Is my Betta Depressed or Sick?

[Twoapennything]

My new Betta fish is spending all of his time hanging out in the corner of the tank and is not swimming around. I moved him from a 2.5 gallon nano to a 10 gallon community tank yesterday and he's been unhappy ever since. I took this picture about an hour ago:

There is no other obvious signs of illness. I have opened the hood of the tank to see if he responds to a cooler temperature. My 10 gallon tank gets up to 80* F without a heater. The lights are enough to keep it that warm.

I have Bettafix and Jungle Parasite Clear Tank Buddies (parasite treatment), but I don't want to give medication unnecessarily.

Any thoughts or ideas?

ETA: Ammonia levels are 0.00; Nitrites 0.50; Nitrates 10 - the tank is cycling.

ETA 2: Unfortunately, my betta died this afternoon. Rats. Any after the fact advice and/or betta info is more than welcome.

 

[dkpate]

He could have been weak from the nitrites. But could also have been intimidated by the bigger tank. The tank needs to stay around 80*, so that's good, but big swings in temp is not good for them.

I'm sorry about your fish! He was beautiful!

 

[joy13]

What other fish are in the tank with him? They may keep him pinned up in a corner and nip him when he comes out. Most people think the betta will attack other fish but in reality it is the other fish nipping their long fins since they aren't as fast as fish.

Have you tried a large water change to lower the nitrates and nitrites?

 

[Twoapennything]

He could have been weak from the nitrites. But could also have been intimidated by the bigger tank.

Maybe it was a mistake to move him from his betta cup to a little 2.5 gal Tetra tank, and then to the 10 gal tank within just a few days time. It could have been too stressful for him. I suppose when you've lived in a cup for so long, a regular tank would seem huge and scary. Poor little guy :|

I'm sorry about your fish! He was beautiful!

Thank you - he was really pretty and I wish we could have had him longer. Ah well, circle of life and all that.

 

[Twoapennything]

What other fish are in the tank with him? They may keep him pinned up in a corner and nip him when he comes out. Most people think the betta will attack other fish but in reality it is the other fish nipping their long fins since they aren't as fast as fish. Have you tried a large water change to lower the nitrates and nitrites?

Well, in the tank I have three lyretail guppies, a dalmatian molly, a silver molly, two African dwarf frogs, an albino cory catfish, and about six three-day-old baby mollies (that was a surprise!). I didn't notice any bullying, but of course I wasn't monitoring the tank all the time.

I do need to do a water change in this tank, so thank you for that reminder

 

[mfdrookie516]

did you acclimate the betta to the new tank? When you said it did that as soon as you moved it, that was my first thought