so I think I messed up a little. I wanted to upgrade my aquarium light and got one sized to my aquarium. without thinking I went to swap the lights without any kind of acclimation. the light went from led with blues only to an rgb. after the swap I noticed an immediate behavior change. she seemed to start swimming a lot more erratically and I realized quickly the light was too much for her so I swapped it back and set it to moonlight (blue) and turned down my room lights to try and help calm her. she can always see me when i’m on my couch with the tank location.
this morning she seemed okay at first but now i’m noticing that same behavior. she seems to swim in this almost triangle against the glass. occasionally she’ll stray and go to the corner I sometimes feed her in but otherwise she seems to constantly be moving and not really exploring. she’s normally really active but occasion she’ll disappear into her plants. I can’t tell if i’m being paranoid.
5gal fluval v tank
heater and tank at 78
planted
betta by herself
on day 10 of fish in cycle
doing daily water changes – 40% this morning after the readings
treated with seacham prime and stability
ph looked a little low for the first time at 7
ammonia – 0
nitrite – 1 (one of my first larger spikes i’ve seen)
almost 2 hours later i’m seeing my standard readings (now):
ph – 7.2
ammonia – 0
nitrite – .25
food she was eating betta pellets with occasional blood worm but just was upgraded to bug bites yesterday (she LOVES these)
https://v.redd.it/kdjg2wiua6bg1
Posted by Brilliant_Ask852
2 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/tl06zlsxa6bg1.jpeg?width=1980&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82e9c4d91f05803b5cf031dafe4954dc43bc7744
close up from today. colors still looking good. no clamping. she’s always had that little pink dot on her gill since I got her.
Honestly it’s probably fine! Most likely a bit excited. I know mine gets excited when I walk into the room or up to the tank. They’re pretty aware of their surroundings. It’s hard to tell how bright is too bright when using a phone camera. I know my betta prefers less lighting. Almost like spotlight lighting so it can have equal darkness as light. Others may agree or disagree but I’ve found fish that are native to lower ph waters behave more naturally in lower ph water. I keep my tanks at a ph of 6.4-6.6. If your tank is cycled with filtration I don’t think daily water changes are necessary. The action of constant draining of the tank, especially of 40% is probably stressing your fish out which may cause the swimming. Also if your filter flow is too high. Bettas prefer gentle water flow or none.
TLDR:
– Try pulling back the light brightness
– Assessing your filter flow-less the better
– And minimize water changes to maybe like 20% a week(if your parameters need a daily water change your tank isn’t cycled which is causing fish stress)