Betta fin clamping and unusual behaviour

[ZenaM]

Hi everyone,

My betta is clamping it’s fins and seems to be acting strangely. He is very lethargic, resting on the gravel for long periods and his fins seem like they have been nipped. He is in a tank with 6 neon tetras and some shrimp. I haven’t seen the tetras annoying him nor have I seen him nipping himself. He still seems to be eating well though I am only feeding him a small pinch of food once a day.

I’ve had him exactly 1 week and noticed these issues today. This is my first tank and although I’ve researched extensively, there’s so much info out there that I just don’t know what to do next.

I cycled the tank for 4 days before adding the betta and neons. All seemed well to begin with.
when I noticed the symptoms today I tested the water using dip strips and got a 0.5 mg/L Ammonia reading and a nitrite reading of 0.5 mg/L, so I did a water change of around 25-30% and that seemed to solve the ammonia/ nitrite issue. I’ve also added some salt to the tank after water changes.

After the water change the current parameters are:
Temp 25 Celsius
PH 7.0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

Has anyone had any similar experiences with their Bettas? What would you recommend I do next?

 

[Ellie Potts]

I would keep changing the water daily until he perks up

@EllRog keeps Bettas so they might know better

 

[EllRog]

How big is the tank?

 

[Barry Tetra]

Can we have a picture?

 

[ZenaM]

The tank is 54L.
He’s been even more lethargic this morning and now I’ve noticed a bump at the base of the tail.

I’ll keep up with the daily water changes and hope I see some kind of improvement soon.

 

[Barry Tetra]

I think you should move him to a qt tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change every day for 2 weeks. This will keep the ammonia levels down while the filter establishes and should help the fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[ZenaM]

Do a 75% water change every day for 2 weeks. This will keep the ammonia levels down while the filter establishes and should help the fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Thanks, I’ll give that a go. I’ve been using tapsafe for all water changes. The water is quite hard where I live, could this be causing problems?

He hasn’t shown any new symptoms but there hasn’t been any improvements yet either.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Colin_T]

Bettas don't like hard water and it might be a contributing factor, but if the pH is above 7.0 and there is any ammonia in the water, that will cause a lot of stress to the fish.