Betta hanging out at top of the tank for 3 days

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 10gal *EDIT
How long has the tank been running? 2yrs
Does it have a filter? yes HOB
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? 79F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 1x Betta male, 1x Pleco (they get along)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 30% change every week, or every other week pending levels
How much of the water do you change? 30%ish
What do you use to treat your water? Cycle and dechlorinator during water changes
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrate vacuum with syphon

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? yes
What do you use to test the water? Master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
pH: 7.2

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Betta pellets and bug bites, algae wafers
How much do you feed your fish? Betta gets a couple pellets in the AM and a couple bug sprinkles in the evening, pleco gets 1\4-1\2 wafer every couple days at night
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Bug bites, and I can't remember the name of the pellets, they are in a small black ziplok style bag
Do you feed frozen? No
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? Bug bites might be freeze dried?

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? over a year
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 3 days~
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Betta just hangs out at the top of the tank, seems lethargic, floats normal (not sideways) but maybe his tail end is a bit higher than his head?
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He seems lethargic compared to the usual, haven't seen him at the bottom of the tank or on his leaf or in his log

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
I noted a week ago the nitrate was high, it wasn't in the "danger" zone but it was up there so I did a 50% water change, let is cycle a bit, and did about 25% a few days later. I've been monitoring for Ammonia spikes as I know I took alot out but Ammonia has stayed at 0 along with nitrite so I don't believe I upset the biome doing a larger than normal water change. Just in the last couple days I've notice he just drifts around at the surface, he seems slow, doesn't explore the tank anymore. His eye doesn't look popped and I'd say his body looks normal. I'll attach a photo, sorry for the quality, it's hard to focus through the glass. Maybe he's just having a week? But things just don't seem normal. Him and the pleco get along great and don't bother each other, although I'm sure I've seen the betta pick at the algae wafer the odd time out of curiosity. I follow the expiration date on his food as well. Water looks clear, no strange fog or growths anywhere in the tank. No white spot anywhere. The pleco has been in there for a long time now so no new pathogens could have been brought in. The betta's fins have always looked a bit tattered since we got him so it doesn't look like new damage to me.

 

Im really not sure whats up with your betta. Maybe hes just getting old and slow? He looks fine body wise.

I do want to add that large water changes will never harm your cycle. I would stop adding Cycle with water changes too. Its not needed. Wasting your money is all. What kind of pleco do you have? With ANY pleco in a 5g I would change 50% a week regardless of numbers. 5g is real small for a pleco.

 

Im really not sure whats up with your betta. Maybe hes just getting old and slow? He looks fine body wise.

I do want to add that large water changes will never harm your cycle. I would stop adding Cycle with water changes too. Its not needed. Wasting your money is all. What kind of pleco do you have? With ANY pleco in a 5g I would change 50% a week regardless of numbers. 5g is real small for a pleco.

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the tip on the cycle, I kind of thought the same but the initial tank cycle was difficult and I guess I get paranoid so I kept adding when taking water out, I'll maybe save some money and limit adding unless things look out of balance.

As for the pleco, excuse my relative ignorance of the species but it's a common pleco (I assume). He's dark black\brown with darker spots like leopard print. He is an absolutely beautiful fish and is (currently) very happy. So the story on how he was added was due to uncontrollable green algae. I live in a very remote location and the nearest pet store is a 4 hour roundtrip by car. Since my tank was completely coated in green slime I tried buying a snail to see if he would clean it up but the little bugger refused to stay IN the water or do any cleaning. One day he escaped and I have yet to find where it went. I supposed I'll find a shell someday. The only other algae consumer the store had were pleco's. I had wanted a bristlenose cat but they didn't know if they would ever order any. So I took the pleco home (he was ~2in when bought). He's now about 4.5-5in and growing like a weed. He has his hiding spots and is about the healthiest looking fish I've ever owned in my life. That being said I don't have plans to up the tank size so I've already asked the pet store if they'd be interested in taking him back soon so he can have a larger home. I'm working on how to find a bristlenose to replace him.

