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Betta Fish

Betta Fish: Betta not wanting to swim

I noticed the last few days my betta has not been swimming around. Overtime I look hes laying on the bottom of husband tank. First picture I'd NOT his tank, its a temporary fish bowl I use when cleaning/checking his water. He can and will swim up to the surface for air then back down to the substrate. He doesn't even stay up at the top to eat, but will eat at the bottom. Can high ph be the cause of his symptoms? If so what are some safe ways to lower the ph? If not then what else could be happening?

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1qb0ygd

Posted by ghostegray

12 Comments

  3. Nautilus_Kiki on

    Put some tannins in there it should help a little if you want to do it naturally. But at this point I would suggest maybe doing it chemically because your ph is so high.

  4. 95Crystals on

    Ph is super high, I like to keep mine around 7.4-7.6. I’ve seen a product called ph down, not sure who makes it though.

  5. Coy9ine on

    You shouldn’t remove your fish from the tank to clean it or do water changes. It only adds more stress, on top of everything else going on here.

  7. Suzarain on

    pH is more of an issue when it isn’t stable vs too high or too low. Is your reading usually 8.2 or is this much higher than normal?

  9. skyepostsstuff on

    I would also suggest adding some tannins here’s a comment I just left on a different post on how you can do that: https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/s/lvoHDpvxnU

    I would also say removing the fish for water changes or testing the water is unnecessary. Is your filter current strong? These bettas with long fins really struggle to swim in just about any water flow, it can push them around and they can get really tired out from trying to swim against the current. Can you post a photo of the full tank?

  10. Savagecabbage3913 on

    You should have some nitrates if you have cycled the tank. It’s hard to tell by the picture, but it looks like you have none, so your fish could be experiencing “new tank syndrome”.

    Look up how to do a fish in nitrogen cycle and I’d recommend live plants, almond leaves/bark (for the PH), some bottled bacteria like Seachem stability or Fritz Nitrifying, and tap water conditioner like prime (if you aren’t already).

    https://preview.redd.it/oxvvcwvjrycg1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a57484f8f2aa3a864b7c574e6f80ecb5adcb4f14

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