Sick or dying Betta?

[Kelly Preussner]

I have a female betta in a community tank. She was never a big swimmer, kind of a lazy fish. I have had her about 5-6 weeks. For the past 3 days she has been laying in her floating log with almost no movement. I keep checking to see if she is dead. About once a day she will take a swim around the tank & then back to the log. I don’t know what is wrong with her. She won’t eat or move. She is not bloated or sinking or floating. She just lays on her side with her head sticking up. She will also lay on the bottom.

Here are tank specs:
36 gal bow front
PH is 8.1, Amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5
2 female swords
5 female platy
2 male platy
2 female molly
2 guppies
1 female Betta
2 female molly fry in breeder cup

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish, and a picture of the tank?
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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What is the GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

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What is the temperature of the water?

What do you feed the fish and how often do you feed it?

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 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?

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Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until we work out what is wrong with the fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence.

 

[Deanasue]

Could anyone be bullying her? I know that in my sorority tank that is the behavior they would have when picked on too much. You may need to move her to her own tank.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

Thanks for the info. Yesterday I worked a double so didn't get to do much with the fish. So I think the problem is 1 of 2 things. 1. I think I was feeding her too much. I usually don't do that if anything I under feed my fish but when I got this betta she wouldn't eat. She absolutely won't eat the pellets, I tried the betta flakes and the only thing she would eat is the freeze dried bloodworms. I feed the tank the tropical flakes and she won't eat that either. So in my effort to make sure she didn't starve I think I was over feeding her. The other option is that I DID have a bully but I am not sure she was bullying my betta. I was watching the tank (the same day my betta was "sick" and this new very large Molly fish was chasing my littlest guppy to the point I thought the guppy would die. It was awful to watch so I caught the guppy and put it in my breeder cup with my 2 fry (quite big). The guppy finally recovered after 24 hours and I got rid of the Molly fish. When I returned the guppy to the tank it did recover but that is when the betta was not moving & just laying in her log. So, the Molly has been gone for 2-3 days and I didn't feed the betta for the past 3 days. Yesterday she was swimming around like normal again. She is still super lazy but is acting normal.

Now, yesterday when I was checking the fish I noticed my 2 black molly fish have ick! So, I didn't do the water change as Colin suggested because I took the carbon out of the filter & started treating the ick. I use a product called Ich attack. I also added some aquarium salt & slowly turned the heat up to 89 F.

Any suggestions now?? I did find a dead platy this morning but she is fairly new (maybe 2 weeks) and they seems to be the timeframe my new fish die (if they are going to die).

We do have hard water here.

Thanks!

 

[Deanasue]

I would do either the 86F and water changes or the meds. Doing both will stress the fish out too much. Since you’ve already done the meds, you can lower the temp slowly back down.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

Thanks. I will reduce temp and continue meds for the next week. Once meds are done how much water change should I do?

Also, big question, what can I feed my betta?? Can she live on bloodworms? She won't seem to eat much else. I have not given her food for 3 days. Should I feed her tomorrow?

Thanks!

 

[Deanasue]

Does your ich treatment say to do any water changes during treatment? If so, I would vacuum the substrate at that time in order to suck up any dead ich or parasites on substrate. After treatment is done, Do a 75% water change and add a little carbon to your filter if you have it to clean out the rest of the medication.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

The treatment does not require any water changes during treatment. It says to change at least 20% after treatment. The black mollies I have are newer (1 is about 4 days old & the other about 2 weeks). Whenever I have black mollies it looks like they have ich. No other fish have the spots but then I wonder if it is just their coloring under my white led lights. It appears they have lots of white spots but then when I look closely they just look like part of the fish. Anyone have this experience?

Also, on my betta she is still laying in the log. I will try to attach photos & a video.

 

[Deanasue]

She needs more than bloodworms. Have you tried Fluval Insect Bites yet? Bettas usually love them and they are high in protein.

 

[Kelly Preussner]

I have not tried that. Can I get at local pet store?

I am not sure how to upload my videos but did the pics. As you can see her in the log she lays with he head up. Maybe that is normal, I am not sure.

 

[Deanasue]

I know Petco carries them.