Apparent Nitrogen spike? What do I do?

My male Betta, Bubbles has been hiding a lot lately, does not seem as active and seems to have lost interest in a bubble nest he recently started. I thought it was just because of the new hidey rock I bought him (which he sleeps in now), but now that I've checked the ammonia levels I'm worried.

The tank did cycle and appeared fine when I changed his water last week.

I don't have any nitrate test strips but here are the parameters I do have-

pH- 6.8
Ammonia- The chart just says "stress"
Temp- 77/78
5.5 gallons

I did change his diet recently. He used to eat pellets with the occasional freeze dried blood worms or pinch of flakes. Now I give him crushed freeze dried crickets with the blood worms (to trick him into eating them). The first few times I gave him crickets involved a lot of trial and error as too how big the cricket chuncks could be (I started trying to give him a whole cricket, which was dumb) and how big of a pinch he could quickly eat. (He never eats very quickly, which might be another warning sign). No doubt he was overfed during those times and that probably caused the spike, right?

What do I do?

ETA- He also seems more aggressive latley. I added more gravel to his tank, so he can no longer see his reflection from the tank floor (of course there is still the sides of the tank), but almost every time I feed him or go near his tank he comes darting out of his hidey-rock, cheeks flaring and doesn't calm down quickly either.

 

Water change

 

Size of the tank? Filtered? Heated? You need to do a water change and get a liquid test kit to get accurate readings.

 

Size of the tank? Filtered? Heated? You need to do a water change and get a liquid test kit to get accurate readings.

I provided all that information in my post.

Eta- it is filtered, I hadn't mentioned that I suppose.

 

I agree that you'd want a more accurate test kit. The API Master Test Kit is the one most recommended. It would include all the tests you need to determine your levels for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. How often and how large are your water changes? I'd do at least 50% every other day for now until you can be sure of your parameters. What kind of water conditioner do you use? Seachem Prime would be good to have to detox ammonia and nitrite up to 1ppm for 24 hours.

Your profile says you don't know the nitrogen cycle so I would read about it. It's possible your tank is not cycled.

 

I agree that you'd want a more accurate test kit. The API Master Test Kit is the one most recommended. It would include all the tests you need to determine your levels for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. How often and how large are your water changes? I'd do at least 50% every other day for now until you can be sure of your parameters. What kind of water conditioner do you use? Seachem Prime would be good to have to detox ammonia and nitrite up to 1ppm for 24 hours.

Your profile says you don't know the nitrogen cycle so I would read about it. It's possible your tank is not cycled.

I do know about the cycle (which I mentioned in the post), I just haven't updated my profile =)

I have been doing 1/3 water changes but not regularly. I did about a 50% yesterday after reading comments. I intended to do a 100% change, then panicked when I realized I hadn't unplugged the heater and also didn't know what other things to unplug/change. I'll make sure to look up some instructions next time.

That test kit is expensive, I could get one but I haven't seen any evidence that it would be worth it seeing as my current system was sufficient enough to alert me to a problem.

I will get Seachem Prime though, that does look worth getting compared to my current conditioned.

 

I do know about the cycle (which I mentioned in the post), I just haven't updated my profile =)

I have been doing 1/3 water changes but not regularly. I did about a 50% yesterday after reading comments. I intended to do a 100% change, then panicked when I realized I hadn't unplugged the heater and also didn't know what other things to unplug/change. I'll make sure to look up some instructions next time.

That test kit is expensive, I could get one but I haven't seen any evidence that it would be worth it seeing as my current system was sufficient enough to alert me to a problem.

I will get Seachem Prime though, that does look worth getting compared to my current conditioned.

Believe me the cost of the kit will pay for itself in the long run. Not to mention you get actual numbers. "Stress" isn't clear enough.

 

Agree with the comments strongly recommending the API Master Test Kit.

Test strips are not reliable. I've used them in the past. Had readings of very high pH with test strips, and was in a panic, ready to start dumping chemicals in to all the tanks in my fish room. Just to double check, I took my water in to the LFS, and found out my pH was actually on the low side. I would have killed off all my fish.

My daughter works as a technician in a lab that tests water (pools and spas). When I brought up test strips, she told me they use them to detect changes in parameters, but never rely on them for accurate readings. She said, "They're always consistent, and they're always wrong.

A 100% water change is drastic. All water changes stress the fish to a certain extent.

Get an API Master Test Kit.

 

Agreed. And while the kit may seem more upfront, it's actually cheaper because it gives you over 800 tests while strips only give you about 25. It just makes more sense to be able to test all the parameters (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) instead of strips that give you an "idea" of what your ammonia level is at. And if my betta was acting off, I'd like to exactly what's going on with my water to be able to help him.