Betta has clamped fin after being in tank for 2 months.. HELP!!

Charlo

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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 havenā€™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 itā€™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 itā€™s trap door was still shut, which it wasnā€™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 sheā€™s excited; she doesnā€™t use it always though. I got her from petsmart, which I know doesnā€™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 donā€™t know. The fin doesnā€™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 donā€™t know what to do!
 
This is very likely to be a water quality issue caused by a lack of routine water changes and the GH adjusting chemical.
Please post test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH for your tank water and the pH and GH of your tap water.
 
Do a 75% water change every day for a week. After that you should do a weekly change of at least 50% (75 is better).

Bettas are soft water fish. I don't know why you were advised to adjust the Gh, but it is not good advice.
 
I have nerites in fairly soft water. Yes their shells do erode but it does not seem to bother them. Two of my nerites were bought in July 2011 and are still crawling round the tank even if their shells do a look a bit odd by now.
 
I have nerites in fairly soft water. Yes their shells do erode but it does not seem to bother them. Two of my nerites were bought in July 2011 and are still crawling round the tank even if their shells do a look a bit odd by now.
I have found many articles about how shell erosion in nerite snails can kill them? And if not then what on earth could have happened to my snail? It has been perfectly fine for weeks!
 
This is very likely to be a water quality issue caused by a lack of routine water changes and the GH adjusting chemical.
Please post test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH for your tank water and the pH and GH of your tap water.
the nitrates and nitrites are both zero. The ph is around 7.5. The gh is around 50. I donā€™t understand why I need to test tap water.
 
She has currently gone back to using both fins regularly
 
the nitrates and nitrites are both zero. The ph is around 7.5. The gh is around 50. I donā€™t understand why I need to test tap water.
You raised the GH in your tank, my advise would be to stop doing this and use tap water 'as is' so we need to know that your tap water is suitable. I also would have advised more gradual water changes to tap water had there been a big difference between tank and tap water chemistry. If GH of 50 is ppm this will suit your betta. Can you test for ammonia?
 
You raised the GH in your tank, my advise would be to stop doing this and use tap water 'as is' so we need to know that your tap water is suitable. I also would have advised more gradual water changes to tap water had there been a big difference between tank and tap water chemistry. If GH of 50 is ppm this will suit your betta. Can you test for ammonia?
Tap water canā€™t be used in our fish tank, at least not in our area. The water isnā€™t even suitable for drinking. I canā€™t currently test for ammonia because I have run out of ammonia test strips but the last time I checked which was a week ago it was 0, there havenā€™t been any indicators of high ammonia.
 
I'm not sure what indicators of high ammonia would be without testing, except sick fish?
I would commence the routine water changes as per Seangee's advise in post #3.
 

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