Betta looks sick

Hey Guys!
Just starting with this hobby, and needing some help.
My betta looks sick, as she sits too long on the bottom of the tank. No sure on how to medicate her. Can I place her on a aeparate tank without heater and if so for how long? What to give her, so she gets better? Any ideas, please? Thank you.

Test your tank water. When bettas are lethargic it’s usually water quality. If the ammonia or nitrites/nitrates are above 0, i would do about a 50% water change.

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?

What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate of the tank water?

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. See if that helps. If there's no improvement after a couple of water changes, post more pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Finn1231 said:

Test your tank water. When bettas are lethargic it’s usually water quality. If the ammonia or nitrites/nitrates are above 0, i would do about a 50% water change.

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Yesterday I did 50% water change and I just tested the water today twice. It's good just need to improve a bit on GH.

Colin_T said:

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?

What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate of the tank water?

-------------------
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. See if that helps. If there's no improvement after a couple of water changes, post more pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Click to expand...

Thanks Colin
I'll follow the suggestion of cleaning the subtract for a week. I have the tank for a 2weeks now. Thanks for the help.

Bettas come from soft water so if the GH is low (below 150ppm), do not adjust it.

If there is no ammonia or nitrite, and the nitrate is less than 20ppm, then the fish has a disease. Add some salt to the tank.

If there's no improvement after 2 days with salt, post more pictures.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

Thanks very much, man. Straight to the action tomorrow.

I don’t know how many times I need to say this! We need to know exact water parameters. Not just ‘they are good’

Good water conditions are zero ammonia, zero nitrite and nitrate under 20 ppm. Anything else is not good.
For a betta, good water parameters are pH at or below 7.0, soft water and temperature between 76 and 82 deg F/24.5 and 28 deg C.

If the aquarium has only been running two weeks, it is not cycled and a Betta is absolutely the last fish to use to cycle an aquarium, so chances are its going to die...cycling with any fish is bad but a Betta is certainly not a good idea

Please read......


Sorry but I no longer sugarcoat things.....you need to cycle the aquarium BEFORE adding any livestock.

Essjay said:

Good water conditions are zero ammonia, zero nitrite and nitrate under 20 ppm. Anything else is not good.
For a betta, good water parameters are pH at or below 7.0, soft water and temperature between 76 and 82 deg F/24.5 and 28 deg C.

Click to expand...

Today is the 2nd day with the salt, betta is looking more active. This is the water parameters I have. Do anyone of you, live in Auburn, ME, and wanna get in touch?