Archivarium 2004

[freshigal]

My betta has been sulking for the past few days. This last week his 5-gallon tank got overgrown with that stringy staghorn algae. On Saturday I did a 50% water change, pruned back the anacharis that was infested, and removed a lot of the algae by hand. Since then he has been lurking at the bottom of the tank and refusing to eat. I had been running the filter (a Bio-wheel setup) to suck out some of the algae. When I came in the room this morning he seemed to be resting next to the intake, kind of "glued" to the mesh basket, so I turned it off. He then swam to the bottom. As the day has gone on he has lost some color.

Ammonia and nitrate test at zero, nitrate is below 10 ppm and the temperature is a steady 78 degrees.

Is it possible that he's just upset about all the movement the past few days? Should I just leave the light off and let him recover? Is there something I'm overlooking?

[Pi]

Do you normally use a filter in your tank? Or just for the algae? Some bettas don't take kindly to water movement. I have one betta that doesn't care about filters, and another that gets stressed out in any sort of current. He could be like that, and recovering from the stress. Either way, all that action in the tank was probably a little upsetting.

I hope he feels better soon.

Pi

[freshigal]

I use the filter, but then stuff foam in the filter basket and outflow to slow down the water movement. Right now the filter is off.

This morning he is resting on his side, not moving very much at all. He is losing more color. I'm really unsure what to do. Should I try another water change? Should I assume there is something wrong in the tank and put him in a bowl? One thing that occurred to me is that my water is fairly high pH (7. and hard. Would that affect him badly over time? My community tank fish are fine with the same water, but perhaps he's more sensitive.

[haname]

Your pH is fine for a Betta. Paleness is a sign of stress but it could be caused by any number of reasons. Did you treat the new water for chlorine and chloramines?

I would treat the tank with NovAqua and AmQuel Plus. It's possible that the activity stressed him, or that he was injured during the activity, or you forgot to treat the water with a conditioner, or something (like soap or some other chemical) got into the water used for the change.

Keep us posted.
_________________
Happy fishkeeping!

~Haname

[freshigal]

I used Amquel for the last water change and added some BioCoat yesterday. The bucket I use is only for the aquariums so there's no soap involved. He usually sulks after a water change, but this is worse than anything I've seen. He also hasn't been eating. If he is still hanging in when I get home from work, should I lower the water level so it's easier for him to reach the food?

[Enlighter]

don't lower it, or touch it for now. Doing anything more could stress him out even more, and thats bad. The water change and cleaning you did could have stressed him a bit, but if he is moving around thats good.

Just let him sulk for the next day or so and see what happens.