Betta fins beginning to clamp? Even with clean water?

[destroy-ya-vampire-money]

Hello everyone!

My betta has slightly clamped fins. He sometimes holds in his anal and tail fins and I am wondering what I can do about it . He is a large crowntail so I would lvoe to see him swimming around more "openly".

Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: 0, Ph, 7.8

5 gallon aquarium setup for 2 months. Heavily planted with healthy elodea (everyday they release loads of bubbles and they are very green). Filtered by Tetra Whisper PF10

Temperature: I live in the tropics so I don't use a heater. Usually between 75-78F. Sometimes a bit over or under, depending on the weather.

Occupants: The betta, one ghost shrimp, five platy fry (about 1/2 inch or smaller). All behave healthily (except betta clamp).

I perform weekly water changes, removing one gallon at a time. I also top-up mid-week.

I am wondering if the Ph is a problem? I bought Api Ph Down but I am not sure about using it yet. I have a piece of bogwood in the aquarium but the Ph is high because of the tap water (I tested it).

He seems to like to hang out, but when I go up to the tank he wakes up and starts swimming about, looking for food and all. So he seems healthy.


Is he ill or does he just like chilling out?
Should I cut back on plants to give him more space to swim? He doesn't have trouble getting about though.

Thank you!

 

[shellieca]

IMO a 5g is a little small for multiple fish & some Bettas don't do well with other fish, they can either be aggressive or just stressed. IME Bettas will "clamp" or hold their fins close to their bodies during certain times & open them up at others. Its when they stay clamped all the time or the majority of the time I worry. Can you post a pic of what you're seeing when he's clamped?

 

[destroy-ya-vampire-money]

I'm not too sure how to post a picture as I am new here, can you tell me?

 

[destroy-ya-vampire-money]

And the platies are only there for a short while, they will be moved to a larger aquarium in a couple of weeks (when my 10 gallon is cycled).

 

[Pearly]

I have 5 betta tanks, and all of mine love their heavily planted homes. I read that their natural environment is like that. As for ph mine is always high too as I live in the area with very hard water which causes ph to go up. My betta experts tell me that as long as there is no sudden jumps in ph your betta will adjust and do just fine. One of my boys started clamping fins and hanging by the surface of the water. Took me few days, lots of frantic research and trips to lfs bfr figured out it was velvet disease which I would have never noticed without shinning flash light on him. There is tons to learn and mistakes to be made unfortunately. If you haven't already check yours with flash light for any visible signs of disease and keep his water in good shape, something will turn out in couple of days. Or... Maybe try that homeopathic BettaFix? Just empirically? See if that helps?

 

[Pearly]

Ok no responses... Hmmmm... Sorry to have wasted the readers' (who even bothered to read) time. It is a very lonely road out there starting this hobby being THE ONLY ONE!!!!! In the area! No one knows crap and no one gives crap about your fish, meanwhile you've got them, try to do best you can but they get sick... You still try to care for them best you can.,, questions/dilemmas come up all the time and no one to turn for answers.... Internet offering conflicting info, the nearest lfs being 20 miles down the rd.... Free access to good reliable information is pretty limited. I've fallen by pure default into this hobby. Was never planning on keeping ANY fish tanks at all... But life has its surprises. So here I go! With few small tanks that have been ready but now we've got issues with first : velvet, the possible ich???? Hate to overtreat my tanks that have such beautiful proportion of microorganisms to make all this possible. Thank you for just making this site accessible and sorry for overposting on bmy things,., but hey! They are issues that bother me the most

 

[mzzguillory]

I think the tank is too small for all tour fish....he maybbe stressed

 

[mzzguillory]

He should be happier when his buddies move out.

 

[Try-na]

Sorry you feel like no one cares. I read this bit I really know nothing about velvet (thank goodness) so I didn't reply because I didn't feel I had anything helpful for this thread. I will say that I know a lot of people that have male bettas with other fish & they are perfectly happy so I don't think the fry are the issue. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. I would assume...totally a guess...that he may be sick??? See not very helpful huh?

 

[Pearly]

I think the tank is too small for all tour fish....he maybbe stressed

Each betta tank is 2.5 gal each housing one male betta and few ghost shrimp. Did you mean the shrimp needed to move out????

