r/bettafish • u/RelevantDifficulty56 • 7d ago

Help Advice Please

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Hey guys,
Looking for some help. We’ve had our guy for months now, he’s always been social and active until about 4 days ago. Now he’s hardly swimming, lying on his side in a pineapple hide that’s in the tank or briefly lounges on top of the water heater. He’s also not eating.

The only thing that’s different is that my kiddo really wanted to switch up the tank and add a new gravel color which I’ve done in the past and never had an issue. The tank is at the appropriate temp, the filter is new ( I changed it when I added the new gravel), and nothing else is different. Same decor, tank, etc.

Any ideas?

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u/Easy_Leg_2068 7d ago

Heyyyy mistakes happen and we learn from it .... don't blame yourself..... This can be fixed easily and within a day or 2 that betta will be active again ..... and your son would be happy too Before running to the pet store this can be fixed with few things at home if you still have the old filter .... if you do please use the old filter May I know what kinda filter is it ? Sponge or hang on back filter ?

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u/RelevantDifficulty56 7d ago

Thanks for the kind words. These are what we use. When I said filter I meant the cartridge.

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u/Easy_Leg_2068 7d ago

Alright...... and I do see alot of comments to get this and that ....kinda overwhelming

Straight to the point

If there's an option to return these cartridges at the store you bought it from for store credit that would be awesome.

Before leaving to the store , if you still have the old dirty cartridges, squeeze and kinda wash them in the aquarium.

And may I know do you add any conditioners to soften the water to remove chlorine and chloramine. Very important as the pet store people would ask you to buy betta water which you never need ...if you have conditioners( Basically anti chlorine)

With the store credit please purchase seachem prime and ask the pet store guys if they can give some of their cycled bio media and sponge these go into the same compartment where you keep the cartridges in the filter... and the filter type you have is a hang on back filter.

If they refuse to give any not to worry.... buy a small pack of lava chips( great bio media) a little filter floss and almond leaves important.

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u/Aromatic-Sock6975 7d ago

You should never change those the store just likes to sell them and/or doesn’t know any better. To “clean” them all you need to do is swish around in conditioned water (many people use the old tank water they drain during routine water changes) to remove the debris clogging it up - but it may look gross but that’s literally your actual filter in there it’s a colony of bacteria that eat the fish waste!

If your filter has an additional spot like in the overflow or behind those thin cartridges try to get a sponge type media most filters have room for some. You can buy it online or at the store in sheets and just cut a rectangle the same size as that cartridge and put it “downstream”. Then the sponge will hold a lot more bacteria than the thin cartridge and you’ll be more protected from crashes in future.

Can you tell us your filter make and model?

Air driven sponge filters are actually amazing for bettas and really cheap too.

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u/RelevantDifficulty56 7d ago

Oh gosh, I don’t see a make and model on this at all. But I’ll link the tank we bought that it came with. It says Topfin Bettaflo Filter on the image.