Right out of the tap, these are my readings:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm

After less than 24 hours (without any feeding in the new tank water - as I'm fasting him)
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrites: 2.0ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm

I have no idea what to do with this. I don't want to be doing too many water changes, for fear of stressing out my fish too much. He's already scared of me because I accidentally woke him up and scared him in the process (which he then proceeded to run into the glass quite hard). But, if he's got velvet (which I'm still not sure if he has or not), I want to keep his water as clean as possible, but I don't want to stress him any more than he is. The gold on his belly is still there, and if I'm not mistaken, it looks like it spread a little bit. He does look like he's not as bloated, but I dunno for sure.

 

[Pogthefish]

does it ave a filter? Filter bacteria which take about a week to grow, eat amonia and poop out nitrite, then bacteria that take mor elike 3 weeks to fully colonize eat nitrite and poop out nitrate (hardly toxic) so my question is: why is there nitrite? you have no filter. anyone able to answer that one?

By the way, for future reference, you WILL have to do water changes more often once you get a filter unless you can find a way to get rid of that nitrate rom the tap. i suggest a naturally planted tank, basically, get a bunch of plants I am not experienced with this type of tank (yet) but I know the basics. The plants eat amonia and poop nothing bad at all out so you rarely do water changes. The amonia is gone and the nitrate is not a problem. Just a sugestion. I always keep some real plants in my tank for that purpose, but still rely mainly on a cycle.

 

[LittleWatty]

I know the Nitrite isn't user error - I've done it 4 different times. So unless I'm doing the test wrong EACH time, then there's Nitrite in that water (I just did a 100% change the other day too). I haven't a clue why I have Nitrites.

My 6.6 gallon bookshelf tank is being cycled at present (I've got a thread going on another part of the forum with questions and status). It is fully planted, but as I've never done aquarium plants, I don't know how many will survive. The ones I have in there currently sucked up the Nitrates like no other. What I could do is take one of the floating bulbs from that tank (which is alive and growing - I see green leaves coming out of the onion bulb) and put it in his current unfiltered one? That way, I can get rid of some of that Nitrate? Or, would such a change be bad for the bulb? That's the only thing I can think of to get rid of the Nitrates from my tap