# Depressed Betta?



## nanabmcd (Apr 26, 2012)

Hello Aquarium Forum,

I am having a betta problem.
My betta fish is acting very strangely; she will stay by the bottom of the tank (sometimes resting on the bottom) with her fins closed up, and when I feed her, she shows interest, but will not eat anything but bloodworms. This has been going on for three weeks now, and I can't pinpoint the problem. She doesn't seem really sick, and her condition hasn't worsened. Anyways, here is her story:

When I got her (in december) she was normal, but always the underdog of the tank (she lived with two others). Then in March, one of the other fish started having swim bladder problems, I tried to treat it with peas, but it didn't help. By the time I realized that something other than swim bladder disease was going on, the fish had been exposed to her for about two months. The sick fish stopped eating much, and was swimming in a curved shape. I didn't separate her because the others had been fine so far and I didn't want to leave the other two alone together because they would fight. The sick fish died in May, and I separated the others as soon as possible. One I removed to a 2 gallon, the other I kept in the 6 gallon, but then the 6 gal fish became sick very quickly with the same symptoms of the first sick fish, minus the swim bladder issues. She died in June, leaving only the little underdog fish left. She seemed normal for the first two days, then she stopped eating all together. After two more weeks she started eating small chopped up bloodworm pieces (total of about a bloodworm a day), and then a week after she improved to about two of three a day. I have tried to feed her pellet food, flake food and peas, but she will only eat bloodworms. I am worked because she needs more than that in her diet. 

She doesn't show the symptoms of the others, it seems like something different. Her fins have a few tears from the day that the first fish died, and she was left alone with the tank bully. Could she be depressed? Is a bacterial infection? Her color is the same as always, and she seems capable of acting normal (she swims to the top with her tail flared when I take the lid of her bowl off to feed her), but most of the time she just sits there looking unhappy.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
-nanabmcd

i will post pics.


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

Hello Nana, We will need some more information from you before we can help:
What sized tank are you keeping her in? what do you have for filtration? what are your water parameters? (Temperature, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate) is it planted? have you seen any of her poops? are they the same color as her food, or are they white or clear?


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## chipmunk1210 (Jul 3, 2012)

Is she in the 2 gallon? Also all the questions that manafel just listed, we need answers for. 
Since they are such solitary fish, I do not believe they would get depressed over the death of another. I believe that the tank was really stressful for all 3 of them since you need more than 3 females if you plan on trying to keep female bettas together successfuly. Any time the fish has clamped fins, stays at the bottom-or at the top not wanting to do anything else, and rejects food means there is something wrong with the fish as this is not normal healthy behaviour.
If you tank is not cycled then you need to be doing at least every other day 100% WC to keep the ammonia levels low. You need an adjustable heater (if you don't have one) set between 78 degress and 80 since they are tropical fish and need a stable warm temperature to regulate their bodily functions.
For the food, you might try soaking a small pellet in garlic juice. Fish like the taste of garlic and tend to eat stuff with the juice when sick or being finnicky about eating.

I will stop right there so not to bombard you all at once. Once you answer some of the questions we have raised, we can go from there on helping your betta.


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## nanabmcd (Apr 26, 2012)

She is in the two gallon now, I agree that she is probably not missing her tank mates.

-The two gallon was cycled for three days and I frequently check the water, the ammonia is fine and the PH is around 7.1.
-I don't have a heater that is good for a two gallon, but I do have one for the six gallon. It is about 78 degrees in my house right now, and her tank has warmed to that temperature.

Thanks for the garlic idea  I will try that. 

I put brightly colored objects around the tank and turned on an extra light, and she seemed more interested. She swam around for a while and opened her tail a couple of times. I will post a video.


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## nanabmcd (Apr 26, 2012)

Here are some pics of her:

Apologies for poor quality:


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## nanabmcd (Apr 26, 2012)

Oh, and here are pictures of her from a few months ago:










(the second one is her under a florescent light, so her color is really bright)


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Im going to say internal parasites.Shes really skinny and usually that is due to her not getting the nutrients from the food like she should.The pale color also tells me shes not feeling well.Take the bloodworms and soak them in the garlic juice and feed her this to help clean them out of her system.

If you can,look for some medicated food for her.


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## chipmunk1210 (Jul 3, 2012)

Ok. Your poor girl is extremely stressed looking. The clamped fins and how pale she is currently is very telling. So I have some recommendations and information for you. 
3 days is not long enough to cycle a tank. Cycling a tank takes 6-8 wks min starting from scratch and is difficult in a tank that small. So I recommend 100% water changes every other day AT LEAST. How do you check your ammonia? If you are using a strip test then you need to get the liquid tests. The strip tests are horribly inaccurate. What is your level on the ammonia? Fine is not really a measurement. It needs to be kept at 0 or as close as possible. I wouldn't worry about the ph. Bettas can handle a broad range of ph levels.
You need a heater. Your room may be 78 and the water may be 78 during the day but water temperature is at least a couple of degrees cooler than air temperature. Air temperature fluxuates between cooler at night and warmer during the day and your betta needs a steady temperature with little to no fluxuations. If you can't put her in the 6 gallon that you have a heater for, then I recommend either getting a steralite container for her that is big enough for your heater(5 gal +) or getting a steralite container that you can sit the 2 gallon inside of, fill the container with water(only as far as around halfway up the 2 gallon tank) and put your heater in the container. This will heat the water surrounding your 2 gallon tank and keep that tank heated. Make sure you have a thermometer(one of the glass ones for inside the tank-not the paper strips for outside the tank) to keep track of the temperature of the water in the 2gallon tank.

The colorful items outside of her tank is a good thing and does help boredom especially if you change them around about every month or so.
She may not eat much if she is cold because their metabalism slows down. But definately try the garlic trick as it tends to work very well with bettas.

This is a starting point for getting your little girl back up to her beautiful self(that clearly shows in the last two photos).


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

From what I can see, it looks like you also have her in a plain bowl with no form of filtration at all. I would try to move her to a bigger tank and follow the instructions of the people above me...


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