BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Need help! Betta acting strangely

My betta, Gus, who is usually very animated and swims around constantly started acting very strangely a couple of days ago. At first, he was just taking long breaks of sitting at the bottom of the tank doing nothing, but still swimming around occasionally.

Then today I noticed his fins were all clamped up and even the little waving ones on his sides are clamped up strangely, and his swimming is erratic. He is still swimming though and he ate like normal, even doing his little dance when I got the food out.

I don't notice anything unusual on his body, although both his eyes did look a little cloudy. He is in a 2 gallon tank and it has been less than a week since his last water change and his water is at a steady 78�.

What would you recommend I do for him? Something is definitely not right, I can tell.

I am new to fish, but my first thought is to do another 100% water change, make sure you are using the correct amount of water conditioner, I use Splendid Betta Water conditioner that I get at Petsmart. You add 12 drops per quart and to make sure that you clean his tank and gravel and toys real well with hot water, and keep him warm,. When I first got my BOris, the ammonia level went way up about the 3rd or 4th day after I got his tank set up, and that is how he acted, plus his water was at about 75, so I did a 100 % change, and left his light on so his tank went to 80, and now do a 25% change midweek and a 100% and cleaning every Sunday, and he is good to go..Hope this helps you. Maybe someone more experienced than I, will post soon

Yes, my first thought was to do a 100% water change. I have done so and added water conditioner, aquarium salt, and BettaFix.

He looks so sad though, it's like his two little wavy fins are stuck together and it's making it hard for him to swim. Every once in awhile though, he'll dart around the tank real fast. I wonder if he might have parasites or an infection of some sort. Like I said, there is nothing abnormal on his body that I can see.

Has anyone ever seen those front fins (I forget their proper name) all clamped up like that? I've never heard of it or seen it.

how do you keep his tank at an even temp? maybe it would help if you could get it to 80 degrees..I think they are his ventral fins, the long narrow ones in front??

Sounds to me like you are doing the right things. Im' new at fish so I depend a lot on info I get here. I go back and read all the posts that I can. I just posted a problem on the community tank journal about a problem with a little resbora, and I hope someone reads it soon and can advise. <img src="/images/graemlins/fish.gif" alt="" />

I have a heater to keep his tank warm. It's usually between 78-80. I don't think it's the ventral fins, those are the ones that hang down in front, right? It's the ones that are on either side of his gills and they give the impression of waving at you when he looks at you straight on.

Oh, o.k. I call those the little flipper- off-ers. Boris waves his at me frantically when I tell him he can't have any more than 4 bio gold pellets and 2 bloodworms... <img src="/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Well, I went home last night thinking Gus wouldn't live to see tomorrow, but when I came into work today he was still there! He ate two pellets and he has been swimming around all day so far (no hiding in his cave for long periods of time) His fins are still all clamped up, but his swimming seems halfway normal and I haven't seen him darting around at all anymore.

I started him on a treatment of Aquarisol, just in case he has a case of parasites. Also, it says it's supposed to work for closed fins too. We'll see what happens.

Do you think it would be bad to mix the Aquarisol and Bettafix or Melafix? I'm only going to do the Aquarisol, just in case.

glad to hear he is eating. I know nothing about the aquarisol or mellafix, or how to determine if it is parasites. If it were me, I would just do daily warm water hcanges using the bettafix. With Jake, he is in a 2 gal, and I would take out about a quart, and replace it with conditioned warm water with correct amt of Splendid Betta condt, and betta fix as it seems to be soothing with the tea tree oil. Hopefully one of the experienced betta people will see your post and answer.. <img src="/images/graemlins/fish.gif" alt="" />

You said he is at your work, is there any chance maybe something from a cleaning crew got sprayed near his tank where it might of drifted?