 

[shellieca]

Ok no responses... Hmmmm... Sorry to have wasted the readers' (who even bothered to read) time. It is a very lonely road out there starting this hobby being THE ONLY ONE!!!!! In the area! No one knows crap and no one gives crap about your fish, meanwhile you've got them, try to do best you can but they get sick... You still try to care for them best you can.,, questions/dilemmas come up all the time and no one to turn for answers.... Internet offering conflicting info, the nearest lfs being 20 miles down the rd.... Free access to good reliable information is pretty limited. I've fallen by pure default into this hobby. Was never planning on keeping ANY fish tanks at all... But life has its surprises. So here I go! With few small tanks that have been ready but now we've got issues with first : velvet, the possible ich???? Hate to overtreat my tanks that have such beautiful proportion of microorganisms to make all this possible. Thank you for just making this site accessible and sorry for overposting on bmy things,., but hey! They are issues that bother me the most

First off there are 100's of people posting on this forum & not every post can get a response, I've had that happen to myself, to admonish members for not responding is unnecessary & IMO a little rude. When I read your other post, on a thread not created by you, I didn't see a question. It appeared to me you were stating your experience & questioningly suggesting to the OP what to do. If you have questions regarding your fish & their illness I suggest you start your own thread in the unhealthy section of the forum, you'll probably get more responses.

 

[Pearly]

First off there are 100's of people posting on this forum & not every post can get a response, I've had that happen to myself, to admonish members for not responding is unnecessary & IMO a little rude. When I read your other post, on a thread not created by you, I didn't see a question. It appeared to me you were stating your experience & questioningly suggesting to the OP what to do. If you have questions regarding your fish & their illness I suggest you start your own thread in the unhealthy section of the forum, you'll probably get more responses.

So sorry if it cam across as being rude, was definitely not intended to be that way. Call of despair, I guess and as to no question issues, I must have got my threads mixed up trying to go between them trying to find information and sometimes that late at night my eyes get so tired (little sleep deprived too) reading this tiny print on my mo lie device is little hard. Probably adopted to wrong thread by mistake. Again, my deepest apologies to all whom I may have offended.

 

[mzzguillory]

Wow I typed bad. I mean he may be stressed with the shrimpnrunning around such a small space. Id say get him a five gallon. They arnt that high. They sell them for the same or even less than some commercial 2.5 tanks. I have three female bettas in a small tank as of now cuzz im moving out but cant wait to get them a bigger tank . They get really happy and swim fast. Test it out. You could always return the tank.

 

[mzzguillory]

I have proble.s when I get alerts...I can never figure out where its coming from amd gotta run through everypost. Confusing.

 

[Pearly]

Alerts? I don't think I've ever seen one....

 

[Pearly]

Wow I typed bad. I mean he may be stressed with the shrimpnrunning around such a small space. Id say get him a five gallon. They arnt that high. They sell them for the same or even less than some commercial 2.5 tanks. I have three female bettas in a small tank as of now cuzz im moving out but cant wait to get them a bigger tank . They get really happy and swim fast. Test it out. You could always return the tank.

Money is not an issue here, it is what it is for now and sometimes we can't have everything we want so best way to deal with it is to just do the best we can with what we have got, here and now and do it for right reasons. Yes, space is confining for my "babies" but they all got off death row. Each one of my 5 boys would have not made it another 2-3 days in that 1/2 cup of cloudy water bcs gal refuses to change his water "water change day is only on Tuesdays". One of my boys lives in 10 gal community with couple of platties and mollies (it'll be upgraded to 25 gal as soon as I can do it). All of my fish have beautiful live plants (lots of them) driftwood, places to hide, clean good quality water and best food and variety of it. Their homes are small but beautiful and they get pampered. None of them has ever shown any sign of aggression to another living creature (shrimp, snail or another fish) I think bcs they are well fed (never starving) and happy, tanks have filters and healthy tiny ecosystems of their own and they are always nice and warm so why would anyone want to be angry or aggressive? anyway, yes, I know, the space...can only hope and pray that some external conditions (stuff I can't control) change in favor of getting few bigger tanks meanwhile I'll just continue to do what I've been doing and hopefully learn more about how to combat and prevent diseases. Thank you again

 

[Pearly]

Sorry you feel like no one cares. I read this bit I really know nothing about velvet (thank goodness) so I didn't reply because I didn't feel I had anything helpful for this thread. I will say that I know a lot of people that have male bettas with other fish & they are perfectly happy so I don't think the fry are the issue. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. I would assume...totally a guess...that he may be sick??? See not very helpful huh?

And thank you for sympathy. I was feeling really bad last night and desperately tired

 

[Try-na]

And thank you for sympathy. I was feeling really bad last night and desperately tired

No problem. Wish I could help