New betta fish acting erratic

[Tam]

All right so to know the whole history of what's going on I have this post here that talks particularly at the end about what to do with my empty 10 gallon aquarium after having my betta die in it of some unknown illness, to sum it up I ultimately decided to let it sit for several months without an occupant - it's been empty since the beginning of november and my other fish who died of potentially the same illness but was in another tank died in january, so any further contamination from illness should have been at the least 4-5 months ago. I also actually swapped the tank itself out because it had a leak and I replaced the substrate, but I reused all the same hardscape plants and filter. I also treated the entire tank with maracyn a couple months back and have been making a catappa leaf tea and using it during my weekly water changes for any antibacterial/antifungal properties etc. 

Now onto my actual current problem, I finally took the plunge figuring the tank couldn't get any safer at this point and I just got a new betta on Tuesday the 9th of May so it hasn't been a full week yet as of making this post. He's a really beautiful blue alien betta, quite small so I'm assuming young?? I was actually planning on making an intro post for him on here so I could finally have a post that wasn't asking for help with a fish problem, but here we are again. Everything seemed fine for the first 2 days, he was warming up to me, got all his color back after the stress of the drive, was becoming more interactive. Then he just seemed to get kind of manic, like he just swims and swims and swims endlessly and reckless, particularly in a tight lap at the back of the tank, back and forth over and over, pushing against the glass. I thought maybe there was something off with the water parameters and he was trying to get away from it but when I tested there was 0ppm ammonia nitrite and nitrate, ph was between 7.8 - 8 which is what it usually is, kh was on the higher end of medium, I don't remember the exact numbers on the strip because this was a couple days ago, but basically they were all exactly the same way they always are when I check. I noticed in the evening that he looked all rough and scraped up, like maybe he got stuck somewhere and had to squeeze his way out, the only thing I could think of was that he squished himself between one of my seiryuu stone and the driftwood, so I just too the big seiryuu out of the tank entirely. Then the next morning, which was yesterday, I did about a 40% water change just in case there's something I can't test for that's setting him off, I thought maybe one of the things I add for my plants or something even though I think I underdose those if anything. He was really interactive while I did the water change and very curious about what I was doing, no problem with my hand in the tank, and then afterwards he seemed to be calmer to me. I didn't put in the catappa tea right away because I wanted it to steep for longer, and I didn't put in any additives for the plants, just the water conditioner. Then in the late afternoon I put in the catappa tea along with the leaves hoping to really up the tannins, and I'm not sure if I'm reading into it or not but it seemed after that he started acting more erratic again but I don't know why that would cause it?? Yesterday evening when I got up to check on him after I had dinner he was doing those really tight fast laps in the back of the tank over and over not slowing down or stopping and he was so single-minded about it I couldn't even get his attention. His gills were working hard and as I watched him I saw him bump into a little branch from my driftwood that touched the back of the tank like 4-5 different times, he wasn't watching where he was going and I was afraid he was going to keep hurting himself, so I set up my 3 gallon temp tank and scooped him up in a cup and put him in there, thinking I just needed to get him out of the 10 gallon if there's something going on with it. Moving him immediately made him start losing his color, it seems wild type bettas show there stress in their coloring very easily. The problem is after moving him it hasn't seemed to help, he still swims around like crazy pushing against the walls and never seemed to stop much or slow down. I honestly don't know if he ever rests. I've tried to feed him a bit but he's been kind of difficult to feed from the beginning, he tends to spit things out, eat it again, spit it out, etc. I've gotten him to actually ingest a few pellets but not many. So BASICALLY, I have no idea what to do with him now??? If his behaviour is the same both in the 10 gallon and in the temporary tank should I just put him back in the 10 gallon where he'll at least be less stressed? But there is still more he can bump into in there. I have a 7.5 gallon cube I'm going to set up ASAP and put him in there but it's still going to be a few days at least. I'll do another water change on the 10 gallon just in case it was the tea somehow, I'll actually probably do another water change today and then again tomorrow, like maybe the leaves were contaminated with something?? I need advice because I'm totally at a loss for what to do! I thought that if there was some pathogen in there still lurking from the previous fish that it would take a while for it to actually affect a new fish, and then I knew what signs and behaviors to look out for but neither of my other bettas ever acted like this. I've got a couple photos of what he looks like after getting roughed up.

