Help! Betta fish looks sad

[Amy Partridge]

hi guys, I’ve had my Betta fish for roughly a month and a bit and almost had a scare because he looked very sad and would sit on the bottom of the tank so I got him a larger tank with live plants and a few neons. He seemed to perk up and swims around the tank. He likes to sit on top of the filter or in corners on the ground I thought this was concerning to begin with but was told he looks very normal from several videos and that he was resting.

However at the moment I’m having the concern that he isn’t happy or something is up again. He’s tail doesn’t fan out the way he did when I first got him and he seems to mope around all day with the occasional swim. Is there anyway I can make him happy again as he doesn’t seem to show signs of sickness and is naturally a very bright white and blue fish! Plz help!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Most fish health issues are caused by poor water quality.

How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the tank when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the tank water?

What sort of filter do you have?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Have you added anything new (fish, plants, wood, etc) to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
Do you add plant fertilisers, supplements or anything else to the tank?
Are there any other fishes in the tank?

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Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next 2 weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.