HELP- Female betta started spitting out her food.

[mnakamur]

Hi everyone, we have a she betta here for almost 1 year now, she was thriving until now. Reorganized her tank with a new substrate (last one was sand but after one year of cleaning it ran over) now we have put river stones.

She started spitting her pellets and started spending long periods of time in the bottom, not moving at all. Tried 4 different pellet brands, but no success.

Paramethers:
5 gallons tank.
Temperature fixed at 84F (29C)
Filter installed
Amonia: zero
NO2, NO3: zero
PH around 7

Yesterday she ate a pea, and accepted artemias.
Her drastic behaviour change concerned us. Any ideas?

 

[Barry Tetra]

@Deanasue will help you.

 

[FishGuest5123]

For one thing, her temp is too hot. It should be 78-80F. Could she have a piece of gravel stuck in her mouth? It is normal for bettas to spit out food and it helps break the food up. It could be constipated or have a digestive issue too. Fast it for 2 days and then offer a pea again. This should help if it is a digestive issue.

 

[Barry Tetra]

For one thing, her temp is too hot. It should be 78-80F. Could she have a piece of gravel stuck in her mouth?

No its not too hot, my country is 95F and bettas are okay, natural rice field betta live in this temperature too.

 

[mnakamur]

For one thing, her temp is too hot. It should be 78-80F. Could she have a piece of gravel stuck in her mouth? It is normal for bettas to spit out food and it helps break the food up. It could be constipated or have a digestive issue too. Fast it for 2 days and then offer a pea again. This should help if it is a digestive issue.

Thanks for the idea, I'll try to fast it and give peas. Just gave a small pea piece (put it in her own water first for a few minutes), so should I wait 2 more days and give it again?
How much of the pea should I feed her?

 

[mnakamur]

For one thing, her temp is too hot. It should be 78-80F. Could she have a piece of gravel stuck in her mouth? It is normal for bettas to spit out food and it helps break the food up. It could be constipated or have a digestive issue too. Fast it for 2 days and then offer a pea again. This should help if it is a digestive issue.

Also, for the gravel, any way I can check that?

 

[mnakamur]

Made a video of her

Could you please take a look?
Thanks a lot for all the help!

 

[mnakamur]

I'll try to make a video while feeding her also

 

[PheonixKingZ]

It may be the food brand. my betta didn't like a specific brand of food for a while, so I got a different brand. He never complained again.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Also, for the gravel, any way I can check that?

If she’s swallowing the pea she should be alright.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Don’t feed her for 2 days. I couldn’t get the video to play.

 

[mnakamur]

It may be the food brand. my betta didn't like a specific brand of food for a while, so I got a different brand. He never complained again.

Tried 4 different brands no success

 

[FishGuest5123]

She may be constipated and need to not eat.

 

[Colin_T]

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

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt, sea salt or swimming pool salt for every 20 litres of tank water. Keep salt in water for 2 weeks and see how the fish goes.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria or plants.

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.

If 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.

 

[mnakamur]

Don’t feed her for 2 days. I couldn’t get the video to play.

I'll give it a shot!