He had my tank literally SPOTLESS in under 24hr when brought home. Those things are cleaning machines!

 

Could it be that the betta has decided the rest of the tank is pleco territory? I'm glancing over at my 5 gallon now trying to imagine a 5 inch fish in there. I think my betta would probably stay at the top in that case as well (he already spends quite a bit lounging in his floating log anyway).

 

Total mixup! It's a 10gal, I don't know why I said 5gal, not enough coffee maybe. The pleco is still outgrowing it but yes definitely not a 5gal. Better photo for reference. I mean anything is possible in that maybe he isn't a fan of the pleco but even within the last week i saw them hanging out inside the log at the same time and all seemed well. The plecos time is on a countdown though because he is definitely destined for larger waters.

 

Today he seems the same, sits kind of in an S shape at the top of the tank and hasn't really moved at all other than drifting around. He also seemed very apathetic at his food whereas a few months ago he would sprint to the glass when he'd see me and snap up all the food.

I did some google amateur investigation and it sounds like these fish are often a year old when purchased, and live a fairly wide life range (2 years to 5 years). So he's definitely over 2, maybe he's just old and on his way out. I assume that when your life can be as short as 2 years that healthy to old age can happen fairly quickly. I'll keep an eye on him and see what happens, I really don't visibly see anything worth treating so I figure there's no sense in setting up a hospital tank and stressing him further by moving from the home he knows to somewhere else.

 

Poor guy. Have you done any recent water changes? If not, maybe some extra would help. You could also consider adding some tannins in the water (Indian almond leaves, rooibos tea). You could also get some fresh food if yours is over a few months old- it does expire over time.

 

Poor guy. Have you done any recent water changes? If not, maybe some extra would help. You could also consider adding some tannins in the water (Indian almond leaves, rooibos tea). You could also get some fresh food if yours is over a few months old- it does expire over time.

Thanks for the ideas. Just did a decent sized change not long ago, I'd add some tanins in but I'm not sure if the pleco would react. Also I wouldn't be able to grab any from the store until Thursday at earliest (4hr drive). Hopefully he turns around soon or at least goes peacefully.

 

Thanks for the ideas. Just did a decent sized change not long ago, I'd add some tanins in but I'm not sure if the pleco would react. Also I wouldn't be able to grab any from the store until Thursday at earliest (4hr drive). Hopefully he turns around soon or at least goes peacefully.

Tannins will be fine for the pleco- it's actually recommended to have driftwood in with most plecos and driftwood also releases tannins.

 

UPDATE: I noticed he swam for some food today awkwardly, and then later on I opened the lid to look at him since he was dead still and I worried he had died and he was spooked and swam down and around the tank. As soon as he stopped swimming he floated right to the surface.

I think he has swim bladder disease. I'm googling treatments now. No new fish have been added and the water is clean, so I doubt it's a parasite or bacterial infection as there would be no recent (in the last 2 months or more) was for it to be introduced. Maybe constipation or something like that is doing it.

 

If you can, add an airstone or a bubbler. My new betta was acting like this (I have a post on it as well) and while it was a day after he threw himself out of my covered tank, he was just hanging out, lethargic at the top of the tank. Someone mentioned it might be because there's not enough oxygen in the water so I threw in an airstone with a mini air pump I use for my shrimp tank and he's already more active. Though I do worry that yours might have a swim bladder issue since he's just "floating" as you put it, but a bubbler wouldn't hurt if you have that option.

 

Update: the Betta is good to go. I did standard swim bladder treatment knowing there shouldn't be any way a new infection could have been introduced. I didn't feed him for 3 days straight, turned the tank from 78 to 80, went out and bought frozen daphnia, and for 2 further days just barely dribbled a bit in for him to eat. After that he has come back to life. He swims around, hangs out at the bottom when he wants, and sits back on his leaf. I'm going to adjust his feeding schedule to prevent future issues and I'll do the daphnia twice a week.