Betta fish resting more than normal?

Hello. My betta fish has been with me since the summer, in a 10 gallon planted tank that I've worked hard at keeping in good condition. While originally with me at home, I took the whole setup and my fish with me to college once the school year started (don't worry it's all social distanced, we had a whole dorm all to ourselves). The moving process then took some effort but afterwards he seemed to adjust quickly, and for the few months we lived there he seemed happy and healthy. I had some algae problems and got a nerite snail to help out.
Due to COVID-19 complications, I had to move out of my dorm until the start of next semester at the end of January. I took my tank and friends and everything back home and set it all up again like it was before. The hair algae is still a bit of a problem but I got rid of a lot of it while I was setting everything up. It's been a week or two now and everything seems to be fine and running smoothly.
Except...there's this one new behavior my betta has that's been worrying me. For the past week or so he's taken to spending lots of time resting under the Amazon sword by the side of the tank. He's never done this before, usually if he rests it's in his little floating log or the one stuck in the sand, but I've never seen him spend so much time by that particular plant before.
While he's lying there by the roots his little fins aren't even moving, just his gills and his mouth, and I'm not sure if I should be concerned by how much those are moving or not. He'll start swimming if he notices me looking, or sometimes on his own, but he always goes up to the surface and takes a big gulp of air before anything else. But either way, he'll usually go back down to his spot under the sword's leaves fairly quickly.
I wasn't sure if this was just an adjustment thing he was doing because of the move, but he didn't have any major behavior changes the first time we moved all of his stuff to college. He doesn't look sick or discolored, and no part of him looks inflamed. The nerite snail also seems to be just fine, moving around like normal most of the day. The heater works (he's been spending a lot of time by that too actually) and the water's temperature is fine, and to make sure the cycle stayed intact I added some more bacteria, especially considering I had to replace the cartridge in the filter and finally took the old one out once the new one had been in there for a week. On that note I tested the water yesterday, the nitrates are around 5 to 10 ppm and there's no ammonia or nitrites. I will admit though, right before the last water change I did test the water and found a small amount of nitrites, so I'm worried that exposure may have hurt him even if it was just for a small time. But like I said, there's nothing that looks physically wrong with my betta, and when he does swim he seems to do it just as well as always.
It's getting to a worrying point because it's affecting his eating, usually he's always so excited when I show him the food can and swims right up to the hole in the tank cover where I drop it in. But more than once in the past few days I've shown him the can during mealtime, he started to swim up but then went back down to his hiding spot instead. The gill and mouth movement and his big gulps at the water surface make me think the tank water might not have enough oxygen, so I have the battery powered air pump for power outages running right now, and I'm going to do a water change later today. But I'm still worried by my baby's behavior and how different it is from what he's usually like.
Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? Is there actually something wrong with my tank's parameters and my fish or does he just have a newfound appreciation for laziness? Please respond if you have any idea, he's apparently not even a year old and I want him to live for much longer.

Could we get some pictures and maybe a video of the fish?

Do a large water change for now until we know what may be going on.

Hard to say. Are you using the API test kit or some other kit? It's strange that you had an uptick in nitrites. What was the level? What are you feeding him? How big is the tank? Pictures and video would be helpful. I hope you're able to help him. It's so hard when you don't know what the problem is or how to help your betta.

JemZ said:

Could we get some pictures and maybe a video of the fish?

Do a large water change for now until we know what may be going on.

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I did the water change yesterday but he still spent most of today in that same spot. I did manage to get a couple of videos and pictures of him.
As you can see during the first video he wouldn't respond to me, but eventually once I showed him food he swam up long enough to eat some. But it doesn't look like any part of him seems different enough to indicate illness.
Honestly I've been prepared to write this off as him being bored since I haven't had time to pay attention to him lately, but now I'm a bit more worried because when I fed him dinner tonight it took him a few tries to grab the pellets. Like he was having trouble aiming his mouth.

hansgruber7 said:

Hard to say. Are you using the API test kit or some other kit? It's strange that you had an uptick in nitrites. What was the level? What are you feeding him? How big is the tank? Pictures and video would be helpful. I hope you're able to help him. It's so hard when you don't know what the problem is or how to help your betta.

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Yeah it's the API test kit. It was the lowest level of nitrites above 0 but I know even a little bit can be bad. He's in a 10 gallon tank with just him and my snail, and I feed him Omega One pellets twice a day, sometimes replacing meals with freeze dried daphnia I soak a bit first or bloodworms on water change days as a treat. I know I should be giving him more variety and I've been looking into getting live daphnia, but I can't find a good source. Honestly I don't think he'd even be up for chasing them right now with how lethargic he's been.

From the video it definitely seems like something is off with him; doesn't seem like he's doing well. The way he's breathing is a bad sign too. But it's hard to say what it could be. What kind of sand is that? It seems bright in there, but I doubt that's the problem. Did you change anything in recent weeks or add anything? Sometimes something you add can bring toxins or stress your fish out.

