Betta sick

[mtnmonster]

Last night I noticed my betta seemed to act a little different.  Kinda lethargic.  Tonight I came home and thought he was dead. Very lethargic and floating but occasionally swims behind some plants. He looks to be struggling a bit when swimming. I decided not to feed tonight because his belly looks slightly bloated.  All water parameters seem fine and normal but I have a small nitrite spike. Even my neon tetras are a little shy but other than that seem fine. The kulhi loach is hiding like normal so I really can't tell with it. I did notice a slight film on the water. Water charge day was supposed to be tomorrow, but I'm going to do a smaller one tonight. Don't want to do too much to cause anymore stress. Water temp is at 78 degrees. 

The bettas color and fins look healthy.  But with the inactive behavior and floating (mostly his right side up) im thinking swimbladder? I've never seen this with a betta. I usually feed 2 days/ fast 1 because the betta gorges on not only his pellets but the tropical  flakes i feed the neon. I've tried feeding him his food first to make him not hungry when I feed the rest but it doesn't  work. He's a pig. 

I don't think its the nitrite spike because I've dealt with those many times in the past and never had much negative impact on the fish. 

 

I tried to get the best pics I could but he didn't want to cooperate and come out of hiding.

 

[quikv6]

In my opinion, I always try to address any known problems first, before experimenting or speculating with anything else. You didn't mention the level of nitrite, but any level could be considered a known problem. I would partial water change to dilute the nitrite, and then address why it happened.

In the interim, a bit of salt can help, and prime can help detox any remaining, though that is subject to debate.

[mtnmonster]

On 10/23/2021 at 8:48 PM, quikv6 said:

In my opinion, I always try to address any known problems first, before experimenting or speculating with anything else. You didn't mention the level of nitrite, but any level could be considered a known problem. I would partial water change to dilute the nitrite, and then address why it happened.

In the interim, a bit of salt can help, and prime can help detox any remaining, though that is subject to debate.

Thanks for the input. I'm doing water changes and added some salt that night. The betta is doing much better. Nitrites was showing 1ppm and unfortunately has went up to 5ppm. No ammonia.  Nitrates around 40 now. Just doing water changes to try to keep things down until it gets converted. But fish seem to be doing great even though they have been fasting for 3 days now. I'm going to feed them tomorrow before the next water change . I think I may have been over feeding a little. Still trying to figure out how to feed so they all get something without feeding too much. 

[Colu]

As well as the daily water changes I would add prime or Fritz complete to detoxify any nitrites every 24 hr till you get a reading of zero