Female Swim Problem

[Stu81]

Hi I got 5 new female bettas yesterday but 1 is not swimming to good. Finding hard to swim horizontal and every time she stops her tail sinks.
I have a rough idea it could b swim bladder but just looking some confirmation and ideas of what to do next. I called the pet store and they just want to test my water to c if it is my fault prob.
Ammonia-0ppm
Nitrites- 0.5ppm first time it's ever shown, think it was pet shop water I put in with the bettas.
Nitrates-10ppm just got my nitrate kit today, not sure if that is high but I did a 35-40% water change anyway.
I'm also in the middle of trying to cycle a betta cube but it isn't ready yet for any sick females, thanks

 

[jewelcolors]

Hi I got 5 new female bettas yesterday but 1 is not swimming to good. Finding hard to swim horizontal and every time she stops her tail sinks.
I have a rough idea it could b swim bladder but just looking some confirmation and ideas of what to do next. I called the pet store and they just want to test my water to c if it is my fault prob.
Ammonia-0ppm
Nitrites- 0.5ppm first time it's ever shown, think it was pet shop water I put in with the bettas.
Nitrates-10ppm just got my nitrate kit today, not sure if that is high but I did a 35-40% water change anyway.
I'm also in the middle of trying to cycle a betta cube but it isn't ready yet for any sick females, thanks

I'm going to ask you a lot of questions, so please bear with me. I don't know how experienced you are with fishkeeping, and I'm trying to get a clearer picture of what's going on in your tank so either I or someone else on the forum can give you some constructive suggestions.

What size tank are your five females in right now?
Are there other fish in with them?
Have you cycled this tank using other fish or done a fishless cycle with it?
What type(s) of water conditioner(s) or other additives (like salt) do you use?
Is the tank heated, and if so, to what temperature?
What kind of filter are you running? How long has the tank been set up with the filter running?
Have you fed your females anything yet? If so, what and how much?

That said, here's what stands out to me right now.

In a tank that's not completely cycled or is going through a mini-cycle from having numerous fish added at once, it is possible to see nitrites at 0.5 ppm (which is a dangerous level) and some nitrates (anything below 40 ppm is an acceptable level, the lower the better). Nitrites are far more toxic than nitrates, so changing your water was good in that you've lowered the nitrite level, but you need to monitor your water chemistry at least once a day until those nitrites are gone and stay gone. The pet store water can make your water quality worse, so you'll find that some people prefer to use a very soft net, like a brine shrimp net, to remove their bettas from the container/bag they came home in and transfer them to their new tanks once they've been acclimated.

Swim bladder problems can be caused or made worse by overfeeding, feeding dry foods (especially flakes and freeze-dried food), and/or keeping a betta at a low water temperature. There's a pretty good article on it here, including treatment and prevention of SBD, that you might want to read. It definitely sounds like your female may have a problem with her swim bladder.

Also, when you say you're trying to cycle a betta cube, what size is it? The only betta cubes I'm familiar with are generally considered far too small to cycle.

 

[Stu81]

What size tank are your five females in right now? 60ltr
Are there other fish in with them? 4 glass bloodfin tetras
Have you cycled this tank using other fish or done a fishless cycle with it? Fish in and api bacteria boost
What type(s) of water conditioner(s) or other additives (like salt) do you use? Stress coat only
Is the tank heated, and if so, to what temperature? 26 degC
What kind of filter are you running? How long has the tank been set up with the filter running? My first filter broke and I took the White filter media out and placed it between the 2 carbon pads of my new one, not sure model will update later, tank been going about 10-11 wks, test water every week and ammonia and nitrites have always been normal until yesterday
Have you fed your females anything yet? If so, what and how much? Once, day after entry to tank, half a cube of frozen blood worm
Thanks will get a look at the link after work
It's a med cube 8-10 Ltrs i think it's way bigger than those nano cubes,
Ammonia- 3ppm
Nitrites- 0.5ppm
Thanks

 

[jewelcolors]

I'm on my way out the door, so I have to make this quick, but a few things.

