My Siamese Fighting Fish is about six months old, and is usually quite active, eats well and has a large bubble nest. I cleaned his tank and water (putting in water purifier first and leaving him in some of his old water in a bag, then putting him in the tank in the bag for a while to get accustomed to it) four days ago, and now he won't eat, is floating in a corner and has no bubbles at all. He still flares up at a mirror and swims around a little, but not like he usually does. The temperature is pretty good (around 23 degrees), and he looks fine.
What should I do to get him back to his usual cheery self?
23C is too cold, he really needs about 26C to 28C (the are tropical).
also, you shouldn't be preforming full water changes. full water changes get rid of all the good bacteria. good bacteria is what breaks down ammonia and nitrite and produce nitrate. nitrate is what you need to remove, so instead you should be using a gravel siphon to remove about 25% of the water each week and replace with new conditioned water.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com eventually, low temps and poor water quality (when you do full water changes, you allow ammonia and nitrite to build up because the good bacteria doesn't have a chance to form) will get to a betta and slow him down. fix these problems now and he should have another few years with you:)
Well first off you want between 26-27 degrees, get a test kit and check nitrite/nitrate and ammonia levels they probably fluctuated to much when you cleaned the tank * also killing the bacteria *.
call the pet store before he dies .. if he is floating to the top, thats not a good sign.
If the temp is below 74 degrees, bettas slowly stop eating
http://bettacare101.com