He seems to have lost a scale, and it looks almost like he "scratched his paint" though the silver scratches have faded completely now, his scales still look roughened up on his head. I don't know if there anything I should treat him with?? Maybe just aquarium salt? I don't want to jump the gun and just start dumping meds on this fish, and I'd really like to move him around as little as possible because it stresses him out so much which can make him more susceptible to illness too, and it's honestly alarming to see him immediately go pale and show his stress stripes, even when I'm anticipating it and know the cause. I think he's mostly got his color back as of this morning, and maybe seems a little less manic but I'm not sure. I didn't mean for this to get so long so if anyone has actually managed to read through all this I'm hoping for some advice!! Thanks in advance, at some point I'd really like to not have to post about fish problems on here 😓

Here's a picture of his other side from before whatever he did to himself in the previous photos, but I unfortunately don't have one from the same side. You can see he a had little silver scratches here too but those seem to fade pretty quickly. I've never had a wild type betta before so I don't know what to expect from them, I didn't think it would be all that different?? His name is Phthalo by the way, after the shade of blue.

Update: I just checked him again immediately after making this point and he's still breathing hard and looking pale particularly along his body, he definitely looks very stressed but I don't think he likes being in the bare and open aquarium. I really can't understand why he's so frantic! I'm afraid he's going to swim himself to death.

Edited May 14 by Tam

[Colu]

It's possible your water company add more chlorine or chloramines to your water so  you could have under dosed your water dechlorinator what I would do is add an extra air stone to increase levels of desloved oxygen holed off on the water change add a double dose of prime and a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons and monitor for the next 24hr then give use an  update @Tam

[Tam]

@Colu I'm actually on well water so I don't have any chlorine, I've just always used a conditioner as a just in case sort of thing. Right now I'm thinking of doing another water change on the 10 gallon and putting him back in because his behaviour hasn't improved in the temporary tank and it's just really stressing him out to be in a bare tank like that. My 10 gallon is heavily planted and I know aquarium salt isn't great for plants, is there an amount that would be safe that could still be helpful? And does it hurt snails?

[Colu]

1 table spoon for 10 gallons won't harm your plants it should be fine for your snails at that level maybe he's stressed that's why your seeing this behaviour if your lights are adjustable I would turn down the light intensity for a couple of days see if that helps 

 

 

[Tam]

@colu Okay, I'll add the salt and keep down the lights, I was thinking that myself, I just don't know what would've stressed him out so abruptly when nothing had changed and he'd been settling in well and I'm worried about him hurting himself. I don't really know what else to do but put him back in the 10 gallon and watch and wait. I'll post back here if anything changes.

[Stef]

Is he possibly reacting to his own reflection on the glass?

[Tam]

You nailed it @Stef - I've actually been meaning to update this post but I've been so busy. It took me a couple of days to figure this out because I've never seen a betta be so insane about glass surfing. My previous betta Jupiter did it a bit when I first got him, but never so single-mindedly that I couldn't get his attention long enough to feed him and certainly never to the extent of hurting himself. Phthalo swims himself ragged and has genuinely injured himself. I've taken out all of the hardscape and he's still managed to lose several more scales and tear his fins. I have no idea what he's even torn them on because there's just plants in there, I can only think that he's damaging them from overuse?? I don't know what to do for this fish, I feel like he's probably not going to live very long at this rate. I'm going to be keeping a low level of aquarium salt in the tank as well as the catappa leaves in the hopes it helps with healing any injuries and preventing infection/illness, but aside from that I don't know what to do that I haven't already done. I took the black background off of my tank thinking it was making the back of the glass more reflective but nothing I do seems to have any impact, I can't exactly remove the reflections, it's glass!! Getting this fish has been a total nightmare and taken all the joy out of getting a new fish, especially considered how long I built up the anticipation. I know bettas are aggressive fish but I've never seen one this insanely aggressive before, he's like a total nutcase. I've never heard of someone having a fish like this. I've had him for about a week and a half and in the last couple days he's done the glass surfing sliiiightly less, and since the daphnia I ordered finally got delivered I can actually get his attention pretty easily because he LOVES them. He's started building a bubble nest in one corner of the tank which absolutely baffles me.

I took a few videos to show the shape he's in, the first two are from 2 days ago and the 3rd is from yesterday.

You can see in the first two videos that he's completely torn his dorsal fin, and his fins in general are looking pretty tattered. In the 3rd video his dorsal fin seems to have fused or is holding together more, I haven't seen the split since the day it happened. I don't know how quickly their fins can heal, but I'm assuming it isn't actually reconnected. You can also see a brief glimpse of the beginnings of his bubble nest at the end of the 3rd video, which he's been working on since then. It's actually a relief seeing him add to it because at least for a moment he's holding more still and not hurting himself.

If anyone has any wisdom to share on what the heck to do for this fish I'd love to hear it, as it is I'm really at a loss. I've kept the lights dimmed and even completely off for a couple days but it didn't actually impact his behavior at all, and I can't just never have the light on in the tank because of the plants. As soon as I can I'm going to order some more stems plants to really pack the back and sides of the tank with to try to block some of the reflections, since he seems to do it slightly less on the left side of my tank which is the most heavily planted, but that's not actually going to make him magically stop.