Mooch is in bad shape

[Suda Nim]

I came back from vacation to find Mooch in very bad shape. He was lying on the bottom, nose down in the gravel, with his body arched. His fins are clamped.

He's since straightened out his body, and is lying flat and upright on the bottom. While he was arched, his scales looked a bit pineconed, but now that he's straight, they look OK, so I wonder if that's just geometry at work, not dropsy.

I tested parameters:

Temp 76
pH 8
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0

I took out 1/3 of the coral chips in the filter (for pH) and did a 50% water change. The gravel vacuuming revealed a moderate amount of uneaten food. He swam around a bit during the water change, but lethargically.

Background of the tank: it's been going through a mini-cycle with pH getting very low, so I'd been testing parameters stringently and added coral to the filter.

My coworkers left the following care record:

temp pH Amo Trite Trate Water change
Tue: 73 7.0 .25 0 0 2 gal (50%)
Wed: 75 7.0 .25 0 0 2 gal (50%)
Thu: No parameters tested, but he was fed
Fri : 75 7.0 .25 0 0 2 gal (50%)
Sat-Mon: labor day weekend - no care
Tue: 75 7.2 0 0 0 1 gal (25%)
Wed: 75 7.2 0 0 0
Today: 76 8 .25 0 0 2 gal

On coworker reported that on Tuesday he was lively and ate fine. Wednesday, he was lethargic and stayed hidden under the ornament. He did not respond to waving the food jar, or visits from the tape dispenser.

In the 10 minutes it took me to type this, Mooch has moved next to a plant and is still fin-clamped and lurking.

Help?

[Suda Nim]

More info: I notice that he's waving his right pectoral fin just fine, but his his left one is hanging at his side.

[Indian Woods Angels]

That trace of ammonia is affecting him. The why it is there at all might lead you to understand the problem. Perhaps there was too much feeding going on. If you can you should try to remove the ammonia problem doing a water change using well aged or properly treated water. 76F is a tad cool for a Betta as well. They do better near 80 or over. If the place he is kept is conditioned air he maybe getting a bit of a chill in his labyrinth gland from this air. In the native environs these guys live in hot wet jungle low land riverine systems. Perhaps a cover to contain some moisture would help so long as the tank has an air source.

[Cliff]

In addition to the above comments, I would think the crushed coral in you tank is effecting the pH which would explain why it slowly changed through out the week. The changing pH would also add to his stress and the 0.8 increase in the ph from yesterday to today is a very large one.

I would suggest smaller daily water changes for a while to limit pH swings

Do you really need to use crushed coral in your set-up ? What is the pH of your water supply and is it stable ?

[Suda Nim]

The tap water here is 8-ish (north Texas; hard limestoney water). For some reason, once it's in the tank it plummets to <6. The coral is there to try to bring it to 7ish.

Another co-worker, who is very fish experienced (but wasn't in when the problems started yesterday) looked over Mooch with me and recommended that I add a little salt and turn out the light. I added 1 tsp salt, and now it's lights out.

We poked Mooch to see how he's moving and to get a better look - his skin and scales look fine - smooth, no spots or parasites. Eyes are not bulging.

Also, I explained to the person who was testing the parameters that if the pH got offscale with the first solution, she needs to run a high pH sample, and I don't think she did that. So I mistrust her "7.2" readings.

[Indian Woods Angels]

The building you are in must be processing the water to make it a higher quality for drinking. They must be stripping it of minerals. Possibly running it through an RO system. This PH bouncing is not a good thing to do. You may have to age the water in a container with something to stabilize your water so you are not bouncing your PH. Your local aquatic shop will have more specific knowledge of the local waters you are dealing with. They might be a good place to try to seek good information regarding the situation.

[Suda Nim]

You may have to age the water in a container with something to stabilize your water so you are not bouncing your PH.

How do you stabilize water?

[Suda Nim]

This is poor Moochie-Moo at the end of a hard day:

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz144/Packie_Rattie/Fishtank/724FBB73-DBA0-4E2B-8F5D-DCA1C233E24D-3294-0000033901FDCE60.jpg

He swam freely to the surface once in mid-afternoon, then started hiding on TOP of the ornament, which I think is a slight improvement over hiding at the bottom of the tank.

I haven't tried feeding him, since he's so inert. Poor guy.

[Azurescriber]

Poor thing!! I hope he recovers, he's a beautiful fish.

[Indian Woods Angels]

You want to stabilize your water to whatever the situation your water conditions call for outside of the aquarium. You match the water you are intending to add to the tank water and let it sit for a period of time to see if the readings of PH etc are going to remain stable. Not knowing exactly what you have it can be difficult to describe the exact needs. You also need to learn a bit about monitoring it to respond to conditions. For this reason your local aquatic shop is an excellent resource for information.

[Suda Nim]

Morning report:

Before I left last night I removed the coral and bumped up the heater setting (gingerly; it's a stiff dial and I didn't want to overheat).

He's back on the bottom of the tank, under a plant. Breathing is slow and steady. Not interested in outside activity. I haven't fed him.

Parameters:
76 degrees
pH 7.4
Ammo: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

I'll do a 1-gallon (25%) change with bottled water (Ozarka brand).

[Suda Nim]

Crisis seems to be over! He's swimming around, alert, color back, and eating!

Temp 76
pH 7.0
Ammo <0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0