Urgent!!! New Betta Showing Very Distressing Behavior

Hello Fishlore! So I made this account as a last ditch effort to try and save my newest betta.

She's a young Veiltail that I got from PetSmart (I know, I know) two days ago. She's in a 2.5 gallon tank (I know it's small but my space is limited rn bc I'm in a dorm), the water temperature is kept at about 70 degrees, and since I've got her I've done daily 50% water changes bc the tank is too small to really cycle.

Yesterday + the first night I got her she seemed fine, she was active, curious, and even ate within an hour of being introduced to the tank. However, about an hour ago she started acting extremely strange. She began attacking the surface of the water with a vigor I've never seen in a betta before, swimming nearly vertically and darting at the surface with erratic almost seizure like movements. She would continue this until she was so exhausted she drifted to the bottom of the tank. I thought it was a one time thing and then she kept. doing. it.

So I promptly freaked out. So far I've done a 75% water change, bubbled the water for about 20 minutes, and held her at the surface a bit with a net to make sure she could breathe if there was something in the water. She seems to be doing a little bit better (less freaking out and more just sitting on the bottom of the tank) but every time she swims her movements are still jerky.

I've had very bad luck with this PetSmart (the last betta I got from them was a Halfmoon who ended up having a severe swim-bladder issue and lived three days) and I really don't want to lose another fish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update:
I ended up losing her. She went from perfectly normal behavior to passing in the span of less than an hour and a half. Now I'm just trying to figure out what happened.

 

Hello and welcome! First thing I would do is get a heater and get that water up to at least 78. I would also get a filter if you don't already have one. A sponge filter is great for bettas. You can cycle any volume of water, no matter how small. If you don't have a test kit then take samples of your tank water and tap water and have the pH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates tested for each. Write down the results! Don't let them tell you everything is fine or that you need to buy something.

 

What are the parameters right now? A 2.5 can cycle, and although it is harder to manage than a large tank, you just use a small filter. 70 degrees F is too low for a betta. Try 78-80 degrees F with a small heater for the tank. Bettas are tropical fish that like warmer water. I don't think it is the temperature that is causing the jerky movements, but it's worth a try. Could you show a picture of the tank? If you have an air pump, you could just hook up a small sponge filter to it.

 

70 degrees is waayy too cold for a betta. You need at least 78 degrees.
You said that your tank is too small to really cycle, but what are your water parameters? Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite?
Pictures of your betta would be great as well.
Best of luck!!

 

right off the jump, tank size will kill it and so will water temp

bettas will jerk their movements when they are freezing to death, id say this is probably your problem, I own over 30 bettas atm, most of them live between 5-10 years, and I buy them at petsmart and petco.

 

Hey guys! Thanks for the help. I'm super new at keeping Betta's, insofar that I have had a Veiltail male in a 3 gallon for about six months now (got him as an impulse 'college dorm fish' - in retrospect not my finest moment but nonetheless he is much loved) and he's never shown any problems ever.

Unfortunately the only fish store near me closed ten minutes ago so if she lasts the night I'll go and grab the filter and heater as soon as it opens in the morning. (Even if she doesn't make it I'll grab them anyways for my male, I'm sure he'd be much happier)

So far I've moved her directly under a lamp to try and warm the water a bit.

Is it possible she got ammonium poisoning? I've been trying to prevent that through the water changes and not feeding her too much but I'm no expert.

 

bettas will jerk their movements when they are freezing to death, id say this is probably your problem, I own over 30 bettas atm, most of them live between 5-10 years, and I buy them at petsmart and petco.

10 rly

 

I've also done another water change with heated and treated bottled water to warm her up.

My male hasn't shown any signs of problems and my roommates betta is fine too, so I'm a little skeptical that she's freezing to death but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

 

I've also done another water change with heated and treated bottled water to warm her up.

My male hasn't shown any signs of problems and my roommates betta is fine too, so I'm a little skeptical that she's freezing to death but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

I don't think it is what is causing the jerky movements, but it certainly won't be helping the condition to keep her in cold conditions. Any pictures of the fish? Does she look strange other than the movements?

 

Unfortunately it looks like she just passed.

I'm going to keep the water the way it is and run a test on it in the morning to see if the levels of something spiked so I can update you guys. I'm just stunned she went from acting perfectly healthy to dead in the time span of less than an hour and a half.

Her coloration/fins/gills looked the same. There was no change other than in her behavior.

I just measured the temperature of my other betta's water and his is 73 degrees so I'll definitely be getting him a heater. I also might up my males tank to a ten gallon.

 

I am sorry about your girl. SIP little lady.

To prevent this in the future, though:
Your tank size was fine.
The temp wasn't, needs to be 78 and you need a heater.

But the cold wouldn't cause her to act poisoned, and at this point it's very likely to me that your water was contaminated with something.

1. Did you dechlorinate the water with conditioner? Did you use correct dosage?
2. Did you rinse the decor & filter before putting her in?
3. Was the decor brand new? The tank? The gravel?
4. Did you rinse any of the things with soap and/or other chemicals?
5. Did you have lotion/perfume on your hands?
6. Did you add aq salt?

 

I'm going out and getting a heater for my male first thing tomorrow morning. For some reason I was under the impression ~70 was okay for a tropical fish - lesson learned.

1. Yes. I do water changes with purified water that I get at the local grocery store, and then condition it with a half teaspoon of Tetra EasyBalance conditioner, which according to the back of the bottle should be the correct dosage for 2.5 gallons. Since I did 3 water changes today maybe the levels started to build up, but the second two changes were after she started displaying symptoms so I don't think that could have caused it.
2. Yes, I rinsed the decor with boiling water and washed the filter so? hopefully that would have killed anything?
3. Decor was brand new. The tank and gravel were from my previous PetSmart fish who had died. However, I cleaned/scrubbed them multiple times with boiling water and soap (both when the fish died, about a month ago, and before I put her in two days ago). Possibly something could have carried over.
4. Yeah, I did use soap, but I cleansed it a ton of times to try and make sure there was no residue. Possibly it couldn't have been enough but I'm pretty confident it wasn't hte soap.
5. No
6. No. I've never put aq salt in a betta tank. Would ya'll recommend it?

From my research I agree it was probably some water poisoning

 

I am very sorry. It was the soap.
#6 was to make sure there was no salt. Prolonged aq salt exposure or large doses are very deadly to bettas. I don't recommend it without a reason.

Soap stays in pores of gravel, and in fabric decor. Also stays in the filter pad/filter media if you rinsed those with soap as well.

 

Agree that it could have been the soap but what kind of purified water are you buying from the store?

 

Well, that would explain it. Poor dear. I didn't rinse the filter with soap, but I'll chuck the gravel and the faux plant in the trash before introducing another betta to the tank.

It's the local grocery store brand of "purified water". I get it because a. it's inexpensive and b. according to the store it doesn't contain chlorine.

 

I agree that it was definitely the soap. But I would also look at the water again. Purified water is better than pure tap water (unless you treat it with dechlorinator) but many "purified" waters are lacking in the GOOD minerals as well as the bad chemicals from tap water.
I've found that bottled spring water is a great way to go if you want good minerals in your water, but I've recently just started treating my tap water because 1) it's not actually chlorinated to begin with and 2) I don't like having to store water.

Also. If you want to clean equipment, I've read in a couple places that bleach works for cleaning aquariums and equipment. I've never done it, so if you intend to, please do some research. But you'll need to dilute the bleach, rinse, and (I would suggest) let sit to dry just in case.

P.S.
I'm SO SORRY you went through that, as you really do seem to care about your fish. I'm sure it was horrible