sigh, worrisome

[soritan]

I think Sori's little treatments are starting to get to him. He's laying on the bottom of his bowl now, panting, and he's been that way since last night. He'll swim up for air, and immediately lay back down. He'll still flare at the betta bio-gold betta, but it's rather lack luster. If you know what I mean.

It's odd, though, since this time all he got was clean water, no salt or anything. Maybe he feels better with salt in the water.

He did kinda leave an abnormal "sample", on the bottom of the tank. I know I found a site once that analyized them, but for the life of me, can't find it.

 

[soritan]

I think he's dying, now. *sigh* I don't understand why, he's just lying there, not moving, panting. Nothing was wrong with him, yesterday. He's not even flaring anymore, or going up for air.

I just took a clean chopstick and nudged him in the water, and he got startled and swam up to get a gasp of air, but then went back down.

I haven't done anything more volitile to him than salt his water, no real medication. It was just fin rot, I wasn't going to freak and pull out an arsenal of stuff. As far as I knew, he just had to stay in ultra clean water and eventually the fin rot would go away. Salt helps.

I changed his water every 3 days or so, and they're 1 gallon bowls. I have three bowls, so I always kept the other two full of water, so that there was always aged water laying about.

I hope that this is just shock, because I hate to see such an active little boy just lay there like that.

 

[soritan]

Three posts in a row, gosh.

He's swimming a little bit more now. I think it might have been shock, I don't see how. But he is behaving like himself a little more, now. But after he bursts about and swims, he immediately lays back down at the bottom of the bowl.

Maybe he simply isn't accustomed to the frequent water changes, yet.

The only thing I did different, yesterday, was skip a feeding. I normally feed him every day, something around 8 pellets a day, 1-2 at a time as I sit at my desk. So yesterday, he didn't get fed at all. That's it, the rest was routine.

 

[Kiarra]

I'm glad he's doing better. Poor thing.

It's okay to add salt to his water every water change for the rest of his life. It helps to prevent parasite infestation, and balances electrolytes for them. I ALWAYS use it.

Skipping feeding for one day isn't going to hurt him at all. They act like it will---they're such little mooches. But a lot of people fast their Bettas one day every week to help them digest what they've been given on other days. So there's no way that could have done him any damage whatsoever.

 

[soritan]

It's kinda heartbreaking watching him. I'll pull out his little cut-out betta-friend and he'll lay there, pant, see him, and sort of spread out his tail, but nothing else. You can see he wants to flare, but can't.

I can't figure what's wrong with him, I did everything the same as usual.

 

[Kiarra]

Was there much of a temperature difference...? I know you age your water, but do you age them in a room of the same temp at about the same level as he is?

 

[soritan]

I actually age them in the same room they're ultimately kept in. He's on my desk, the water's kept in the corner. He's been so active lately, jumping and flaring and swimming, since I moved him to the bowls. To see him go so still, so suddenly, is worrisome at best.

 

[Kiarra]

This is pretty weird.

Any chance you could put him in a heated tank and see if that helps him?

 

[soritan]

Unfortunately, I don't own a heater or anything that can fake heating until the LPS opens. The room we're in is fairly warm, I'd say mid 70s, and his bowl is typically 72 degrees steady.

I wish I had at least a heating pad to put him on, but unfortunately I don't.

Every time he goes up to the surface for air, I feel better, but then he immediately plops right back down at the bottom of the bowl.

Unfortunately, the only test kit I own is for ph, and his water is fresh from today. I changed him out of his old bowl, when I thought that maybe it was the water in his old bowl. The water's been treated with Jungle Start Right, and aged for at least 4 days.

 

[Kiarra]

Can you arrange some kind of perch so he can lay near the surface if he wants to?

 

[soritan]

It just hit upon me. The other new thing I've been doing in the last two 100% changes, was this: I was using LESS water.

