Betta fish has white belly and is FREAKING OUT

[JMey322]

I got a betta fish just over a week ago. I put him in his 1 gallon tank and for the first week he was awesome. He ate regularly, occasionally attacked the mirror but mostly just swam around. He even sometimes played "hide and seek" with me when I'd go talk to him by the tank.

I cleaned his tank yesterday. The fish guy I bought him from told me since it was so small to clean the whole thing about once a week. So I did. I filled it up with water, put the drops in it to make the water safe, let it sit so the water could get to room temperature, then I put the little guy in.

Now when he was in the little bowl when I was cleaning his tank, he was freaking out. He would not stop swimming crazy. I figured he was just scared. So I put him in his tank as soon as I thought it was okay.

Fairly soon he got veeeeery lethargic. He would sit on the bottom of the tank and not move. I thought he was dead a whole bunch of times. He wouldn't even move when I moved the tank around. Then he would freak out and swim to the top for air and swim crazily around the cage. Then he would stop and float at the top, not moving. This happened all day.

Today he swims around more instead of just floating, he still has a white belly, and he ate his food but really freaks out whenever I go slightly in the direction of the tank. He's usually such a chill swimmer, it scares me he might hurt himself. I think he's going crazy! And I don't know what is up with the white belly.

Someone please help!

 

[ishar]

I am sorry I am not of too much help, but one detail I find might be important: did you decholirinate the water in the bowl you put him in while changing all of the water?

Also, while I am not very experienced on small tanks or cycling a tank, I am pretty sure that changing out all of the water does a lot more harm then good to the cycling process. Hopefully someone else can come here and give you some better details though.

 

[Lotus]

What's your room temperature? Bettas do best at an even temperature of 78 to 80F. You may need to get a heater if it's cooler than this in the house.

 

[JMey322]

I try to keep my room fairly warm but a heater isn't a bad idea. Would it being cold make them go into a semi-hibernation state? That's what it seemed like the other day when he would just sit there at the bottom.

I have a light that's on in the tank that the guy said would do a good job of keeping the water warm but it might only keep the very top warm.

I used the water from the tank so it was already dechlorinated.

What kind of heater should I get? If I go to a fish store, would they tell me?

 

[JMey322]

what about the white belly?

 

[Lotus]

This site has good information on caring for bettas: Welcome To BettaTalk.com Everything from the kind of tank to water changes, etc.

Your fish store should have heaters for small tanks. You should also get a thermometer so you can tell what temperature the tank water is. While the temperature during the day may be fine, if the room drops into the low 60s at night, it could be harmful to him.

The white belly is probably a sign of stress.

 

[Queen_of_Red_Lions]

Bettas differ so much between each other in personality that I find it is hard to stereotype them or expect how they will behave. I've had lots of bettas my whole life- Some that lived in bowls, some in big tanks, little tanks, you name it. If you have only had him for a few weeks, you may just be seeing the entire spectrum of his behavior. I have a betta right now who is living in a bowl because he was being a huge jerk in my twenty gallon, and he always comes right up to see me whenever I feed him and is generally nice. However, when I first got him, he lived in the same bowl and wouldn't eat, wouldn't swim much, mostly just hid in his little castle. I find that if bettas are having odd behavioral problems, or even if they're not, it really enriches their lives to put them in a tank of easy going community fish. I did that for mine and it only took him about a week to start eating and generally being active. If this is an option for you, I would definitely try it, because contrary to what everyone says, bettas almost always make great community fish (aside from this particular one) and from my experience they seem to completely ignore fish smaller than themselves. Also if this is an option for you, I would be careful if you have other fish with long fins, because bettas can become jerks out of mistaken identity. As for him freaking out, he is most likely just stressed out, and it will do him no good if you're moving the tank around or otherwise poking about until he chills out. I don't think changing all of the water in the tank will hurt, that is what I have always done, especially since it is such a small tank, the remaining water will mostly be stagnant anyways.

So remember, some bettas are naturally active, some are jerks, some are super sweet and smart, and some, like mine, are just plain apathetic and lazy. I wouldn't worry much, but if you have something like a 1.5 gallon, one or two very small fish, like guppies or minnows, should suffice as tank mates and generally even him out. Good luck!

 

[xyzmeli]

my male betta,"Fishy" did the same thing when i change his water the first time, i thing because i put him in a smaller container, but when i did it the next day, he stay still,like waiting for me to put it again in the big one.
About the white belly i dont know, because my Fishy have all kind of colors minus white, lol
feed him with life food so he could enhanced his colors.
Good luck.

 

[PerenGee]

What do you mean by white belly? If the belly is enlarged also then it might be what happened to our betta a while ago. After moving him to a new apartment he got really stressed out and got really bloated. His belly was so enlarged that it turned white and he couldn't swim properly. It returned to normal after a few days. It happened again after another move. We figure it's the stress and the movement and now we take great care to make sure he doesn't slosh around when being moved.

I would say try not to stress him out and maybe feed him sparingly until he's back to normal.

 

[kayliwolf76]

when we moved my betta got cold and sat on the bottom of his tank...i dumped him in my peaceful ten and he is great.