Sick Betta

[alias_B]

My mom has had her betta, Mr. Limpit, for a year now. He is in a 5 gallon aquarium with a filter and an air stone. He eats Betta Bits and his tank recieves weekly water changes. His only tank mate now is a 1-inch albino cory cat, Pete. Mr. Limpit was by himself up until a month ago when we added Pete, the cory cat and a small red platy. Unfortunately the platy died a week after we had it. However, the cory cat seems fine, but 5 days ago the betta, Mr. Limpit, started acting sick. He was fine one day and the next day he just lays on the bottom of the tank on his side, he acts weak and when he tries to move he curves into a u-shape and can't really swim, he doesn't try to move much at all though, he's mostly just sitting on the bottom of the tank. This is very unlike him as he is usually very active. He is not eating either. He has been like this for 5 days. What's going on with this little guy Like I said, we have had him a year and he has been perfectly fine, but then last month we got the platy and it mysteriously died a week after we got it. So, then we got the cory cat and it has been with the betta for a month now, but it seems fine, however, the betta is not. Could the betta, Mr. Limpit, have caught something from the platty? or.... Could the betta have injuried itself? What can I do to help this little guy... he's really trying to hang in there and I want to help him any way I can?

 

[Katty]

I'm not an expert but I had a similar experience. My betta went through something similar recently (couldn't swim well, laid on the ground or on ornaments a lot, wasn't too interested in his betta bits, had trouble breathing, just looked sick in general) that turned out to be constipation. Constipation does some funny things in fish. It could be that or something else entirely. Do you know or see how the platy died or did you just wake up one day and it was dead?

If you have a water test kit, posting the water stats would be great so we can get a better idea of what's going on.