Help! Betta is lethargic and is breathing heavy

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

I recently transferred my betta back into his 5 gallon at my college.

does your college sanitize the rooms with any sort of cleaner??

 

[youbettadont]

does your college sanitize the rooms with any sort of cleaner??

I don't think my apartment complex sanitized over break. I also wrapped the tank in plastic wrap to try to control evaporation.

 

[youbettadont]

My betta started acting lethargic again towards dinner time, but I assumed that he was just tired after swimming around for most of the day.
I'll check on him again tomorrow morning.
edit: added a sentence

 

[youbettadont]

Something definitely isn't right with my betta again. I did a 50% water change last night just in case and he glass surfed for a while which was normal for him, but then he started staying at the bottom and breathing heavy again. This morning, he continues to breathe heavily on the bottom. When I tried to feed him this morning, he darted around the tank and crashed into some things, but he never actually came up to the surface to eat his food. Should I do another water change?

 

[youbettadont]

Full tank shot

My betta's top fin looks bad since he blew it out flaring at the filter intake yesterday. This is something that he regularly did so when he did it yesterday, I thought he was a all better.

 

[Colin_T]

There is something wrong with the tank.

Clean the filter in tank water.

Drain the tank and wash the gravel under tap water.

Set the tank back up with dechlorinated water.

Add some carbon to the filter.

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

 

[youbettadont]

There is something wrong with the tank.

Clean the filter in tank water.

Drain the tank and wash the gravel under tap water.

Set the tank back up with dechlorinated water.

Add some carbon to the filter.

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

Thank you again!
I just completely cleaned out my tank and added new water. For some reason, when I put my betta in a temporary 1.5 gallon storage container he was acting fine, but I just put him back in his tank and he is breathing heavy again. I think that he is just stressed out, but I will check up on him again in the morning.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

yeah, he's probably just stressed acclimating all over again. make sure you don't fall behind on your water changes. and some beneficial bacteria balls will help boost your cycle.

 

[Colin_T]

Thank you again!
I just completely cleaned out my tank and added new water. For some reason, when I put my betta in a temporary 1.5 gallon storage container he was acting fine, but I just put him back in his tank and he is breathing heavy again. I think that he is just stressed out, but I will check up on him again in the morning.

If he is breathing heavily in the morning, drain the tank and set it up without gravel or ornaments and see how he goes. There might be something leaching out of them.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

I see you have a floating log. I've heard bad things about those and good things. A bad thing is that a great number of people have had theirs leach toxins in their tanks. not all do this but I'm just throwing it out there.

 

[youbettadont]

My betta is a lot more normal and swimming around. He also ate 3 pellets this morning. However he is still breathing somewhat heavy. Should I start removing everything from the tank or should I wait another day?

 

[Colin_T]

If this is the first time he has eaten, then give him another day and see how he goes. But if the breathing doesn't go back to normal then, I would remove the gravel and ornaments and do another huge (90-100%) water change to dilute anything that might be in their.

 

[autyfish]

Maybe I’m under-reacting, but my bettas always acted terrible if we moved them or got a new tank. Takes a week or so in my experience.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

whenever I move my males to a new tank they always build a huge bubble nest.

 

[Salt]

There is definitely a huge change in water quality. Back home, I was able to give my betta RO water that was remineralized with seachem equilibrium and alkaline buffer, which he probably enjoyed. I tried to keep the ph the same as my college when using RO water since the tap water at my college is really high in ph(8.3). However, since I am a broke college student, I do not know if I can afford to buy him RO water here. He was doing fine in my college tap water before break, so maybe he just got used to the RO water???

By RO water you mean reverse osmosis?
If so, any place that has a machine where you fill up one gallon or 5 gallon jugs is reverse osmosis water. There should be a panel on the machine telling you how the water it dispenses is processed, but they are almost always RO. It should be about 25 cents a gallon. Just for future reference.