Betta needs Help

Your right, I've only had him a year, but he could be older,
not much older I think since I got him from walmart and
I think they must have a connection straight to a breeder.
I didn't know they have such short lives, how long?
No signs of Dropsy
The dechlorinator is also a chloramine eliminator.
I thought that was the problem so I stopped it.
The temp is mid to high 70's, is that too high?
I thought these were tropical fish?
I will try a .05% salt solution.
(half the recommended for goldies)
I don't think he's bored, I have him next to another guy who's
doing great, once in a while I remove the cardboard between the
two tanks so they can show off/fight, but the lethargic guy is
barely putting up a fight anymore and sits on the bottom mostly.
I've been thinking about putting him in a breeding trap with my goldies,
but I thought they only like still water? Won't that disturb him too much?
Do they like high or low PH? ie: do I put him in my cichlid, or my goldy
tank?
Thanks...
....Kodiak

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....Kodiak
"Flash Wilson" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:07:36 -0400, Kodiak wrote:
Fish about 1 yr old, has become extremely lethargic.

Do you mean you have had him for one year? He was probably adult
when you got him, so it could be he is reaching the end of his
life.

Also in this hot weather mine don't do a lot. In fact I just
bought an apple snail as a companion for mine, which has livened
things up slightly - more action(!) So things have gone from
sluggish to merely lazy :-)

My old betta was actually happier without the disruption of water
changes, so I changed my regime to a 50-70% change once every
two weeks or so.

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest, so do you have any other
fish tanks? If you pop him in there in a breeding net cage (to
keep him separate) then he might perk up a bit at the new
surroundings. Be careful when catching - I'd actually use a
cup or jar rather than a net.

If he is actually ill (finrot etc) I would recommend meth blue
for a few days, as long as he is the only thing in the tank and
you don't have filter bacteria that you care about (presumably
not as you do so many water changes).

All these things helped mine as he got elderly. Of course YMMV.

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Flash Wilson http://www.gorge.org
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