1) It sounds like you're overstocked. I did my liter to gallon conversions, and with the tetras and the bettas, you have about 18-19" of fish when everybody's full grown in about 16 gallons of water. At maximum, you should only have 1" fish/gallon.

2) In that small of a tank, adding five fish at once can really upset the cycle, so that may be what's happening to your water parameters, especially since the ammonia has now spiked. 3 ppm of ammonia is very dangerous to your fish. If you're going to keep everybody in that tank, you will have to do a large water change and keep doing large water changes every day until things settle down and ammonia and nitrites are at 0 ppm and stay there. You're doing the right thing by testing often, so keep it up!

3) The water chemistry issues are probably not causing your female's swim bladder propblems if she came home with them, but both the ammonia and nitrites you're seeing in your tank are very toxic to fish, and that can make things much harder on her. One thing you can try is lessening the bioload in your tank by moving your girls if you can until things settle down. I'm not sure how hardy your particular variety of tetras is, but bettas tend to do very poorly in cycling tanks.

4) I'm not sure what the general opinion on the forum is, but when I checked, the cube is about 2.5 gallons, and the general consensus I've seen is that volume of water is extremely difficult to cycle and keep cycled. Most of the people I know who keep their bettas in a 2.5 gallon don't cycle the tanks, and instead do 50-100% water changes as required to maintain the water quality. You can keep a sick betta in that size tank, so if you'd like to move your female with SBD, you can. Just make sure you have clean, conditioned water in the tank, and if you have a heater (several are made for small tanks) set it at about 26 degrees celcius, let the water warm up to that temperature, then move your remale to the cube. Net her out instead of pouring her out if you can to keep the water as clean as possible.

5) Just to be sure, were the bloodworms completely thawed when you fed them?

I hope that helps, and I hope that your female improves.

 

[Stu81]

Hi no the ammonia in my 60ltr has stayed 0ppm and the nitrite spiked to 0.5ppm but I tested it today and 0ppm 0ppm and 10ppm are the readings
It is the smaller cube that is at 3ppm as I am trying to fishless cycle it but since I have an ill one I have isolated her into the cube (after I changed 80-90% of the water to reduce the ammonia I had built up) pllanning to fast her for 3 days then give her some pea on 4th day.
I also gave the rest of the girls some pea today instead of a proper feed, they took it of me from a cocktail stick, was great craic lol

Oh and yeah the worms were thawed, just wondering how many should they be getting to eat??

 

[jewelcolors]

That's good news with your water chemistry readings in the larger tank. Maybe monitor them for a few days to be on the safe side, and definitely monitor the cube. My personal opinion is that it's easier to maintain a tank that small as an uncycled tank, but if you do that, it's still helpful to monitor the water quality daily until you know your betta well and know how quickly ammonia builds up when she's in a tank of that size. The general rule I've been taught for an uncycled tank is that, however many days it takes for ammonia to become detectable, you should do a large water change (some people say complete, some say half, some say 80%; personally, I do 100% changes) the day before you know the ammonia is going to show up on a test. You may need to plan ahead and have water ready to go, conditioned and at the proper temperature, to help make the process as stress-free as possible for your betta.

You'll see a lot of betta owners say this as a helpful guide for feeding. Your betta's stomach is about the size of his/her eye. You don't want to feed more than your betta can comfortably hold in his/her stomach, as this leads to problems with constipation and SBD. How many bloodworms you feed each fish depends a little on the size of the worms. What I do is thaw them out in a bowl filled with tank water, then use a blunt toothpick to select individual worms (I only feed the ones that are a nice, bright red) and feed my boys one worm at a time. They usually get about four worms each, but I may give them a couple more if the worms are on the small side. It's a little hard to do this in a group setting, but it gives you a rough idea of portions.

I have never had a betta refuse a pea. They adore them. It's hilarious.

 

[loraxchick]

Replied to other thread.