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hi everyone, long time no post.

a neighbour was telling us about her betta that she thinks is dying. my housemate and i love fish so we told her to bring it over.

he's a tiny betta who sits on the bottom gasping for air most of the time. our neighbour had been keeping him in a 1.5-2L bowl that hadn't had a water change for what looked like months. we moved him into a square 2L tank. i wanted to do a full water change right away but my housemate wouldn't let me and she did a half change, then another half change today with treated water. there's still heaps of poo down the bottom (i really want to do a full change!). PH was extremely alkaline when we got him but he's in around 7 now (i live in brisbane). the neighbour wasn't using water conditioner, just leaving water out in the sun. the fish appears healthy other than it's behaviour - no spots, bloating, fin rot etc.

after a couple days his colours are becoming more vivid but he's still sitting on the rocks at the bottom. temperature is 21-22 degrees. my other two betta are kept at the same temperature and are extremely active (bubble nests and all).

just wondering what i can do for this fish other than regular water changes and keeping the temperature as warm as possible. how long should it take for us to start noticing improvements in his behaviour?

Sounds like your doing everything you should Keep it up. I would think you should start noticing a difference sooner rather than later, depending on how long he was in those conditions. Sounds like a tough Betta who lucked out in not getting really ill. BTW how is he eating? Keep doing those WC's and giving him some TLC and i'm sure he'll get real active real soon.....keep us posted

my housemate said she tried to feed him yesterday and he went to eat but he didn't actually do it. i tried just then and he got really excited about the food and tried his best to swim to the top to eat it. he got almost all the way to the top, then sank straight back down to the bottom. when he was swimming up i noticed that his fins weren't fanning out as much as they probably should be. they looked a little bit stuck together.

i think i'm going to take the rocks out of the bottom so that the food can sink to the bottom and he can eat off there.

how often should i be changing the water, and how much?

I had to deal with a situation like this...hadn't realized how little attentin my sister was paying to her betta >.< It did take quite a while for the fish in my case to make a recovery. Few weeks before he was off the bottom and a while after that before he was active again.

You're doing what you can. I stick with the smaller water changes more frequently for now...once he's a bit stronger he'll be able to deal with the full water changes.

You mentioned there was no bloating, however I'd still suggest a pea. If the fish had been fed regularly before got it I'd hold off on feeding for a day or two then try half a pea cut into pieces. Keep the temp consistant, and raise it a bit for this one. I know you have your bettas @a lower temp but as temp increases so does betta activity.
Good luck and stick with it .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

I have one that sinks pretty consistantly. She can swim and she can comfortably reach the top, but she prefers to pick from the ground.

I think your housemate had a good idea when she said only half the water. If you want, just use an airline tube to suck out the gunge

Consider a broad leafed plant (live or fake) for him to rest on so he can get closer to the surface. It might als help his mental state to be able to do something other than sink



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett