Betta help?

[Serra]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if anyone will see this, but I'll give it a try!
I'm currently having some issues with my male Plakat that is 10 months old.
I have a 20 liter tank, heated, with a 30cm pro z led light.
The tank used to be scaped but he began to look unwell. We have another empty tank so I had him in there for about a week and he got better. Basically I've been putting him back and forth between tanks until I ended up taking everything out and he had a bare bottom tank with some rocks anubias and moss. This has gone well for about a month but yesterday he appears for a better word, lethargic. He seems to be spending a lot of time towards the top of the tank.
This is becoming highly frustrating as I am more than happy to have a nice landscaped tank for him but he doesn't seem to like it.
The ph is around 7.2
27deg
All water tests have been very low as I give him a small amount of fresh waster daily. I've tried straight tap with Prime, RO with equilibriam and a mix of both. There are always IAL in the tank also.
Any thoughts/help/comments would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Serra
 

[OzShrimp]

Nothing stands out to me are you oxygenating the water?

[jc12]

54 minutes ago, Serra said:

The tank used to be scaped but he began to look unwell. We have another empty tank so I had him in there for about a week and he got better. Basically I've been putting him back and forth between tanks until I ended up taking everything out and he had a bare bottom tank with some rocks anubias and moss.

All water tests have been very low as I give him a small amount of fresh waster daily.
 

You mentioned a scaped tank. Do you use CO2 for plants when you had it scaped? Sometimes CO2 might either gas fish or induce PH swings if not set up properly.

You mentioned all water tests have been very low. Which parameters specifically? Ammonia and nitrite at low levels in a small tank could be toxic for fish.

Nothing else glaringly stands out other than the above questions and what OzShrimp has asked.

[Serra]

Thank you for your reply @OzShrimp

I'm not actually. Do you think a bubbler (or something else?) would be good to put in?

Thanks @jc12

Ammonia and nitrite are both 0, the nitrate was a *touch* off the normal yellow.

No c02 in this tank either :-/
PH has always been quite stable round 7.2...

 

Edited May 24, 2016 by Serra

[jc12]

Does the tank have a filter?

Is yes what type of filter? Is it generating a strong flow? Bettas are not strong swimmers and don't do well with strong water movement.

If no filter, then yes to an air bubbler to help water movement.

Bettas are air breathers and do not require well oxygenated water to survive.

Is it eating and pooping alright?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bill88]

I would definitely recommend a small bubble filter as mentioned above. In my experience with bettas, even though people say they don't need it, it helps!

 

Edited May 24, 2016 by Bill88
Edit because it didn't make sense lol

[Serra]

I did have a little internal filter until all of this started happening. So once I eliminated everything else, I ended up taking the filter out.
I put a bubbler in yesterday along with some IAL tea. He's not looking the best but seems to be hanging in there.
I appreciate everyone's responses x