Help

[lizmunn]

I've got a betta had him for about a week seemed fine been eating and just today I've noticed that all hes doing is sitting up against the filter in the back of my tank any suggestions as I'm worried hes not well

Liz

 

[Crazyhermitcrab]

1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?

Answer first

 

[lizmunn]

Its a 190 tank been set up for over 6 weeks
Nitrates nitrites are all low
No additions of ornaments just a plant
I have 5 platys
Four pineapple
Two coris
And 7 tetra
He just seems to be very sluggish and just sits against the filter where the water gets taken in theres no signs of bloating cotton mouth no white spots nor bulging eyes
its a jewul 3.0 in a 190 trigon tank

 

[lizmunn]

Did 25% water change yesterday with gravel vacuum
And food has remained the same feed them small amounts every other day

 

[anteatergoanna]

When you say the nitrites and nitrates are low, how low? what are the readings, What is the ammonia reading and the ph. Did you cycle the tank? If you want help, you need to give CrazyHC all of the readings and what they are, and what ever other info that you can. Unless they have this information, they can't give you an accurate diagnoses, nor be able to help get the fish better, if that's possible. Did you use test strips or the api test kit, things like that. Goodluck

 

[lizmunn]

Nitrate 0 as well as nitrite the ph is 8 kh 240 and gh 180 i live in an area of hard water
Temp is 25

 

[lizmunn]

The water is a little hazy so must be going through another cycle all i have in the tanks is drift wood and stones with real plants ammonia before I did the water change was 2 so slightly high when i do a water change i use tape safe i recent placed a phorax filter in the filtration system as thee seemed to be a lot of algea growth that has now decreased with the addition of it

 

[lizmunn]

I only have the 5 n 1 api dip strips they accurate enough or do you recamend getting a better system?
I am still fairly new to tropical fish had it for four months so apologise for not giving enough information to begin with
All the other fish seem happy swimming around eating just the betta hardly moved

 

[anteatergoanna]

That's fine, the test strips aren't known for their accuracy, you will get moe accurate readings from the liquid test kits made by API. Ammonia is lethal to fish, I suggest u do water changes daily, until you get your ammonia down to 0. I can't give you any more, there are more people who know way more than me, but the more pristine your water is, the better for your fish. Test your water daily, if you can, that way once you get your ammonia Down to zero, you can go back to weekly wc's. How is the fish now? Just remember to give as much info as you can...good luck, someone else will chime in.