First a little background. I am not an experienced aquarium person. When I was in college I had a 1-gallon tank with a bubbler, and I put a male betta in it. The fish did fine for about two years, I think, after which he died. I presume that this was a reasonable fishy life span.
Ten years passed. Last week I was feeling a little low, so I impulsively invested in a 1-gallon tank with a bubbler, some gravel, and a male betta.
My first betta wasn’t what you’d call a dynamo, but he would swim about and was especially active when it was feeding time.
Current fish: When I first put him into the aquarium he sank like a stone. I thought he was just getting used to the unfamiliar environment. However, he stays down on the gravel all the time. When he swims, which he doesn’t do much, his fins remain in contact with the gravel at all times. He never goes up to get little gulps of air - he doesn’t need to, because I’m oxygenating the water, but still, my first betta liked to go to the surface. I have never seen this fish swim to the surface. He acts like he hasn’t the strength to do so. When I feed him, he waits for the food to fall to the gravel and picks it up there.
Other than this he seems healthy. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble maintaining his vertical axis, which I know from friends is a bad sign. His color is beautiful and I don’t see any scars or wounds on him. I feed him Betta TetraMin, and he eats it.
Do any experienced aquarium people have suggestions for me? Could he still be acclimating to the strange tank? (I just got him on 3/11 so it hasn’t even been a week.) Should I get him a heater?
Just a guess, but I’m thinking maybe there’s a problem with his swim bladder, a sac containing air that fish use to adjust their buoyancy. Here’s an article on the problems and possible solutions. It pertains to a particular fish species, but I imagine it applies to almost all fish that have swim bladders.
If he’s eating, and swimming around the bottom of the tank, he’s probably fine.
I would check the temperature of the tank - they like it a bit warm - 20 degrees Celcius or so, but not much warmer than that.
Also, sometimes it takes them a while to get used to their new digs. I would get him a plant to play with and hide in (if you haven’t already). Sometimes if they feel too exposed, they hide at the bottom of the tank.
I’ll cut and paste my answer to the same question from one of those threads here:
Me:"I think the source of your problem is temperature… from the book “Bettas” by Marshall E. Ostrow, “…now it becomes obvious why it is so difficult to keep bettas in showy condition in small unheated bowls or brandy snifters. At a room temperature of 70F a betta will just lie on the bottom of an aquarium or hide behind the filter. At that temperature it will be very lethargic and will not feed very enthusiastically. In fact, bettas often starve to death at 70F no matter what kind or how much food is offered. However, gradually raise the water temperature to 80F and a remarkable transformation takes place. That drab dark blob from the bottom of the tank suddenly comes to life - it begins to swim actively with it’s fins open… it’s colors lighten and brighten to a spectacular brilliance (especially in a male)… it becomes alert, responding to all stimuli around it… it feeds almost gluttonously. The difference between a cool betta and a warm betta is so marked that once you’ve seen the difference you’ll never again keep a betta in unheated water”.
(So actually, Bettas don’t like their temperature much below 20C, 25-27C should be fine; just be careful doing this in a small tank as temperature fluctuations can happen pretty fast)
Thanks for your replies. A fact that I left out of my initial summary, not realizing it was important: my first betta and I lived in Florida and we had no air conditioning. My new betta and I live up north and I’m counting my pennies and not heating the house much.
So I’ll look into getting a heater for him, and some kind of plant for him to hide in. Q.E.D., thanks for the page on swim bladder problems. When the fish does make his rare forays into open water, he doesn’t seem to have any trouble orienting himself, so hopefully this isn’t the cause.
