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Betta Fish: concerned first time fish parent


hey guys,

this is mr. t and i've had him since october 2025. we've had ups and downs of me trying to learn how to own a betta but ultimately he's proved that he's pretty hearty.

i am kind of concerned though, i am in college and i decided to go home for the weekend and let him fast for saturday (fed friday, left, came back sunday). he's usually super responsive to me but he seemed sort of lame and kinda acted like he was having a swim bladder issue, which he has had problems with in the past. he would kind of swim up, then sink, then swim up and lay on a suction leaf or a piece of driftwood i have.

i started to panic a little, as i did do a 75% water change on the friday i left, which i know was a bit dumb of me but his tank was starting to get a little gross. now, he's kinda floating at the surface and i think he's acting fine but i just want a second opinion before i start freaking out.

he is in a 10 gallon, live plant only, 81 degree tank. he is not interested in food right now. i've attached a video, i can see that he's kinda gasping a little but it doesn't seem to be distress… any thoughts would be greatly appreciated 🙏



https://v.redd.it/rc9m007l26lg1

Posted by Wonderful_Ground_418

8 Comments

  1. Altruistic_Bird2020 on

    Did you match the water temp? My guy was a bit lethargic one time after a water change for that reason

  2. Sad_Individual6858 on

    Do you have any almond leaves? you could boil them to add some tanins. Helps them when they’re stressed and provides antifungal and antibacterial environment.

  3. RadiantPreparation33 on

    Another thing that I’ve learned overtime that seems to make water changes a non issue is this product called API stress coat plus it helps betta stress and helps with there slime coats to help fight off infections and prevent infection and helps with wound healing fin healing and it dechlorinates your water and it’s just over all amazing stuff some will say oh no u should t use it because there’s aloe Vera in it but there’s absolutely not enough to hurt your betta I’ve been using it for years and it’s a game changer so any and every time I do a gravel vacuum and water change I use prime and api stress coat plus and then about 20-30 mins after I add a betta conditioner and a couple drops of stability to help with adding back good bacteria. Almond leaves are also good to have on had I order mine from Amazon there cheaper and u get so so so many and a little goes along way they add almost a tea color to your tank so only use a little bit I personally don’t care for the tannins so what I do is I boil two leafs for about 5-6 mins and then let them soak in the pot and I bottle the water from the leafs in a old water bottle and add a little api stress coat plus to make sure the water has no chlorine or anything else harmful to your betta and i wait for it to cool and just add it in my tank that way so that way my betta gets the benefits without me having to have brownish water just a little more help for ya . And also i hope that you have a water tester kit so you can make sure your levels are safe if you don’t have one yet make sure your doing 20/30 percent water changes every other day and dosing with the product prime and api stress coat plus until u get one because he could keep getting swim bladder due to poor water quality remember just because the water look clean doesn’t mean it’s perfect you could have ammonia spikes or nitrite spikes nitrate and all kinds of things so that’s a must have thing

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