What Am I Doing Wrong?

Sounds like he's stressed out, doesn't seem to be the way you prepare water as you pretty much know what you are doing it seems. I do have a few questions,

Did you acclimate him to his new and if you did, tell me exactly how you did it.

I basically brought him home from his cup, prepared his water in the new 1.2 gallon tank (rinsed everything with hot tap water only for 5 minutes or so) added de-chlorinator, bacterial medium, and aquarium salt. Cycled the tank and brought it room temperature for about 5 hours. Then added my fish. When I changed tanks, I poured all of the currently cycled water into the new tank, plus added extra to fill with water that had been prepared and sitting for over a week. Also added the old plant, and old gravel.

What water conditioner are you using and what are the parameters of his tank and if you can test your tap, that would be great too.

Currently, I am just using a water de-chlorinator only (Top Fin). I may look into something like Stress Coat, see if that helps. PH of my water is around 7.8-8.2 normally. I have not messed around too much with PH, as I was hoping to get all else settled first, and also with my other tank of freshwater tropicals had never had to adjust PH to heave healthy fish. I do not have any test strips, but had changed the water (as above) on Sunday. Plus did a 40-50% water change this am.

How long are his lights on?

Lights are on at about 8 am and go off at 9 pm. The light is not very bright right now as I have an LED on order.


Tonight put a towel or blanket over his tank, the total darkness can help keep him calm and let him settle in to his new tank.

To add a little more info. When he was in the 1.2 he seemed fine, really fine. The first day or two he seemed happy in the new tank, swimming, exploring new plants, etc. However, he was flaring alot at the light, then flairing alot at the heater that I added. I moved the light, then he went for the heater. When I first got him and moved him from his cup to the first tank he did jump out of the cup, onto the floor, but I quickly retrieved him, and he was shaken but otherwise normal.

Should I add Aquarisol as a preventative measure?

At night and after the lights go out, he is left in a quiet room without any disturbance or night lights, etc.

Thanks for responding.

Fortunately and unfortunately, Bettas are hardy fish and will survive in seemingly the worst environments because they are hardy. This is great for us serious fish keepers but bad for those who just don't care and think of them as living room decor :-/

Okay, was the aged water conditioned (de-chlorinator is the same as conditioner) before it was put into the tank? Or only aged (leaving it open for 24-48 hours removes chlorine but not heavy metals or other nasties in the water)

Also as a side note, "Cycling" does not mean having the tank run for a set amount of time before it is deemed safe. So your "cycled" water is not cycled, just plain aquarium water. Cycling involves the Nitrogen Cycle, we have a few good stickies on that but it involves the Ammonia rising and then the good bacteria come in an eat it, then as it declines, Nitrite comes in and rises. A different good bacteria comes in and east those Nitrites and then finally as nitrites decline, nitrates come in and you can remove those with water changes. The whole process takes about a month to do and will happen regardless if you try to stop it or let it go. With your Betta in the tank you will now be doing a "Fish-In Cycle".

Lights are fine and flaring is fine too, does he have a lot of decor in the tank or just the one plant? Bettas like and need lots of hiding spaces in the plants, not actual hides but plants. They feel very insecure and scared when there are big open spaces, this means that a predator could easily snatch them up! Of course, they don't know there aren't predators out there, so providing them with more plants will help him feel more secure and content.

I'll wait for more when you answer the above questions ^_^

Hello,

And again thanks for your response. To answer your questions.....

The water was given a de-chlorinator, bacteria supplement, and aquarium salt at 1/2 tsp per gallon. Which was then aged for a week.

And yes, I should have been more clear with cycling. No my tank is not cycled yet, far from it cause it is new. What I meant was I had added my water with the above supplements and ran it through the filter for five hours bringing the water to room temperature before dumping Ronnie James in. Technically I am still in the ammonia stage of cycling....I hope it does not take too long, my last 10 gallon took 3 months before it cycled fully.

Nitrite and Nitrate are both "0" as expected, PH is 7.2, water is Hard.

Flaring is a good thing, but yesterday when I put a mirror up to him, he was only able to flair his beard. Yesterday he barley moved and spent most of his time at the very bottom of the tank in a corner....not good.

Today I noticed that he was swimming just a little more, mostly near the top, and do I see bubbles! I also noticed that his fins were less clamped, but still clamped, but yesterday they were literally 3 strings. Still he did not eat, but that's to be expected.

I am planning on doing 25% water changes everyday until this ammonia gets settled. I was really just very shocked by the rapid spike.

I have attached pictures of my tank and fish. If this is also helpful.