betta help

suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
Anyone a betta expert or know where I can find some help on the net? I did some searching and found someone I could pay to call me and give me help :scared:
Anyway I have betta at my office, well he was fine and one morning I came in and he was not active, and wouldn't eat. Well I watched him all day and he would just float at the top of the tank and then have a fit where he would move very quickly almost like have a sezuire around the top of the tank and then come to a rest again. Even when I put a mirror up to him he would have no reaction, which is not the norm for him. So I thought well maybe I should update his tank, get him a heater, filter etc. because he has also been in one of those betta tanks with no filters, heater etc. So I brought him home and put him into a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter, heater, no other fish. He is still doing the same thing and I have yet to see him eat in like 2 weeks. He used to eat right when I fed him but now he doesn't but he could be eating after I leave. I just don't know what to do for the fish. Can they bust their siwm bladders? Because I haven't seen him swim around the tank, just hang out at the top. Any ideas?
:help:
 
speg

speg

Active Member
The damage has probably already been done by being kept in one of those small betta bowls. Unless you do very very frequent water changes those things are not good to keep bettas in.. and even then its not really a good home for one.
Next time get a bigger bowl/heater/filter then get the fish.
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
I have been doing a lot of water changes, the bowl I had him in was actaully a lot larger then most. I have not been using tap, I have been using ro water and doing 25% changes once a week. I don't see how it would cause him to be fine one night and then not well the next morning.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
i disagree... betas live in mud puddles in the wild, so water quality doesn't affect them like other fish. It could just be that he's at the end of his life span... You actually don't want a heater on the tank. They like their water at around room temperature. I have mine in my office and one at home with no heater, and they're both fine! What are you feeding him? Try changing the diet...
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
I have been feeding him brine shrimp and blood worms, he doesn't like flake/pellet "betta food" I have read that they live in rice patties. I keep the house cool, only 68 and I have read that they need 75-86, my heater makes it about 72. Thanks for the help. I have only had mine since Sept of this year, of course I don't know how long he was at the pet store.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
uhh... brine shrimp is salwater food... you should definately not feed him that... it's also void of any nutritional value whatsoever. You should switch him over to omega betta pellets. He may not eat it at first, but after a few days of eating nothing, you betcha he'll start eating them.
 
caomt

caomt

Member
well.. you should do full water changes..feed blood worms.. i think someone may have had messed with your fishes.. i use to have alot of those simese fighting fishes.. you should try to feed it pellets... put the fish in complete darkness for a day
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
i read this about betta's diet
Diet: In nature Bettas subsist almost exclusively on insects and insect larvae. They are built with an upturned mouth that is well suited to snatching any hapless insect that might fall into the water. Internally their digestive system is geared for meat, having a much shorter alimentary track than vegetarian fish. For this reason, live foods are the ideal diet for the betta, however they will adapt to eating flake foods and frozen and freeze dried foods.
Brine shrimp, Daphnia, plankton, tubifex, glassworms, and beef heart, are all excellent options that may be found frozen or freeze dried. If flake food is fed, it should be supplemented with frozen and freeze-dried foods, and if possible live foods.
so this is incorrect?
I have never been able to him to take pellets. I am really thinking that someone did something to him, because one night he was fine next day not fine. I do have cleaning people that come into my office after I am gone, maybe that got some cleaning product in his water. I have done a complete water change now, since I moved him over to the upgraded home. But before I would take him out with some of his water, the rinse out his tank with water and refill it with bottled water and the put him back in with some of the old water, so all and all is would probably be more the 25%.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
you know, now that i think about it, mine did exactly what yours is doing when i got him... He would sit really still at the top, then freak out and bolt around the tank for a minute, and then freeze up again. He still just sits really still, but he doesn't freak out like that anymore.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
i wouldn't personally feed anything brine shrimp... it's like you eating celery for your whole life... no nutritional value, and you'll become weak from lack of nutrition.
 
suzi1780

suzi1780

Member
I don't give him brine too much, maybe once or twice a week. Most of the time he gets blood worms. Yours sounds just like mine! I keep hoping he will snap out of it. I know they make some type of shrimp treat thing..... this stuff "Tetra Baby Shrimp Sun Dried Treat The tasty fish treat for improved digestion." anyone ever try this stuff?
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
nope, the only thing i use for both of my bettas is "topfin bettia bits - mini floating food pellets with color-enhancers"...
 
bluegirl

bluegirl

Member
I have had a betta for about a yr now, I feed bloodworms and alternate with a high quality betta food. I haven't had any problems with this diet. I had a betta previously that had a swim bladder problem, he died after 2 days (of symptoms). Either just his time or a defect that has surfaced that he had, just my .02.
 
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