HELP Betta not doing well

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FishDanFishDan

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PLEASE see attached. I know itā€™s only a betta but my young daughters first fish and part of family. Usually swims up to us and on bottom of tank. There is a white ā€œtailā€ off its side when hes swimming. Canā€™t tell if infection or cut itself
SEE ATTACHED
Water Quality is fine
There are ā€œsudsā€ on top that are not bubbles
only changes are
1. put silk plant in two days ago
2. had almond leaves in a week ago but he seemed fine bubble nests etc
3;Five Gallon Tank

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED
PLEASE SEE ā€Tailā€
thank you!
 

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    1ED1A172-17E2-4206-B6A0-826CB31E6E58.jpeg
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Iā€™m still quite a new Betta owner, but I think that that is ā€œstringy white pooā€ā€¦

@Colin_T will be the best to advise on treatment, but it could be an indication of illness. Stop feeding for a day, and try to feed tiny pieces of skinned, boiled pea (and wait for further advice from others).
 

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop​

There is a thread (see above) by @Colin_T that might helpā€¦.use the search box and add that phraseā€¦
 
The water looks milky cloudy and that is a bacterial bloom normally caused by uneaten food and a filter that is not working properly.

How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

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WHAT TO DO NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least one week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

If there's no improvement after a week with daily water changes and salt, or it gets worse during that time, post some more pictures and tell use the water quality results in numbers.
eg: Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0.5ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
pH 7.0

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 

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