Not Swimming

[Emily]

Hi

I have a very beautiful fighting fish, but at the moment he just seems to sit at the bottom of the tank under the plants, is this normal??..

 

[Netty]

Hi there.......can you give us some more info on your set up that your betta is in and how long you've had him? Will make it easier to see what the problem might be

 

[Emily]

Hi

Well on a closer inspection /observation he just seems to sit at the bottom of the tank, but if he does make a swim for it, it’s straight to the top of the tank like a mad man.

He then races round for a few seconds and finally sinks to the bottom. IV had him for about 6 months with no problems; he shares a tank with 6 black tetra and a zebra danio.

I changed a third of my water about 2 weeks ago as it was getting quite green in there, I also had a small sucker fish that died last week? No reason.

Hope this helps???

 

[Neon.Tetra]

How bigs the tank? Have you got a filter? =]

 

[Phoenixbaby]

How big is the tank?

water stats:
temp
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

How often do you perform water changes?

 

[Honeythorn]

If you only changed a third of the water and TWO WEEKS??? ago at that, then I would be fairly confident your water is the problem. I have to change half the water in my filtered 5 gallon once a week without fail to keep the stats stable!!!

As others have asked, How big is your tank? is it filtered? it really should be. Your fish may be small, but their combined waste can really build up the ammonia in the water and cause all sorts of horrid problems. This is probably what is causing your betta to feel poorly and sit at the bottom.

If your tank is 10 gals and filtered for example, then 25-40 % should be changed once a week.

You aren't doing anywhere near enough water changes in either frequency or amount. You certainly shouldn't just do it when the water looks dirty to you. You can't see ammonia or nitrite and nitrate, so by the time the water looks dirty to you, the levels of these things will be very high and dangerous to your fish. That's why you should do weekly changes , to stop that from happening.

You need to test your water or get it tested with a liquid test kit to see what your levels are.

 

[Emily]

My tank is 25 litres and yes it is filtered, iv tested the water and the nitrite is spot on. The strange thing is the rest of my fish are as lively as ever?.

I must admit I don’t change the water every week and I tend to feed them every other day, when I do change the water I only change half of my filter.

 

[Honeythorn]

Stop stop stop. Firstly that tank is only...6 gallons. It is VERY overstocked with the amount of fish you have. Secondly, you don't remove or change filter media unless it is dropping to bits. You should only ever swish it about in some used tankwater to get the worst of the big bits off, and even that should only be done every couple of months. You are badly damaging your cycle by removing filter media every time you do a water change. You are removing half your bacteria every time you do that, and your tank will be doing another cycle to re-build the colony of bacteria again so that they can cope with the amount of waste your fish are putting out. Your nitrite may be reading at zero because your ammonia hasn't peaked yet as it is cycling all over again. Leave the media in the ilter. Don't throw any away , just rinse a small amount of it in used tankwater ( the water you take out during a water change is fine ) and put that back in, not new stuff.

By not doing very regular water changes you are allowing the waste in the water to build up and it will put your fish at much greater risk of disease. This is more than likely what is happening to your betta.

With the amount of fish you have in there , you should be doing twice weekly water changes of 25% minimum each time at the very least.

Seriously you should rehome the tetras and danio, they are nippy fish and make for poor tankmates , and are adding an unnessecary amount of waste to a tank that cannot support them. Tetras and danios are schoolers and need to be in bigger groups than that anyway, which would require more space than a 6 gal. The best thing you could do is re-home them to a different tank, and keep the betta in there on his own. You could then drop the water changes to 50% weekly. And you must do it weekly to prevent the waste building up .

 

[Emily]

The tank has been running fine for 6 months, this is the first problem iv had. The amount of fish and the changes I do are all down to the advice I got from the shop I them from, So what is the best thing to do at this stage?.

 

[Corleone]

Shops give notoriously bad advice. They have to move the fish, or they eat more than they're worth or die and are a complete loss. They sell fish, the advice is a selling tool.

The best option is to first rehome the tetras and danios, and start doing better water changes. What you have could be something on the lines of old tank syndrome (water stats decaying from insufficient maintenance), or the filter underperforming for the large stock of fish.

 

[Emily]

Ok up date time

Iv changed 50% of my water and got myself a testing kit which test for nitrite nitrate ammonia and ph, iv now done all the tests twice and everything seems fine???.

My baby still isn’t him self as he just sits at the bottom of the tank with little to no movement. Is there any thing else I could do ??..

 

[Honeythorn]

If you tested the water AFTER you did the water change then everything WOULD seem fine. Because you would have just removed the Ammonia , Nitrite and Nitrate you were testing for. You should be doing water changes like that every single week from now on. As for the betta, is he looking bloated at all? are his fins ok? Not ripped or going black at the edges ect ? Any signs of fungus or velvet disease?

 

[Phoenixbaby]

Ok up date time

Iv changed 50% of my water and got myself a testing kit which test for nitrite nitrate ammonia and ph, iv now done all the tests twice and everything seems fine???.

My baby still isn’t him self as he just sits at the bottom of the tank with little to no movement. Is there any thing else I could do ??..

and what exactly is fine?

Post your test results on here and we will tell you whether they are fine or not

and as per your post about nitrite being spot on, there shouldnt be any in the tank what so ever

Your tank is overstocked big time, either upgrade or rehome them

Are you using decholrinator with the water?

 

[Corleone]

Also, what test kit?

Also, define "fine" - many test kits will give a safe range, but particularly with ammonia and nitrite, this is only fine for short-term exposure. Prolonged exposure to any detectable level is bad.

Anyway, even if water stats are good, obviously the tank isn't if the fish is suffering. Many fish, especially slow, delicate fish like bettas, will be stressed in a crowded environment.

 

[Emily]

Just up date and answer a few of the questions, “ Honeythorn his fins are fine the only thing that looks out of place is his head seems to be bloated and he seems to be gasping for air ??.” IV also checked out on this site about over stocking, they seem to advice one 1cm fish to every litre of water.

This dose put me on the limit of my tank I no, and I am currently in negotiations with my fella about getting a larger tank. I seen some corkers on Ebay for a very good price,but its were to put it?.

The test kit I’m using is made by Nutrafin ? And IV post the results as requested ( Nitrate = 5 )( Ammonia = 0 )(Nitrite = 0.1 )(PH = 8.0 ) I hope this helps ?, from what iv read in the booklets with the kit everything seems fine ?.

Id just like to say thanks to everyone who has helped up to now..