How far away is your college to where you are currently living? Could the tap water be sufficiently different to have shocked him? What is your pH? Did the hardness of the water change? What dechlorinator are you using? From what I understand Seachem is best, and I've heard reports that the API one can injure a bettas labyrinth organ but I'm not sure if that's a current issue.

Also - does your water company use chlorine or also chloramine? If chlorine only you may be able to go chemical-less byjust aerating the water for a day or three before adding it to the tank for a water change.

I'm wondering if there's something that was associated with the move that is making it tough for your betta to cope.

hansgruber7 said:

From the video it definitely seems like something is off with him; doesn't seem like he's doing well. The way he's breathing is a bad sign too. But it's hard to say what it could be. What kind of sand is that? It seems bright in there, but I doubt that's the problem. Did you change anything in recent weeks or add anything? Sometimes something you add can bring toxins or stress your fish out.

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It's CaribSea's Super Naturals Aquarium Sand, I'm pretty sure it's the same kind as the sand I already had. I say that because other than the new filter cartridge, which I tried to have bacteria build on before I took the old one out, the only other new thing I've added in the most recent weeks is more sand. Like I said, I've had a problem with hair algae so when we moved back home I figured it was a good opportunity to get rid of a lot of the sand it was attached to and add some new sand.
Which I'm now realizing, I never rinsed before I put it in with the old sand. Could that be it? I know you're supposed to do that but I guess I just forgot in the hustle of moving. Other than that and the cartridge though I didn't add anything new recently.

mcordelia said:

How far away is your college to where you are currently living? Could the tap water be sufficiently different to have shocked him? What is your pH? Did the hardness of the water change? What dechlorinator are you using? From what I understand Seachem is best, and I've heard reports that the API one can injure a bettas labyrinth organ but I'm not sure if that's a current issue.

Also - does your water company use chlorine or also chloramine? If chlorine only you may be able to go chemical-less byjust aerating the water for a day or three before adding it to the tank for a water change.

I'm wondering if there's something that was associated with the move that is making it tough for your betta to cope.

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The college is only about 45 minutes away. But I don't think that could be it because like I said, before we went there he lived here for a few months first, and during the first move to the college nothing like this happened.
I haven't tested pH in a while, that's actually a good idea, I don't think there's anything that would have affected it but I'll test that right now.
I do use Seachem Prime to dechlorinate my water, always before I put new water in. I only add it a few minutes before pouring the new water in but I've always done that and my betta has only been having problems recently. I did try checking once about the chlorine and chloramine in my tap water but couldn't find any reliable information.
I figure this must have something to do with the move, just because it started after that but I have no idea what it could be. Especially since like I said, he had no issues the first time we moved him from one placed to the other and we didn't really do anything differently this time. And my snail of course seems healthy but they're probably hardier.
I don't actually have anything I can use to test the hardness, could I find something like that in a pet store? Is there anything I can use to test the oxygen level too? My filter has a soft flow and probably doesn't aerate the water a lot, but my little guy has always been fine with it before and nothing about it has changed. Still, considering how hard he seems to be breathing it's something I'd like to look into.

I don't think oxygenation is a major issue, I do think there are test kits for that but they're pretty unreliable because oxygen dissolves into water relatively quickly.

For hardness, you want API GH/KH test kit.

How much of the sand did you replace? Since you also replaced the filter cartridge, you might have inadvertently caused your tank to cycle again. How many times since the move have you tested your ammonia? Did you see a spike? I know you mentioned you saw the nitrates spike.

Regarding the sand, yes you probably should have washed it but doing water changes will help.

Since the water is not significantly different, I would start doing twice daily 20-30% water changes if you're able to. If not, then daily 50% changes.

I'll tag @Colin_T here, he might have some idea since you posted pictures and videos.

Okay I tested the pH and it is definitely too high. The regular pH test reached the end of its range so I had to use the high range pH test, and it measured at about 8.0. I have no idea how it got that high.
I don't know if that's the only thing affecting him, but I'll address it first. I looked up the symptoms bettas show due to high pH but it says they move more erratically and try to scratch themselves on things, not that they become lethargic.
Though I did find a person in another forum with a similar problem to mine, who had pH too high but also nitrates, and their betta was also laying on the bottom of it's tank and breathing hard. But they said they used pH Down and it didn't improve anything.
Other people in the thread were saying that they probably lowered the pH too quickly and that pH Down is not a product you should be using anyways because it affects the pH stability or something? Obviously I don't want to lower the pH too much, I don't want to hurt my snail, but getting it back down to a little above 7 would be nice.
Is there another product or something I could use to gradually lower the pH, or is my best bet to just do a lot of small water changes until it gets back down to a reasonable level? In that post I mentioned people were talking about something called methylene blue, I heard about that once as a fish medicine, do you think it would help him? Can I just put it in the tank or would it hurt the bacteria or my nerite snail?
I was also reminded by that thread that I have Stress Coat, so I put some of that in for now. In the morning I'm going to do a water change and test the water again, but I would be grateful for some more insight from anyone.

