I am fairly new to the hobby of fish keeping (been about a year since first fish) and I have a female betta in a ten gallon tank along with a nerite snail and a ghost shrimp, which are very happy. I haven’t been doing water changes as regularly as I should, but I am planning on starting them every other week now that I got a pump to remove some water. The tank is heavily planted with live plants because I know bettas like real plants and in my first 3.5 gal tank(very small I know) my fish seemed to enjoy it.
The tank seemed to be going very well up until last week. I(at the time)had 2 nerite snails in the tank but one died last week. The snail first detached from the wall and didnt Move so I picked it up, tested whether it’s trap door was shut, which it was, and put it back in the tank. I then researched what may be wrong and researched the large white spot on its shell that it had had since we got it. I learned that while the spot may have to due with problematic general hardness, I ordered something to boost the hardness and continued to monitor the snail.
One day I found it had still not moved and lifted it out of the water to check if it’s trap door was still shut, which it wasn’t, even when I tentatively poked it. I was very upset but I got rid of the dead snail and prioritized checking out the gh and fixing this issue.
I currently have the gh boost and have been using it regularly and testing the waters changes. The gh is seemingly having trouble increasing which may just be me not putting in enough boost.
Now my betta, who has been fine for more than a month, has one fin closed and sometimes clamped. She is still very active and reacts whenever I walk by, and she also does use the fin without spreading it out whenever she’s excited; she doesn’t use it always though. I got her from petsmart, which I know doesn’t always treat their bettas well, but could this be a breeding issue? I never checked that her fins looked the same before, so maybe she is like Nemo and just has one bad fin? I don’t know. The fin doesn’t looked ripped or anything and she seems to get along well with the shrimp and the snail.
Could it be distress over the snails death? Or the gh not increasing? I just don’t know what to do!
The tank seemed to be going very well up until last week. I(at the time)had 2 nerite snails in the tank but one died last week. The snail first detached from the wall and didnt Move so I picked it up, tested whether it’s trap door was shut, which it was, and put it back in the tank. I then researched what may be wrong and researched the large white spot on its shell that it had had since we got it. I learned that while the spot may have to due with problematic general hardness, I ordered something to boost the hardness and continued to monitor the snail.
One day I found it had still not moved and lifted it out of the water to check if it’s trap door was still shut, which it wasn’t, even when I tentatively poked it. I was very upset but I got rid of the dead snail and prioritized checking out the gh and fixing this issue.
I currently have the gh boost and have been using it regularly and testing the waters changes. The gh is seemingly having trouble increasing which may just be me not putting in enough boost.
Now my betta, who has been fine for more than a month, has one fin closed and sometimes clamped. She is still very active and reacts whenever I walk by, and she also does use the fin without spreading it out whenever she’s excited; she doesn’t use it always though. I got her from petsmart, which I know doesn’t always treat their bettas well, but could this be a breeding issue? I never checked that her fins looked the same before, so maybe she is like Nemo and just has one bad fin? I don’t know. The fin doesn’t looked ripped or anything and she seems to get along well with the shrimp and the snail.
Could it be distress over the snails death? Or the gh not increasing? I just don’t know what to do!
