Betta in distress! Help!

[Bellatrinacria]

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallon
How long has the tank been running? 5 months
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes (unplugged and removed last night see below)
What is the water temperature? 81
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 1 male opal betta

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Partial water change every 2 weeks, full tank change monthly
How much of the water do you change? 50% every 2 weeks, full tank monthly
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime, imagitarium pH reducer & imagination bacterial infection remedy once
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrates

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? I got a master test kit yesterday previously quick test strips
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 6.8ppm currently (see below)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Morning & night
How much do you feed your fish? 3 freeze dried pieces of blood worm (he refused pellets and flakes for a week)
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Aqueon
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Freeze-dried

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 5 months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 week ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Lathargic, when laying in gravel top fin falls horizontally then his body starts to go horizontal with it.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Not that I saw
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Lethargic and “horizontal lean”

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now). “Bubbles” started becoming very lethargic a week ago. We would swim a little then lay on the gravel or in his tree. Then he would swim less and rest more. Last Sunday he also jumped for the first time. It sounded like he might have hit his head or body on the hood of the tank or the tank walls when doing it as well, but was swimming ok after. On Wednesday he stopped eating and got a “horizontal lean” that was more than his top fin. His body started to lean too. He tends to be “picky” so I did a full tank change. (I noticed white build up on a new heater I added on July 1st and cleaned it well). He was swimming a bit more immediately after like normal but it was short lived. Yesterday after him still acting off I got a master test kit and found the pH was at 8.6. When I added back in on Wednesday it was at 6.8! So I pulled him out immediately and did another full tank change and through cleaning. He was swimming a little in his holding container while I changed him but still lethargic and still would not eat. I balance his tank water, ph back at 6.8 added him in and we took off for a dinner. When we got home 3 hours later he had not moved and we thought he was dead, but I saw his eyes move and his gills breathing but very labored. I tested the ph and it had shot back up to 8.6. So I pull the newest thing to the tank (the heater). I reduced the ph again and it has been stable since. But now my guy is hardly moving. Staying at the top of the water and I’m afraid he will not recover. Any suggestions? This is my daughters (9yr) “quarantine” buddy and she is devastated....

 

[thatfishlover122]

well first things first, your waterchange schedule is not great. you NEVER do full changes, that's really stressful and your tank basically cycles itself all over again. Secondly, your betta diet isn't great either. feeding constant freeze-dried bloodworms is very fatty, shortens lifespan and can cause bloat and illness.
Does your tank have any live plants? air stone? is it all plastic?

In regards to helping the betta, it looks like fin rot?fin nipping and perhaps even swim baldder on the way. What does his last poop look like? could be parasites Let me know and i'll see if i can help more!

 

[Bellatrinacria]

Thanks. The vacuum drains the whole tank before we can even partially clean it that’s the reason for the full changes. . One the bloodworms I tried 3 different flakes as well as 3 different pellets and he wouldn’t eat anything. All I can get him to eat is the blood worms. Everything else he spits back out. I was treating the fin rot as his ammonia jumped to .25 and I noticed it on his tail about 4 weeks ago. I did 2 treatments and he had been great until this week when I went back to work. He has not ate in 3 days and have not seen a poop in a few days either.

 

[Bellatrinacria]

And I have an air stone bar but he does not like the current so I have a gauge to lower the amount of air. I turned it off last night as trying to reduce as much stress to him as I could

 

[Bellatrinacria]

In regards to helping the betta, it looks like fin rot?fin nipping and perhaps even swim baldder on the way. What does his last poop look like? could be parasites Let me know and i'll see if i can help more!

thanks again for the tip on swim bladder. Found a betta person at the local pet store today as well and he mentioned a salt bath and how it can help bettas. Put my guy in a salt bath. He swam in the salt bath like a champ! back in the tank he is moving up and down a bit and is finally moving his gills and front fins again . Still tends to be at the top of the water more but has definitely improved since this morning.

many suggestions on how often to do the salt bath , until he is back to normal? Like every 2 or 3 days?

