Not sure what is wrong with my betta

Recently, my betta has been acting really lethargic and has been spitting out his food. The only time he swims is if he sees the small red spoon I use to soak his food in, when he’s building his bubble nest, or when he moves to lay in another spot. He still eats the majority of the food, but he spits out small pieces of it and for some reason, he’s refusing to eat bloodworms. He’s about a year old now, maybe (but not likely) a couple months older than a year.
The water parameters are all fine (ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 5 ppm, pH 7), but our water is pretty hard. I actually think it might of gotten harder during the last couple of weeks. Could that maybe be the cause of his symptoms?
I also noticed that fins stopped healing. He had fin rot a couple months ago and his fins have been getting better, but now they seem to be getting worse. I add 100% pure rooibos tea to his tank because it’s more accessible than IAL to me.

I currently decided to fast him and I’ll start doing more frequent water changes. If that doesn’t help, I think I might set up a quarantine tank with aquarium salt.

Does anyone know why he might be acting this way? Is there anything else I should do? He’s not showing any signs of being sick, except for the things I mentioned.

 

I would keep up on water changes and replace the heater so his temp doesn't drop too much at night. For fin and gill issues I usually use 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water (or half a teaspoon per gallon. Your parameters are fine but I would be careful of how much tea you put in, too many tannins can make them sick and hopefully that's not what is contributing to him being lethargic. Sometimes they get sick of certain foods, give the blood worms a rest and even skip a day of food all together to clear his system. I always fast my fish on fridays since I'm busy working anyways.

 

I would keep up on water changes and replace the heater so his temp doesn't drop too much at night. For fin and gill issues I usually use 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water (or half a teaspoon per gallon. Your parameters are fine but I would be careful of how much tea you put in, too many tannins can make them sick and hopefully that's not what is contributing to him being lethargic. Sometimes they get sick of certain foods, give the blood worms a rest and even skip a day of food all together to clear his system. I always fast my fish on fridays since I'm busy working anyways.

I’m definitely going to order a new heater soon. Thanks for adding in the aquarium salt measurements. That’s really helpful.
I usually feed him a blood worm 1-2 times a week, daphnia once a week, and 3 soaked betta pellets twice a day. I want to get him more high quality food soon though.
Tbh I think I’ve been adding too much rooibos tea. I did a 20% WC right now, so I’ll see if that helps and I’ll keep you updated

 

I’m definitely going to order a new heater soon. Thanks for adding in the aquarium salt measurements. That’s really helpful.
I usually feed him a blood worm 1-2 times a week, daphnia once a week, and 3 soaked betta pellets twice a day. I want to get him more high quality food soon though.
Tbh I think I’ve been adding too much rooibos tea. I did a 20% WC right now, so I’ll see if that helps and I’ll keep you updated

I hope he feels better! I wish I could just hand you a bag of indian almond leaves so you dont have to use tea!

 

I hope he feels better! I wish I could just hand you a bag of indian almond leaves so you dont have to use tea!

Thanks lol!
The tea is pretty beneficial for him as well though. Since I added it, he’s been building more bubble nests and he finally started flaring! Before I added the tea in, it seemed as if he didn’t know how to flare lol.
I think the problem is that I added too much of the tea He’s swimming a lot more now since I changed his water though
How often do you think I should do water changes since his fins aren’t healing well? Is it possibly his fins aren’t healing because of the hard water? I forgot to mention that he has some new rips on his tail and part of his tail is curled a little bit.

 

Thanks lol!
The tea is pretty beneficial for him as well though. Since I added it, he’s been building more bubble nests and he finally started flaring! Before I added the tea in, it seemed as if he didn’t know how to flare lol.
I think the problem is that I added too much of the tea He’s swimming a lot more now since I changed his water though
How often do you think I should do water changes since his fins aren’t healing well? Is it possibly his fins aren’t healing because of the hard water? I forgot to mention that he has some new rips on his tail and part of his tail is curled a little bit.

Are you testing your water for hardness, if so, is it in a safe range? The thing with tannins is that if you put in a leaf it will slowly leach into water, so the fish can get used to water change slowly over time. Adding a bunch of tea when he had none in his water before could throw him off, if it was a big swing. Because you're using salt and you don't seem to have water parameter problems, I say stick to a 25% to 30% weekly change. Over doing it may stress him out by doing too big of a water change. Is he any more energized today?

 

Are you testing your water for hardness, if so, is it in a safe range? The thing with tannins is that if you put in a leaf it will slowly leach into water, so the fish can get used to water change slowly over time. Adding a bunch of tea when he had none in his water before could throw him off, if it was a big swing. Because you're using salt and you don't seem to have water parameter problems, I say stick to a 25% to 30% weekly change. Over doing it may stress him out by doing too big of a water change. Is he any more energized today?

I did another small water change again today. He’s doing much better. He’s swimming more and doesn’t spit out his food anymore. I usually do 30% water changes every Friday or Saturday, so I guess I’ll stick to that then.
When I first added the tea, I only added 2 tbsps, but I ended up putting in about 4 tbsps recently. I made sure to add the tea slowly over time, but I guess I ended up adding too much.

I tested my tap water and tank water and this is what I got:

Tap water:
GH - 120
KH - 180

Tank water:
GH - 60 ppm
KH - 120 ppm
pH - either 7 or 7.5
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - about 20 ppm (probably less, but the test strips only show 0 or 20)
(I currently only have API test strips, so it might not be 100% accurate)

I guess it’s the carbonate hardness that’s too hard. Should I do something to lower it?