Betta breathing very heavy

[Smedley]

He’s been like this for the past couple of days, he stays at the bottom of the tank and breathes very heavily, only going up for air. He still eats, which is good. Today he is sitting under the filter almost vertical, his tail end drops down. He can still swim fine, but I’m really worried. Any help is very much appreciate.
Tank size: 36 litres
tank age: 6 months
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 0ppm
kH: 5
gH: 4
tank temp: 28 (82 Fahrenheit)


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): He’s bright and feeding well, but only comes up to breath, then he’s straight back down to the bottom of the tank. He has never rested before, and has always been very active, breathing very heavily, almost gasping. Now it seems he’s having trouble staying horizontal.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: Once a week, 25%

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: I’ve only ever added water conditioner, fertiliser and now recently aquarium salt.

Tank inhabitants: nothing else, just pest snails.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): nothing, though I did rearrange the plants a week ago.

Exposure to chemicals: none I don’t think.

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Colin_T]

What does the fish's pop look like?
Are the fish's scales sticking out around the belly?
Have you tried fasting the fish for a day to see if it helps?

--------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[Smedley]

What does the fish's pop look like?
Are the fish's scales sticking out around the belly?
Have you tried fasting the fish for a day to see if it helps?

--------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Thank you so much, I’ll do all that now, I really appreciate the help.

 

[Smedley]

Thank you so much, I’ll do all that now, I really appreciate the help.

ive never actually seen him poop, but I know he’s not constipated. His scales look fine, none are sticking out. I’ll fast him today

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish does stringy white poop, then he has an internal problem and is probably dying. Try to monitor him and see what his poop looks like.

The following link has information about stringy white poop in fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Smedley]

Ok thank you, I hope it doesn't come to that. I'll monitor him closely.

If the fish does stringy white poop, then he has an internal problem and is probably dying. Try to monitor him and see what his poop looks like.

The following link has information about stringy white poop in fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Bettaguy08]

He’s been like this for the past couple of days, he stays at the bottom of the tank and breathes very heavily, only going up for air. He still eats, which is good. Today he is sitting under the filter almost vertical, his tail end drops down. He can still swim fine, but I’m really worried. Any help is very much appreciate.
Tank size: 36 litres
tank age: 6 months
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 0ppm
kH: 5
gH: 4
tank temp: 28 (82 Fahrenheit)


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): He’s bright and feeding well, but only comes up to breath, then he’s straight back down to the bottom of the tank. He has never rested before, and has always been very active, breathing very heavily, almost gasping. Now it seems he’s having trouble staying horizontal.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: Once a week, 25%

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: I’ve only ever added water conditioner, fertiliser and now recently aquarium salt.

Tank inhabitants: nothing else, just pest snails.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): nothing, though I did rearrange the plants a week ago.

Exposure to chemicals: none I don’t think.

Digital photo (include if possible):

That’s odd your perimeters are fine but it looks like your fish has bad fin rot.. it’s most likley a bacterial infection from the info you gave. I would use this https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...VQic4Ch1ueAyiEAQYAiABEgLY1fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

or Methylene blue, I’ve tried salt and it will help keep your fish healthy and prevent stuff from happening to them or help them if they have a little bit of fin rot but when I used salt when my fish were on the verge of death it hasn’t usually worked. That’s why I would use something stronger like methylene blue or the link.

 

[Avel1896]

ive never actually seen him poop, but I know he’s not constipated

Hey
Excuse me but how do you know he's not constipated if uve never seen its poo ?

 

[Bettaguy08]

Hey
Excuse me but how do you know he's not constipated if uve never seen its poo ?

Good point, if he is bloated I would recommend salt baths. It’s helped me

 

[Smedley]

Hey
Excuse me but how do you know he's not constipated if uve never seen its poo ?

That is a good point, but I've had constipated bettas before and they never looked like him now. He isn't bloated or has a swelled stomach. He has a variety of foods and fibre to keep things moving. I should rephrase my statement "I assume he isn't consipated"

 

[Smedley]

That’s odd your perimeters are fine but it looks like your fish has bad fin rot.. it’s most likley a bacterial infection from the info you gave. I would use this https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...VQic4Ch1ueAyiEAQYAiABEgLY1fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

or Methylene blue, I’ve tried salt and it will help keep your fish healthy and prevent stuff from happening to them or help them if they have a little bit of fin rot but when I used salt when my fish were on the verge of death it hasn’t usually worked. That’s why I would use something stronger like methylene blue or the link.

Thank you for the help! What signs show that he has fin rot if you don't mind me asking? His fins have always been very small and there aren't any dark/damaged areas on his fins. I thought those were the only signs of fin rot. So I'd love to know any other signs that might help me identify it the future.

 

[Bettaguy08]

It’s not that his fins are small, some males have small fins, but if you look at the photo his fins are pointing down and when you look at the edge there are some cuts or you can tell they have fin rot or a fungus, if they look like they have bites on there fins that is also a sign. A healthy bettas fins should look like this https://bettafish.org/betta-fish-anatomy/

Can you provide another picture of the betta close up?

 

[Bettaguy08]

Do you know what type of betta you have? Like the name of it.

 

[Smedley]

Do you know what type of betta you have? Like the name of it.

I know he's a yellow tiger galaxy, but that isn't very helpful sorry. I'll get some good pictures now.

 

[Smedley]

It’s not that his fins are small, some males have small fins, but if you look at the photo his fins are pointing down and when you look at the edge there are some cuts or you can tell they have fin rot or a fungus, if they look like they have bites on there fins that is also a sign. A healthy bettas fins should look like this https://bettafish.org/betta-fish-anatomy/

Can you provide another picture of the betta close up?

He didn't want to come up for air so his fins aren't as spread out as I'd like them to be for the picture but I hope this helps