Help!!
PARAMETERS BEFORE 5 GAL WATER CHANGE (half distilled, half tap, with prime added)
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
Hardness 150
Chlorine 0
Total alkalinity 40
Ph 6.8
Ammonia 0.5
PARAMETERS AFTER:
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
Hardness 150
Chlorine 0
Alkalinity 40
Ph 6.8
Ammonia 0
20 gallon, heavily planted in the back half. Tank mates include plenty of snails and 8 kuhli loaches.
Our betta is always extremely active and reactive whenever we put food in the tank or even go near the tank (he always wiggles to say hello to us). Today when I was about to feed him, I noticed he wasn’t moving at all and when I tried moving him with the food dropper, he wouldn’t react at all. I thought he was dead. He had some bursts of energy but then lost it all. At one point he laid flat on his side on the ground :((((( his fins were still flapping while he was on his side.
I was worried he had ammonia burns on his gills (it was 0.5 before the 5 gallon water change) but he’s has always had those black color gills. Our khulis (6/8 accounted for) are totally fine, no red gills or anything. If there was an issue, they’d ALL be dead or close to dead. Bettas are way hardier. We are almost certain it isn’t an ammonia issue.
He was acting completely normal all week. No signs of struggle or anything. It came on so quickly.
If it adds anything, he was fasting these last two days (we weren’t home). We fast him once a week so it wasn’t anything really new.
What could’ve happened???
The last photo is him normally.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1pbveoo
Posted by koimoon02
10 Comments
ALSO REALLY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: his symptoms are what triggered our response to do a water change. His strange ill behavior did not change after the water change. He was sick prior
https://preview.redd.it/ng72ru0z3p4g1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53ea712d9e87daa00e3e09b14ba20a4020206641
Another clearer photo :(((( my poor angel I feel so so bad for him
Do you have a water heater? Almost looks like shock. Are you considering The new water temperature when adding it to the tank
that’s horrible OP, i’m sorry
0.5 ppm ammonia isn’t awful but it’s not great either, i wonder if the ammonia exposure was during a longer period of time than you think? or perhaps he was already dealing with something and then the ammonia spike weakened him enough to put him in this state?
does he have trouble swimming? is his back arched weirdly? it’s hard to tell from the pictures but if you can rule out as many things as possible it’ll be easier to give him the care he needs
What are u using for water testing? Sometimes strips are hard to read nitrites and nitrates or sometimes inaccurate
How much water did you change? Like what percentage? Keep in mind water changes are for removing nitrates when they build up. The beneficial bacteria (nitrogen cycle) should be converting that ammonia into the less toxic nitrite, and then into nitrates. What I’m getting at is he may be in shock because of the sudden change in water chemistry.
Sorry if I’m telling you something you already know. But the fact you did an unnecessary water change tells me you need some more info.
Where did you get your water?
The face looks like a fungal infection…that doesn’t just *happen*
UPDATE:
Unfortunately our sweet boy Smaug has passed away.
Thank you everyone for trying to help us, but as we rushed to get epsom salt for him, he passed away. We still want to know what happened and why it happened. I’d like to reemphasize that his behavior was why we did a water change, not the other way around. Unfortunately our efforts did not change the outcome :((( thank you all for the help.
Everything looks good it seems. I want to guess it really is unfortunately just the breeding of bettas 😓 i am so sorry you had to see your buddy like this.