Does my little guy look like he’s pineconing to you? For the past few weeks he hasn’t been very active, so I’ve been trying everything. Water parameters looked fine. Heater was working. Last Thursday I literally thought he was dead, so I went to the store and got him some aquarium salt and was dosing the tank which seemed to help. Then a few days ago I did a water test which came back to 1ppm ammonia. I did a 25% water change the past 3 days and it’s now down to 0.25ppm. This morning he was actually floating at the top of his tank, not sitting at the bottom, so I was happy and tried to feed him but he couldn’t care less. Yesterday I thought his eye looked weird so I ordered some melafix that comes today. But I can’t decide if he’s showing signs of pineconing? Is there any hope? I do have some of those Indian almond leaves in there – should I add more?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hijpr2
Posted by sselby87
2 Comments
Yep, he’s definitely pineconing.
With ammonia registering that high, water changes need to be aggressive – 25% every day won’t do. At least 50% immediately, repeating as needed.
Your pal is likely suffering from ammonia poisoning, so if you can, put him in a hospital tank with mostly new (treated) water. Bettas are quite hardy so he should bounce back while you fix the main tank. Clean the gravel, reduce feeding, make sure he has enough oxygen
It looks like he has the barest minimum of pine coning. Please treat as if he was falling to dropsy. Best of luck