Bloated fish, not pregnant and not worms

[Jean Feil]

Our water pH is 8.0. The tank is a 20g long. Also, I have sand substrate.

I have these fish meds. Will they help?

 

[Salty&Onion]

Don't start medicating your fish when we still don't know what's wrong. High pH is not an indicator of your water hardness but is related to it and is a part of triangle. You can find your GH and KH on your local water providers page.

 

[Jean Feil]

Ok, I couldn't find the info on my city's water page, so I did my own test.
KH (4 drops): 50-100ppm
GH (6 drops): on the cusp between 50-100ppm and 100-200ppm
pH: 8.0-8.2

 

[Essjay]

With the API test, 6 drops = 6 dH and 107 ppm. That table in the instructions is just what kind of fish they suggest for a range of GH.

This is soft water, which will cause problems for your livebearers, though it's good for the betta. While the GH won't kill the livebearers it will weaken them making them more susceptible to disease.

One solution would be to get a 5 gallon tank for the betta, then use something like Rift Lake salts to make the water harder in the other tanks for the livebearers.

 

[Salty&Onion]

With the API test, 6 drops = 6 dH and 107 ppm. That table in the instructions is just what kind of fish they suggest for a range of GH.

This is soft water, which will cause problems for your livebearers, though it's good for the betta. While the GH won't kill the livebearers it will weaken them making them more susceptible to disease.

One solution would be to get a 5 gallon tank for the betta, then use something like Rift Lake salts to make the water harder in the other tanks for the livebearers.

I agree, soft water will make problems for livebearers and is the culprit of their diseases. Riff Lake salts should do their trick.

 

[Jean Feil]

Thank you, everyone!