 

[kimsch1005]

well first things first, your waterchange schedule is not great. you NEVER do full changes, that's really stressful and your tank basically cycles itself all over again. Secondly, your betta diet isn't great either. feeding constant freeze-dried bloodworms is very fatty, shortens lifespan and can cause bloat and illness.
Does your tank have any live plants? air stone? is it all plastic?

In regards to helping the betta, it looks like fin rot?fin nipping and perhaps even swim baldder on the way. What does his last poop look like? could be parasites Let me know and i'll see if i can help more!

While I agree that a 100% water change will stress the fish out it will not affect the cycle since barely any of the beneficial bacteria live in the water.

 

[kimsch1005]

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallon
How long has the tank been running? 5 months
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes (unplugged and removed last night see below)
What is the water temperature? 81
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 1 male opal betta

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Partial water change every 2 weeks, full tank change monthly
How much of the water do you change? 50% every 2 weeks, full tank monthly
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime, imagitarium pH reducer & imagination bacterial infection remedy once
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Substrates

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? I got a master test kit yesterday previously quick test strips
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 6.8ppm currently (see below)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Morning & night
How much do you feed your fish? 3 freeze dried pieces of blood worm (he refused pellets and flakes for a week)
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Aqueon
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Freeze-dried

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 5 months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 week ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Lathargic, when laying in gravel top fin falls horizontally then his body starts to go horizontal with it.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Not that I saw
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Lethargic and “horizontal lean”

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now). “Bubbles” started becoming very lethargic a week ago. We would swim a little then lay on the gravel or in his tree. Then he would swim less and rest more. Last Sunday he also jumped for the first time. It sounded like he might have hit his head or body on the hood of the tank or the tank walls when doing it as well, but was swimming ok after. On Wednesday he stopped eating and got a “horizontal lean” that was more than his top fin. His body started to lean too. He tends to be “picky” so I did a full tank change. (I noticed white build up on a new heater I added on July 1st and cleaned it well). He was swimming a bit more immediately after like normal but it was short lived. Yesterday after him still acting off I got a master test kit and found the pH was at 8.6. When I added back in on Wednesday it was at 6.8! So I pulled him out immediately and did another full tank change and through cleaning. He was swimming a little in his holding container while I changed him but still lethargic and still would not eat. I balance his tank water, ph back at 6.8 added him in and we took off for a dinner. When we got home 3 hours later he had not moved and we thought he was dead, but I saw his eyes move and his gills breathing but very labored. I tested the ph and it had shot back up to 8.6. So I pull the newest thing to the tank (the heater). I reduced the ph again and it has been stable since. But now my guy is hardly moving. Staying at the top of the water and I’m afraid he will not recover. Any suggestions? This is my daughters (9yr) “quarantine” buddy and she is devastated....

I suggest you get a GH and KH test kit and test your KH levels. Sudden spikes and drops in PH are extremely bad for fish and they should not be undergoing those. KH essentially acts as a buffer for PH, in other words, the higher the KH level the less likely it is for you PH to fluctuate. Ideally I would shoot for 5-10KH. If you do test the water and your KH levels are extremely low, which is very likely since you've had massive fluctuations in PH, you will need to buy a product that will raise the KH level such as
https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-67102360-Alkaline-Buffer-10-5/dp/B0002A5VYI/ref=sr_1_2?crid=O1DNVILTH1NF&dchild=1&keywords=seachem+alkaline+buffer&qid=1596430154&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=seachem+alka,pets,257&sr=1-2
plus you will need to get this as well to stabilize those levels:
https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-6710...0GGK55ZBQR4&psc=1&refRID=RR8K50V6K0GGK55ZBQR4

These should be dosed in the water you are adding when doing a water change. NEVER do a 100% water change as this can drastically change the parameters of your water and stress out the fish. Plus you dont want to be moving your fish around. Ideally you should never be taking the fish out of its tank unless its an emergency. The standard in the fish community is 25-50% water change once a week for smaller tanks. Every time you do a water change, make sure you add dechlorinator and any additives such as the ones I mentioned above to get your water to your preffered parameters before you add them to the tank.