clareanded
New Member
Hi there, allow me to explain the situation.....
"Mooch", our recently purchased Betta seems to not be very happy over the last few days and I am struggling to work out why. He is in a 30l Biorb and is on his own and has live plants (incl floating plants). We've had him for just under 2 weeks and when he first went into the tank he seemed really happy, the very first thing he did was attack a small passing by snail which made me think right... this guy is fairly aggressive. He's been eating bloodworms, daphnia, bryne shrimp and tubifex and buzzing around the tank exploring his new home. I did also put in King British flake food, dried bloodworms and Mysis but none of these took his fancy. Due to the uneaten food I did a 40% water change, tested his water the day after (last Friday) and all was well:
PH - 7, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 5, Temp - 27 C
However, over the last 2-3 days he has become very very inactive. In fact there has been 2 times when I thought he was dead. He just rests in the floating plants with his mouth just out of the water and fins hanging down. Alternatively he rests on the bottom and just lays very still, going up for air as he needs it. He still swims about sometimes but not as often as before & is still taking food.
His stomach looks slightly bloated (i've not seen him use the toilet either but this could be a coincidence) and some scales on his underside looking a silver colour, as if they have either lost their colour or rubbed on the substrate?? He was fed this morning but I felt maybe he was constipated (I did not realise how small their stomaches are until reading up on it tonight). So my girlfiend offered him a cooked and shelled pea tonight but he would not take it. We've left it in the tank over night and turned off the light to see if he wants to chill out and eat it in his own time.
The only other thing that has happened is that he had white spot the day after we bought him (from the shock of moving, it was a 90 minute drive home). After 2 doses of treatment it cleared up and that was before the water change.
It is a funny thing to say but he just does not look well in his face. This is not the highly charged / aggressive betta we bought! Could he be bored?? In the LFS he was in with about 20 Rasbora's and seemed happy enough.
Does anyone have any advise / comments on this.
"Mooch", our recently purchased Betta seems to not be very happy over the last few days and I am struggling to work out why. He is in a 30l Biorb and is on his own and has live plants (incl floating plants). We've had him for just under 2 weeks and when he first went into the tank he seemed really happy, the very first thing he did was attack a small passing by snail which made me think right... this guy is fairly aggressive. He's been eating bloodworms, daphnia, bryne shrimp and tubifex and buzzing around the tank exploring his new home. I did also put in King British flake food, dried bloodworms and Mysis but none of these took his fancy. Due to the uneaten food I did a 40% water change, tested his water the day after (last Friday) and all was well:
PH - 7, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 5, Temp - 27 C
However, over the last 2-3 days he has become very very inactive. In fact there has been 2 times when I thought he was dead. He just rests in the floating plants with his mouth just out of the water and fins hanging down. Alternatively he rests on the bottom and just lays very still, going up for air as he needs it. He still swims about sometimes but not as often as before & is still taking food.
His stomach looks slightly bloated (i've not seen him use the toilet either but this could be a coincidence) and some scales on his underside looking a silver colour, as if they have either lost their colour or rubbed on the substrate?? He was fed this morning but I felt maybe he was constipated (I did not realise how small their stomaches are until reading up on it tonight). So my girlfiend offered him a cooked and shelled pea tonight but he would not take it. We've left it in the tank over night and turned off the light to see if he wants to chill out and eat it in his own time.
The only other thing that has happened is that he had white spot the day after we bought him (from the shock of moving, it was a 90 minute drive home). After 2 doses of treatment it cleared up and that was before the water change.
It is a funny thing to say but he just does not look well in his face. This is not the highly charged / aggressive betta we bought! Could he be bored?? In the LFS he was in with about 20 Rasbora's and seemed happy enough.
Does anyone have any advise / comments on this.
