Betta suffocating?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

LizG

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
63
Hello to all. Today, we got a new half moon double tail Betta, Stellar. After we floated him, we put him in his 5 gal tank, which was cycled already. All water parameters are measuring normal.

From the moment we put him in the tank, Stellar has not left the surface, and is not really swimming around. I am very worried! I added some Stress Guard. The water is nice and warm at about 78 F. Any ideas? I don't want him to suffocate!

IMG_4292.JPG
IMG_4293.JPG
 
He is floating, but taking frequent breaths from the surface.

I remeasured all the parameters, and somehow ammonia measured a bit off. I did a partial water change, but felt very uncomfortable leaving Stellar in there. So I moved him to the very well cycled quarantine tank, that was ready to go. This way, I hope to make sure the ammonia is stabilized again in the 5 gal.

But I am inclined to think he came sick from the store, in his sad little container. Because he never really went for a nice swim. From the moment he went in the tank, he immediately started to hang at the top.

I hope he makes through the night!
 
The problem with getting betta from the store is that cup they keep them in. We bring them home and give them a massive tank to swim in and they're like WOW?!?!?! WTF is this? Give him time. If he's taking breaths from the surface he's not going to suffocate. Heck I've got a veiltail that regularly won't come to the surface till I feed him, and even then he'll wait for it to sink some days. Other days he sits on his leaf hammock and puts his nose right at the surface. Hence the name "Lazy" I even got him a turtle log just so he has a floating "cave".
 
The problem with getting betta from the store is that cup they keep them in. We bring them home and give them a massive tank to swim in and they're like WOW?!?!?! WTF is this? Give him time. If he's taking breaths from the surface he's not going to suffocate. Heck I've got a veiltail that regularly won't come to the surface till I feed him, and even then he'll wait for it to sink some days. Other days he sits on his leaf hammock and puts his nose right at the surface. Hence the name "Lazy" I even got him a turtle log just so he has a floating "cave".

^^^THIS^^^
I agree.
Fish sure looked healthy and Stellar seemed like an appropriate name..
Nice looking betta!

The long fins and double tail are another reason he is not going to swim around all day.Get him something near the surface to rest on...
 
its normal for bettas to just float at the surface like that. I wouldnt worry unless he starts to list on either side.
 
Ammonia burns the gills in the little cups of the fish if the water isn't cleaned frequently enough or when they have over fed and are leaving the pellets in there.

Keep excellent water for him and if you have an air bubbler then try adding it to add extra O2 in the water and make things easier on him.

Also he has been in a tiny space and no room to exercise and really swim, they get weak.

Give him some time after he is feeling better and he is gills heal ( I am assuming of course that happened, just a guess) If he moved a lot more he would need more O2. So don't push him yet. See if he heals. Do you have a plant or something he can rest in at the top of the tank?

Can you see inside to the gills?
 
Yes. I thought that. He is still alive, and getting better. He still likes to hang at the surface. But he is now venturing inside his tower, and exploring the tank a bit more. I wonder if he is old.....
 
Likely. Sad fact is a lot of the Betta you see in big boxes are a year old or close to it. If they've lived in a cup that long it shortens their life considerably.
 
When I got my betta, he was doing exactly that. I buffered the filter current and he starts swimming all over the tank. I'm just saying that maybe he just isn't strong enough to swim against the current. Let's not jump to conclusions of illnesses before we know anything. How strong is your filter current? I didn't think that mine was too strong, but they get weak in those cups, so it proved to be the issue. Just throwing out some ideas of what it could be. Good luck!
 
I agree, a gentle air bubbler might be a good idea. Just make sure it doesn't make the current worse. And DO buffer the current--it's almost always too much for bettas. And one of those betta hammocks (a fake leaf that attaches to the glass with a sucker cup) placed an inch to 1.5 inch below the surface will really be appreciated by him. Bettas love to lay on something anyway, and this way he can have access to the top without having to fight to stay afloat with his long, flowing fins. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
The metal inside betta leaf hammocks can rot and release toxins into the water, at least zoo med leafs so I don't recommend them.
 
Just a live stem plant laying loose in the top of the water will help give him an extra place to rest in. A Banana plant will product leaves which have a shape that some like to rest in/on. Also a large Cholla log will float for quite a while before sinking, I had one without the top part so maybe 2/3 of the Cholla which floated like a "U" and he loved it, he was so sad when it finally sank, and even at first went to the bottom of the tank to sit in it.
Kinda a poor pic, it is taken from the opened top of the tank
60074-albums9317-picture50084.jpg
 
Oh I intended to mention that a chunk of filter media can be tucked into the HOB filter, about the shape of the filter pad just in front of it, and then cut the part that will stick out, and lay on the water wider like a fan so that the water goes through that and disperses more widely.
 
My Betta loves the patch of hornwort that floats

When he came home from his cup he could barely handle the baffled flow from his filter, so I put fabric hanging out of the out-flow to disperse the water

He got strong over time and now he plays in a 29gallon tank with a 50 gallon filter unit on it:)
 
Not to mention add surface area for more BB growth.

YES, certainly an extra added benefit!!!

My Betta loves the patch of hornwort that floats

When he came home from his cup he could barely handle the baffled flow from his filter, so I put fabric hanging out of the out-flow to disperse the water

He got strong over time and now he plays in a 29gallon tank with a 50 gallon filter unit on it:)

Think about how little those guys get to SWIM around. My neighbor used to turn up his filter to strength "condition" the Betta for maybe 10 min., and the Betta didn't care for it at first, but after a few times, it looked like he swam into the strong filter flow and liked doing it. There was enough room in the tank he could have stayed in a corner. This was as a normally healthy fish living in a large swimmable tank. And Betta got an extra treat afterwords :). He used an adjustable flow HOB filter.
 
Back
Top Bottom