Concerned about my betta resting on the bottom

[knightjams523]

I have a male betta i got from petco as a birthday present in march. its now july and i was gone for 5 days for a funeral and came back to see my neighbor had over fed him and his tank wasnt looking good. he was still swimming and acting normal so i left again to see another family member for a night. i came back and started working on his tank but before i touched the tank i saw he was laying on his side not moving. i carefully picked him up and moved him to a new bowl with room temp water that was clean (i always do this when i clean his tank fully and had no problems) he is still breathing and moved when i put my fingers near him but then goes in a trances and lays on the bottom again. ever since i got him he didnt seem interested in eating ive never seen him eat, always hides behind the filter. Im not a beginner with fish but i am a beginner with bettas and idk what to do or how to fix him. idk the water levels or anything because i live on the mountain and give him fresh clean water that came from the top of the mountain and filtered with a standard water treatment filter. he had no issues with it when he first got here. was it the over feeding part? or the fact his tank was dirty and got alge or got something inside him?

 

[april_fish]

Hello!

I think your betta is not doing too well because of the high ammonia levels in your tank from the uneaten food, and that he was overfed.
What size is your tank? Do you have a filter and heater?

The same thing actually happened to me as well. When I went on vacation I had a friend feed my fish. They ended up overfeeding my betta, and when I came back the tank water was very dirty, and the gravel was covered in uneaten food. I did a 90% water change and vacuumed the gravel. My betta slowly recovered after that.

 

[knightjams523]

Hello!

I think your betta is not doing too well because of the high ammonia levels in your tank from the uneaten food, and that he was overfed.
What size is your tank? Do you have a filter and heater?

The same thing actually happened to me as well. When I went on vacation I had a friend feed my fish. They ended up overfeeding my betta, and when I came back the tank water was very dirty, and the gravel was covered in uneaten food. I did a 90% water change and vacuumed the gravel. My betta slowly recovered after that.

I have a filter but no heater. Its not required for me to get one because this house is always heated with a special wood burning stove. so the water is always at a even room temperature of 75 degrees.
Sadly my betta did not recover, he has passed away a mere 2 hours ago as i tried to keep him upright so he can breath. my tank is less then a gallon size one of those desk tanks that comes with a filter and lighting system.

 

[Applesnailgirl]

So sorry to hear about your poor fish! Loosing a pet is never easy, even when you know you've done all you can to help them. In the future if you plan on getting another little buddy, I would consider investing in a slightly bigger tank. 2.5 gallons or larger is usually a good size to aim for. Whenever I go on holiday I use vacation feeders. They are small tablets that release food over time. You can buy them for different time frames and amounts of fish. I find them really handy because I don't have to worry about over feeding. I hope you don't give up on betta keeping, because although it has its stressful moments, it truly is a very rewarding hobby.