Trouble Swimming!

785 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by BetaEmi, Mar 13, 2012

BetaEmi

Discussion Starter · Mar 12, 2012

First the questions Answered:

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? Room Temperature (70 or so)
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No though the filter is "oxygenating"
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Only himself

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? TetraBetta mini pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2-3 pellets twice a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? twice a month
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? Tetra AquaSafe

Water Parameters:
I have not tested the water.

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He seems to be having trouble swimming and has become melancholy, hiding in his little skull-hiding place and staying there, or hiding behind the filter.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Yesterday night around 12 midnight
How old is your fish (approximately)? I bought him around 2 months ago.

Now, what seems to be wrong: Cornelius (the betta) is having a lot of trouble swimming. His frontal fins will move rapidly, and he'll slowly near the top of the tank, but he seems to be very bottom-heavy, and sometimes tips backwards and falls to the bottom of the tank. If his frontal fins aren't moving rapidly, he seems to not even be able to keep afloat. Right now he's resting at the bottom of the tank and swimming a little bit, but it really looks as if he is struggling. Recently, I went back to my house during spring break and had him in a large glass vase (for easy transport and for keeping him while home, without having to move the whole tank. He was fine at my house, during transport and seemed to be fine yesterday. I'm fairly sure he was not injured when I returned him to his tank, as the transfer process was very easy. He seems more melancholy then normal, and spends a lot of time in his hiding-skull, laying at the bottom of it, than he normally does.

His struggle to swim upwards and how he keeps falling is really worrying me. I'm at college in a small town and have no place to take him for care if there is a problem. He never seemed to have any trouble before today! Any tips or suggestions?

Also, he tends to "sit" ... His body is vertical, and his tail is curled to the side and against the ground... Is this uh, normal?

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bananafish

· #2 · Mar 12, 2012

I just went through similar with my newest betta. Your fish is cold and his water quality is probably poor.

Bettas are tropical fish. They need to be in water at least 76 degrees F, preferably 78-82. In an unfiltered tank that size, unless it has live plants in it, you need to be doing pretty much DAILY water changes. Without very frequent water changes, the ammonia and nitrite levels will rise to a point where they are toxic to your fish.

The first thing you need to do is get him into clean, WARM water. He needs a thermometer and a heater asap. Treat his fresh water with 1 tsp dissolved aquarium salt and some stress coat. Change his water DAILY, using warm water treated with water conditioner. He needs to be kept at at least 78 degrees.

Good luck and keep us posted!

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bananafish

· #4 · Mar 12, 2012

My fault, I thought I read no filter. Sorry about that! Not enough sleep last night!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you shouldn't be changing the filter media so often. Doing so decimates the helpful bacteria colony that lives in the filter and substrate.

I'm sure someone else here knows way more than I do about that. Even so, you probably should be doing a 100% water change every week. My work fish is in a 3-gallon, heated, filtered tank and he gets a 25% water change and 50% water change every week, as well as at least one good substrate vacuum. My new betta, my home fish, is in a one-gallon heated, unfiltered tank and I change his water daily.

Anyway, hopefully someone else can chime in with more helpful advice!

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