Sick? Or Just Trying To Drive Me Crazy?

[Fisharecool:)]

hey
my betta has been awkward lately.
he will just sit around and look dead, wheras normally he would swim around and go crazy. he had this really bad habit of sticking his head in tight places and just stay there! he could wriggle himself out but just go back. so i changed gravel and now he won't eat. im mean, he'll eat one pellet and not the rest. then 3 or four hours later hell eat another, 4 hours later another. wjhats wrong with him? i just cleaned the gravel and his water is never cloudy. i feed him hikari betta bio gold and every sunday, he gets a treat of bloodworms. anything else, just ask. im real worried here so any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Cdarmychi]

what are the water stats? not cloudy doesnt mean much... and can you use more detail to describbe the looking dead? are we talking lots of mucous, just not moving, or is he upside down/ vertical?

 

[Athena]

Also, is he in a tank with a heater? If not, it could be that as it's winter time the tank water has become cooler than normal and this slows down their activity.

Going off food could also mean he's a bit constipated from the bloodworms. Try him with a squashed up pea - that usually does the trick.

Athena

 

[Fisharecool:)]

no water stats sorry
looking dead: just lying around breathing slowly
o heater, im in south florida
ill try the pea

 

[Syphoniera]

Hi, Fisharecool - you could be having a spike - are you doing small daily water changes after changing your gravel?


[URL="http/www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/d...788&search="]http/www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfish/d...788&search=[/URL]

... Probably the biggest repository of helpful bacteria in your aquarium occurs on the surface of each piece of gravel. Each grain, though appearing smooth to the eye, is rough at a microscopic level, and thus provides a huge surface area for the growth of helpful bacteria. So, it follows that if you sterilize your gravel, you will destroy most of the biofiltration in your tank. Not knowing this, hobbyists sometimes remove the gravel for cleaning and have been known to boil it, scald it or (worst of all) use bleach or soap to sterilize the gravel. This is a huge mistake! It kills off the nitrifying bacteria and will allow ammonia levels to increase rapidly in the water. Gravel should never be cleaned with anything but plain, aquarium-temperature water. ...

A small amount of salt, at the rate of 1 spoon per 20 gallons, can help prevent nitrite uptake.
If I were in that situation, I'd do a good-sized water change (80-100% might be too much of a shock, as he's in low condition - I'd do about 50-60%) with a bit of salt in the change water and do daily of about 25-30%, gradually diminishing over the weeks.
He could have gill damage, but betta are pretty tough.
Good luck, anyway.

Edit - sorry, missed your sig and didn't realize he was in a 1.5 gallon container - this makes extra water changes all the more important.
I was wondering if you'd mind telling us:
do you do 100% changes or partial?
do you generally remove and clean gravel? (Not a good idea, except in tank water)
how often do you give him waterchanges?
If you don't have any live plants, can you add some, as they make such a difference to water quality?
Will it be possible to get him in something larger down the road, even a little 2 & 1/2 gallon tank?