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Hi all!
I could use some advice on next steps for my betta Pegasus, who is clearly miserable right now
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallons
How long has the tank been running? 5 weeks - did a fishless cycle with Stability until parameters stabilized
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 80 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
1 male betta, ~14 cherry shrimp, 1 nerite snail
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 1 x week
How much of the water do you change? 30%
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime & Equilibrium (to raise hardness slightly for the shrimp - we have soft water)
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?
Plant trim, substrate vacuum, floating plant reduction, remove misc bladder snails
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Master Kit & GH/KH kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5
pH: 7.0 - 7.2
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Were feeding 2 x day, now fasting - see timeline below
How much do you feed your fish? 3-6 pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari Biogold
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Frozen bloodworms once, but only tried since he stopped eating
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?
3 weeks
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
Reduced appetite ~9 days ago, stopped eating completely 6 days ago, deliberately fasted for 3 days but have offered food since and he'll accept nothing. Lethargic and hiding from light for 6 days. Mildly bloated stomach, but bloat appears to be increasing slightly each day even though he's not eating. It's not possible to tell whether he's pooping in his current tank setup.
He appeared to have some mild swim bladder issues 3-4 days ago - tending to float up slowly unless he hooked himself on a plant. Those appeared to self-correct the day before yesterday. I have been reducing the light in his tank / leaving it off for part of the day. When it's off, he lays around at the top of the tank rather than laying around at the bottom.
He was actually looking better day before yesterday, swimming around more, and not nearly as clamped. But yesterday he was back to very lethargic and hiding all day.
Have you started any treatment for the illness?
Offered no food from last Sunday on. Tried offering a pea and rehydrated freeze dried daphnia in the last two days, but he would not accept any food. 10 minute epsom salt bath yesterday, 10 mins in a 1/4 strength recovery pool. He did not seem distressed by this, but also did not poop while in the epsom salt bath.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
Nothing apparent for the first two weeks we had him.
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?
Complete change in behavior over the last week. For the first two weeks, he was very active and curious, and interacted with us every time we were near the tank. His colors are looking more muted and he gets the little stress stripes on his side when the light is on. Swollen abdomen, although not hugely swollen. He just looks miserable.
Other potential things of note:
We lost three of our first round of cherry shrimp from what appeared to be molting issues (I believe due to soft water that has now been corrected). He ate approximately 2.5 shrimps worth of dead shrimp - that was May 29th, so two weeks ago. That day I also fed him pellets - stupid beginner mistake. He still had an appetite after that, but it slowly decreased over the next week until he wasn't eating at all.
He also appeared to be curious about the bladder snails and would hassle them on the glass - I'm unsure if he learned how to eat them or was just pestering them. I haven't seen any indication that he was hunting or eating the live shrimp. Once we had the initial die off, the remaining shrimp maintained well.
I initially thought this was constipation due to my mistakes with overfeeding, but now we're at least day 6-7/8 of no visible food intake I've started to worry it's something else and wonder if I should take additional steps. Possibly medicate with API General Cure? We don't have a hospital tank or any good means of separating him from the tank for long periods of time (no 2nd heater) at this point. I've been looking for options that might address what's going on with him that will be safe for his invert tankmates.
I had cushioned the filter outflow with sponge to reduce flow, and a week ago I baffled it even more with a sponge square. This tank was relatively calm and is even more calm now. That same day, we added another small group of shrimp to get to our current number of 14. He seemed to get much worse the day after that water change and shrimp addition, but looking back at his appetite, I think he was already headed that direction and it may just be a coincidence.
I included happy Pegasus photos as well as current Pegasus photos and a picture of his tank setup. Just want to get this buddy well again - we love him! Thanks in advance for any help!
I could use some advice on next steps for my betta Pegasus, who is clearly miserable right now
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallons
How long has the tank been running? 5 weeks - did a fishless cycle with Stability until parameters stabilized
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 80 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
1 male betta, ~14 cherry shrimp, 1 nerite snail
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 1 x week
How much of the water do you change? 30%
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime & Equilibrium (to raise hardness slightly for the shrimp - we have soft water)
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?
Plant trim, substrate vacuum, floating plant reduction, remove misc bladder snails
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Master Kit & GH/KH kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5
pH: 7.0 - 7.2
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Were feeding 2 x day, now fasting - see timeline below
How much do you feed your fish? 3-6 pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Hikari Biogold
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Frozen bloodworms once, but only tried since he stopped eating
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish?
3 weeks
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?
Reduced appetite ~9 days ago, stopped eating completely 6 days ago, deliberately fasted for 3 days but have offered food since and he'll accept nothing. Lethargic and hiding from light for 6 days. Mildly bloated stomach, but bloat appears to be increasing slightly each day even though he's not eating. It's not possible to tell whether he's pooping in his current tank setup.
He appeared to have some mild swim bladder issues 3-4 days ago - tending to float up slowly unless he hooked himself on a plant. Those appeared to self-correct the day before yesterday. I have been reducing the light in his tank / leaving it off for part of the day. When it's off, he lays around at the top of the tank rather than laying around at the bottom.
He was actually looking better day before yesterday, swimming around more, and not nearly as clamped. But yesterday he was back to very lethargic and hiding all day.
Have you started any treatment for the illness?
Offered no food from last Sunday on. Tried offering a pea and rehydrated freeze dried daphnia in the last two days, but he would not accept any food. 10 minute epsom salt bath yesterday, 10 mins in a 1/4 strength recovery pool. He did not seem distressed by this, but also did not poop while in the epsom salt bath.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase?
Nothing apparent for the first two weeks we had him.
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?
Complete change in behavior over the last week. For the first two weeks, he was very active and curious, and interacted with us every time we were near the tank. His colors are looking more muted and he gets the little stress stripes on his side when the light is on. Swollen abdomen, although not hugely swollen. He just looks miserable.
Other potential things of note:
We lost three of our first round of cherry shrimp from what appeared to be molting issues (I believe due to soft water that has now been corrected). He ate approximately 2.5 shrimps worth of dead shrimp - that was May 29th, so two weeks ago. That day I also fed him pellets - stupid beginner mistake. He still had an appetite after that, but it slowly decreased over the next week until he wasn't eating at all.
He also appeared to be curious about the bladder snails and would hassle them on the glass - I'm unsure if he learned how to eat them or was just pestering them. I haven't seen any indication that he was hunting or eating the live shrimp. Once we had the initial die off, the remaining shrimp maintained well.
I initially thought this was constipation due to my mistakes with overfeeding, but now we're at least day 6-7/8 of no visible food intake I've started to worry it's something else and wonder if I should take additional steps. Possibly medicate with API General Cure? We don't have a hospital tank or any good means of separating him from the tank for long periods of time (no 2nd heater) at this point. I've been looking for options that might address what's going on with him that will be safe for his invert tankmates.
I had cushioned the filter outflow with sponge to reduce flow, and a week ago I baffled it even more with a sponge square. This tank was relatively calm and is even more calm now. That same day, we added another small group of shrimp to get to our current number of 14. He seemed to get much worse the day after that water change and shrimp addition, but looking back at his appetite, I think he was already headed that direction and it may just be a coincidence.
I included happy Pegasus photos as well as current Pegasus photos and a picture of his tank setup. Just want to get this buddy well again - we love him! Thanks in advance for any help!