I would adjust the ph with water changes, not from a product. If you notice that the pH starts creeping higher than your normal tap water over time, consider what in the tank might be causing it. Decor (rocks) or sand can often alter pH. If your tap pH is also 8, then leave it, since your fish is already used to it.

I would not use methylene blue at this point, but I would consider using salt. You can find instructions for how to use salt by searching this forum for posts by @Colin_T . If your snail can live in a milk jug or something for a couple of days (remember frequent water changes), I would move him out while treating the tank with salt.

I would also stop feeding your betta for the time being. He can go a few days without food and it might help since he doesn't seem to be wanting to eat at the moment anyway.

Is your fish pooping? What is th consistency and color? Are it's gills redder than normal? Does it have any sores or are any scales disrupted? Was there any chance that hand sanitizer on your hands could have gotten into the tank?

What is the temperature of your tank?

mcordelia said:

I don't think oxygenation is a major issue, I do think there are test kits for that but they're pretty unreliable because oxygen dissolves into water relatively quickly.

For hardness, you want API GH/KH test kit.

How much of the sand did you replace? Since you also replaced the filter cartridge, you might have inadvertently caused your tank to cycle again. How many times since the move have you tested your ammonia? Did you see a spike? I know you mentioned you saw the nitrates spike.

Regarding the sand, yes you probably should have washed it but doing water changes will help.

Since the water is not significantly different, I would start doing twice daily 20-30% water changes if you're able to. If not, then daily 50% changes.

I'll tag @Colin_T here, he might have some idea since you posted pictures and videos.

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I'd say it was about half, I had already lost quite a bit by that point from sucking up hair algae during water changes, so after removing as much of the algae sand as I could I added about the same amount as what was left. Just in case the cycle was affected I added some concentrated Tetra SafeStart to the filter once I set everything up again, but I may have ended up adding too much bacteria? I know having too much can be bad for the cycle as well.
When I saw the nitrites I didn't bother checking for ammonia, just went into panic mode and did a water change as quickly as I could. The last time I tested ammonia and nitrites they were both at 0. Since you mentioned it I did just test the ammonia again and it's at 0.25 ppm, not the ideal 0 but still not too high.
I'll definitely be doing water changes to start but it's already past midnight, I'll have to wait until morning. I just hope the Stress Coat will be enough to keep my little guy going until then.

mcordelia said:

I would adjust the ph with water changes, not from a product. If you notice that the pH starts creeping higher than your normal tap water over time, consider what in the tank might be causing it. Decor (rocks) or sand can often alter pH. If your tap pH is also 8, then leave it, since your fish is already used to it.

I would not use methylene blue at this point, but I would consider using salt. You can find instructions for how to use salt by searching this forum for posts by @Colin_T . If your snail can live in a milk jug or something for a couple of days (remember frequent water changes), I would move him out while treating the tank with salt.

I would also stop feeding your betta for the time being. He can go a few days without food and it might help since he doesn't seem to be wanting to eat at the moment anyway.

Is your fish pooping? What is th consistency and color? Are it's gills redder than normal? Does it have any sores or are any scales disrupted? Was there any chance that hand sanitizer on your hands could have gotten into the tank?

What is the temperature of your tank?

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I don't think the pH of the tap water here is 8, just because all the times I tested the water those first few months it was more between 7-7.5, but I'll go test it to be sure.
I can't test the water by my college anymore, so I can't see if that's what had the high pH. I haven't actually tested the pH in my tank in a while (dumb I know, I know better now) so I don't know when this started. I'd still like to lower it a bit if the tap water here is lower.
Yeah I definitely wouldn't want my little snail to live in salty water, I can have him in a jar for a couple of days and feed him some algae wafers.
Now that you mention it, when I did a water change yesterday I thought I saw less of his waste than usual. I usually try not to pay attention to that sort of thing but I think it looks like it always does.
But other than that that's the thing, the reason I was so confused about what could be wrong is that he doesn't look physically sick at all. His color hasn't changed, his gills aren't red, the black color of his face looks a little mottled but it's been that way for a while. His flare seems to be pushing out more than usual but that's probably just because he's breathing so hard. The most I can discern when he's swimming is that the lower half of him might be dipping a bit more than usual? But other than that the few times he does swim it looks like how he always swims.
Not hand sanitizer, but some hand cream might not have completely absorbed before I put my hands in there. I'll be more careful to rinse them before doing that from now on.
Also the thermometer says that the heater is doing its job of keeping the water at a healthy 75 - 78 degrees range.

Hmm... It could be internal bacterial infection, or something viral as well. I would not go adding products to the tank unless we have a diagnosis, since inappropriate treatment just causes resistant diseases to form.

Hopefully @Colin_T will be on soon, I'm kind of out of ideas. He's down under so his day will be starting soon.

Try to get some sleep, you need to be on top of your game tomorrow for water changes etc, and if your fish doesn't make it through the night there is nothing that could have been done so no use staying up overnight worrying about it right now.