Betta Acting Off

[McCool]

Hi guys. My betta hasn't been doing well these past few days. He lays around all the time and I haven't seen him eat. He has shredded up his fins but no sign of infection, and he looks fine otherwise. I recently did a big water change. I emptied the whole tank, pulled out all the substrate and added another piece of driftwood and more plants. I also added my bamboo shrimp pair and two oto cats(Just tore down my 55 gallon, and I decided to keep these little guys. Hoping to move everyone into a new ten gallon soon!) I put in half new water and half old water, and the fish and shrimp were in a separate bucket of old tank water at this time. Anyways, I'm not sure what's wrong. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are all 0, and pH is 7.5. I will say my temp is a little low, but it hasn't changed at all. Tank is over a year old, fishless cycled in the beginning etc etc. He's the betta in my profile picture, and he's been in this tank since the beginning. I was hoping it was just a bit of shock, but he isn't improving. Everyone else in the tank is fine. Ideas? No chemicals in the tank at all. Everything new was from my community tank, which was very stable and had no problems as far as I was aware.
I'll also add that the media was not out of the water at all.It stayed in a bucket of old tank water the whole time.
Sorry about the messy plants. When we get back from Florida I'm hoping to switch to a single ten gallon, so for now any plants I decided to keep from the 55 are crammed in here!

 

[nic1]

I think that you did too much cleaning in one go loosing too much of the beneficial bacteria which Lives in the gravel, tank wall, decoration, also by adding more to the equation messing up the water chemistry.
With fish keeping things are best done slowly and adding things over time.
Did you condition the new water and acclimatise him back into his new environment?

 

[McCool]

nk that you did too much cleaning in one go loosing too much of the beneficial bacteria which Lives in the gravel, tank wall, decoration, also by adding more to the equation messing up the water chemistry.
With fish keeping things are best done slowly and adding things over time.
Did you condition the new water and acclimatise him back into his new environment?

Yes, he was introduced slowly and water was primed. Other then the substrate and half water, no other bacteria was lost. The plants and driftwood were only added to, half the wood and many plants were already in the tank beforehand. I thought I would be alright considering how mature the filter media is. I'm shocked the otos aren't having a problem, considering how finicky they can be....

 

[nic1]

Poor guy, he looks to be a very beautiful fish from your profile picture.
but I would do partial water changes every day and get the temp up again as you mentioned that its a little low. Try some Api stress coat also, but IMO if the water is all good And maintained to a high standard according to his needs then that's all what's needed to heal him.
It may just be stress like you mentioned... try giving him some hiding spaces also to calm him a bit.
Good luck, I hope some one else has other suggestions for you.
Nicola

 

[Wildbetta]

I do not in any way see why your cycle would be affected.  What is the temperature of the tank?  Even though you may have had the temperature the same in the original setup, moving stuff around and bringing on extra stress would affect him.  Lethargy and reluctance to eat are often linked to temperatures that are too low.

 

[tunagirll]

Yep - current temperature?
Do you have a heater in there?

 

[McCool]

The temp right now is 75. No heater although I bought one today. Being in Texas I've always been nervous of the tank overheating, so I always opted to be a little lower. The heater I bought today was a 50W. I was going For a 25W but the 50 was the smallest they had that was adjustable. This is all very bad timing, as we are going out of town on Friday. I do have a good friend coming over every day though. So now I'm stuck. Do I add the heater although I won't have long to monitor, or risk going without? I guess I've heard so many boiled fish horror stories with heaters, that I'm hesitant on them, especially in a small tank.

 

[Wildbetta]

You should be fine with a 50W heater in a 5 gallon.  I would add the heater as soon as you get it and slowly increase the temperature of the tank to 80F.  No more than 2 degrees per hour.  Make sure you have an internal thermometer to check the water temp with because the thermostat settings are not always "correct" on heaters.  Bettas can easily survive water temp as high as 90F without issue so I would worry less about boiling your boy than warming him up at this point.  Have your friend understand how to monitor the thermometer on the tank and how to turn the heater down if the water starts getting warmer than you want it to.

 

[McCool]

You should be fine with a 50W heater in a 5 gallon.  I would add the heater as soon as you get it and slowly increase the temperature of the tank to 80F.  No more than 2 degrees per hour.  Make sure you have an internal thermometer to check the water temp with because the thermostat settings are not always "correct" on heaters.  Bettas can easily survive water temp as high as 90F without issue so I would worry less about boiling your boy than warming him up at this point.  Have your friend understand how to monitor the thermometer on the tank and how to turn the heater down if the water starts getting warmer than you want it to.

thanks you guys! I'll keep you updated.

 

[McCool]

Well the temp has been steady at about 79 since last night, and he seems the same, or possibly worse. Everyone else in the tank is still doing great. Not sure what else I can do...

 

[fatal_degree]

How is your guy doing? Any change?