Generally, I filled the 1.25G tank up to the top, and I'd carefully transfer Sori over 3 days later (sometimes 4, yeah, bad, I know. ). The last 2 changes, I only filled the bowl half way, so that the water stopped at the bowl's widest point. He seemed happier, actually, because he had more horizontal space to swim in. I also didn't have to worry so much about him jumping out, since it seemed the healtier he got, the more jumpy he was.

But I didn't compensate for water changes. You think maybe this had an effect on him?

I put him in a totaly full bowl, just today, when I noticed that his water was a little cloudy in his other bowl (he was only in it for about 1-2 days, and the water had actually clouded up, something that normally doesn't happen), and that's when I started to see him move about a shade more.

I realize now, in retrospect, that putting him in less water was probably a big mistake. He really did seem to like the less water, in this case, since the bowl he was in was wider than it was tall, he had more swim area. He was active, investigated, flared, and jumped. He never really did that in his 2.5G tank, in his 2.5G tank, he seemed so bored, and spent most of his time with his nose in the corner trying to 'swim away'. He really seemed to enjoy being on the desk, near me.

Gyah. He makes me feel so irresponsible.

 

[soritan]

Can you arrange some kind of perch so he can lay near the surface if he wants to?

I thought about doing that. I have a tiny sprig of creeping charlie in the water with him, and I saw him try to sit on it near the surface, and it couldn't support him, so the two of them slowly sunk down. It was kinda sad to look at. But I don't really have anything offhand I could stick in there for him to lie on. I have some silk plants that need cleaning I could put in there, and I have some live java fern in another tank. However, the other tank has some sort of odd worm infestation, and I'd hate to introduce those to his clean 1G bowl. I'm thinking I"ll take out 1-2 java ferns tonight and see if I can salt bath them clean, for perch value tomorrow.

Or maybe something as simple as an overturned glass?

 

[Kiarra]

I had to rig a quick perch for a little guy with a swimbladder problem, and I cut the bottom off a plastic water bottle, smoothed the cut edges, and let it rest on the bottom, upturned, so the smooth, flat bottom would be near the surface of the water (a little less than an inch down). If you cut a little hole at the bottom of the bottle so that water will pass freely, then it will rest easily and not float. You can also put a small rock on top, or use plant weights to weight it down if it moves too much. Just make sure the cut edges are smooth, and that he can't get trapped under there.

 

[soritan]

That's a good idea, I'm not sure his bowl is big enough for that, sadly. I'm looking about my room and kitchen for something now.

As distressed as I am, I keep envisioning Sori sitting on a wooden perch, like a parakeet.

 

[soritan]

This is going to sound wantonly paranoid, and I apologize in advance:

I noticed a day or so ago, when I moved Sori over to his new, fresh bowl, that he was making a sort of... sputtering noise. It was really loud, and really weird. At first, I couldn't figure where the noise was coming from, as it was just so weird. It just sounded like, a hollow sputtery noise. Then I realized it was coming from his bowl. Sori was swimming with his mouth wide open, and sort of... bouncing against the glass. I assumed it was just some sort of odd effect from his mouth against the glass, amplified by the lower than usual water.

Then, today, I heard the noise again, except this time, he was right in the middle of a full bowl. Again, his mouth was wide open, like he was doing his yawning thing, and he was swimming with his head up and his tail down. Sputtering noise, sort of like... uhn... it's hard to describe. It's loud enough that I could probably record it, and I'm going to try and figure out how I actually can record it next time.

I've never heard of a betta making a noise that loud. I've heard of the clicking, and I've heard the clicking many times. Whenever he eats, I hear him click, when he comes up for air, I hear the little click. This is way louder than the click. Best I can describe it is a sputtering noise.

Uhn... I just have no idea what it is, and since this occurance is so new, my mind makes me wonder if it's linked to his sudden apathy.

He's still lying on the bottom of the bowl, sometimes he tilts over to his side. He is still able to swim up to the surface to get air. He almost seems fine when he swims up, no struggle at all.

This illness is so sudden. *sigh*

edit:

Croaking. That's the word I was looking for. He sounds like he's croaking.
.... or perhaps, burping....


I tend to make light of situations I'm in, the more worried I get.