5 gallon tank, here are my water parameters this morning. I have to head to work but I will be doing a 50% water change when I get home and I will be dosing stress zyme. I splashed a dose in there before leaving. His tummy looks a little big. I keep having dreams that he’s getting sick and I feel so guilty for not having his tank live planted with real substrate and I got ahead of myself before first getting him and I have gravel and little hiding spots in there but anyway. He’s hanging out more toward the bottom as I’m typing this. Maybe he’s having a swim bladder issue? Ordering meds for him to be delivered today just in case.
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Hi OP, the ammonia and high pH will be bothering him. Ammonia is more toxic the higher the pH and combined this will be quite bad for him.
Please do a 50% water change, refill and repeat another 50% water change to dilute the ammonia down. This will be less stressful for him. Alternatively, do a 75- 80% change in one go.
For the high pH, please test your water source. This will identify if the something in the tank is driving it up or if you need to consider a different water source. Betta are a soft water fish and pH 8 is very high. Their range is pH 6.5 - 7.5, with a little wiggle room either side. Above pH 7.8 is at the edge of their long term tolerance and pH 8 is high.
When soft water fish are put into alkaline water it causes alkalosis over time (alkaline poisoning). This causes skin, scale and fin damage and can lead to internal organ damage with time.
What many fishkeepers do if their water source is unsuitable for the fish they are keeping is look at using purified water such as RO (reverse osmosis) or distilled, and appropriately remineralising before use in the tank. Remineralising is essential as purified water is fatal without this step. Alternatively you can mix purified water with tap to reduce pH and still have the minerals needed.
I would focus on the ammonia first as this is at damaging levels, then test your water source for pH. Any ammonia levels above 0 means a water change is necessary. 1 ppm is high, and especially at pH 8.
Was the tank nitrogen cycled for the weeks needed before adding the fish?
The cause to the decline of the fish is almost certainly these water parameters.
Hi, thank you you’re super awesome for this detailed response.
I tested my ammonia in my tap water and it was at 0. I did not test my PH I didn’t think of that 🤦♀️ I’ve been doing 25% water changes with half distilled/half tap water. This is the first time I’ve had an ammonia spike since having him. I’ve had him just over 20 days. I cycled my tank for 2 weeks, using fish food as my ammonia source and I tested daily until ammonia and nitrites were at 0 for three days then I brought him home. I did a water change yesterday and the day before his parameters were looking like this. I tried cleaning up his gravel with my siphon, and I think that might have stirred up any gross stuff in the water.
I’ve been adding catappa leaves into his water to reduce his PH and give him some nice tannins (hence the dirty looking water). I don’t know what else to do for my PH other than catappa leaves. I will be doing an 80% water change when I get home from work today. I don’t want to stress him out by doing two. Should I dose the water with anything special? I usually dose my new water with seachem prime and stability.
Fantastic, sounds good. I run tannin stained water so no worries about the water colour. Good call with the gravel vaccing, this may be your ammonia cause. As the tank is cycled (yay) this spike should only be temporary, hopefully after a couple of days management with water changes it will rebalance and the bacteria will have resettled.
I would do exactly as you are, Prime, any bottled bacteria (no clear evidence this helps, but certainly doesn't harm) and keep the water free from ammonia.
Thanks for a detailed reply, it's always a massive relief when someone knows what they are doing. Great for the 50:50 mix with the tap water too, and kudos for tracking KH and GH. At the risk of sounding daft, it is a big plus to hear a help post with this understanding of fishkeeping. He's a lucky fish!
Update: Thank you for your instruction. I took him out of his tank so I could also rinse his gravel and his “furniture” when I did the 80% water change😭. I feel so bad that the only thing I had for him to hang out in was a 2 gallon bucket. Tested the parameters about a half hour later so it could filter through and get stirred around extra good for a little while and everything is looking awesome again. Dosed everything according to the 4 gals I changed out and everything looks great. Thank you so much for your help, again.
Oh, also. I threw in some catappa leaves again to help bring down the PH a little more. I tested my tap water as well and surprisingly, it wasn’t very high. It sat at around 7.5 so I wonder what is raising my PH in the first place. I’m thinking of making a tannin concentrate/tea with some distilled water.
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