Nooo What Should I Do?

[pompeydaz]

Hey Fred(male) is looking really weak, my air stone makes alot of ripples. I turned it off as he looked tired then even then struggled. So I put him in my little floating tank for the night, looked better this morning. So turned the air back on as it looked as if he needed it, now looks all weak again!!! What can or should I do???

 

[Hmongol]

From all I've gathered and experienced, Bettas do not require air stone unless they are mixed in with a community of tropical fish.
I find that if a betta is in a 2-5 gallon tank, the air stone seems to irritate them and causes stress. The air stone often times disturb the bubble nest which can lead to stress and depending on how strong your air stone is, it will cause too much ripples and currents.

I take it that your betta could be stressed by the current and noises your air stone is causing since there are no sign of bad water or chemical and your little experiment there seems to have point that way too.

 

[pompeydaz]

He's in with a community of 26 other fish. I think I'm going to turn the air stone off, I have 11 plants so hopefully get air from them, and I get some movement from the filter anyway.

 

[StandbySetting]

Why are you using an airstone? Betta splendens is an anabantoid, it has the labrynth organ so can breath atmospheric air, if it was short of air it would take it from the surface, plus gaseous exchange occurs naturally without the need for additional aeration.

 

[pompeydaz]

Well I wasn't getting much of a current from my filter, when the other fish looked like gasping for air so turned it on. It's off now and remain off

 

[Louiseness]

I'm assuming you've already thought of this but you can always adjust your filter to 'bubble' the surface of the water more. Might still annoy him though dependant on the size of the tank etc.

 

[pompeydaz]

Yeah I've done this already. Its a 180ltr tank, but he's staying behind the filter now!

 

[Louiseness]

The only other thing I can think of is someone is chasing him. That might explain why the floating tank cheered him up! But presumbly you'd have noticed, hmmm.

 

[lilfishie]

what are the other fish?

 

[pompeydaz]

Well the only thing that goes for him hardly ever is one of the emperor tetras. I've got honey gourami, red tailed shark, 2 guppies,corys,plec

 

[lilfishie]

the gourami would certainly cause a problem, possibly the shark too, although i have 1 in with my PK.

The guppies if male will also stress him out (thinking there other bettas)

 

[pompeydaz]

They have been together for about 5 months though, not had any problems. The 1 male guppy doesn't go near him or the otherway. The only thing that goes near him is one of the emperor tetras. he slowly swims back and forth at the top back of the tank, hardly does anything now.