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I'm worried my Betta might have fin rot and possibly a swim bladder issue - he's been resting like this a lot, as you can see in the picture. I know the picture quality isn't great, sorry about that. Does anyone have any advice? Would doing daily 75 percent water changes with gravel vac and adding aquarium salt for a few weeks help? Is there anything else I should try?

My tank is filtered and heated, 5 gallons, so I'm stumped as to what could be causing the problem.

To better understand what's going on with your Betta, could you tell me what your current ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are? How often do you typically do water changes, and what percentage of the tank do you replace each time?

How long have you had the Betta, and was the tank fully cycled before introducing him?

juicebox wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 3:18 am To better understand what's going on with your Betta, could you tell me what your current ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are? How often do you typically do water changes, and what percentage of the tank do you replace each time?

Ammonia is around 0.25, not quite at 0, and I'm guessing it's because I only do water changes about once a week, changing out roughly 30% of the water. Today's actually change day, so I'm hoping that'll help bring it back down. Does that sound like it could be contributing to my Betta's issues? What might be causing the ammonia levels to creep up like that?

Nitrite is 0, and Nitrate is about 10ppm.

bigtop wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 4:46 am How long have you had the Betta, and was the tank fully cycled before introducing him?

I've had him for about six months now, and I made sure to fully cycle the tank before introducing him. Over the past six months, I've actually moved him between two different tanks, but both were completely cycled to ensure his health and safety.

Here's a picture of the full tank if that helps with diagnosing the issue. I really appreciate the help in figuring out what's going on with my Betta - I've been doing a lot of research, but I'm still pretty new to all this.

Considering my tank's parameters and the issues my Betta's experiencing, I'm thinking of doing a 50% water change and adding some aquarium salt - maybe that'll help alleviate the fin rot and swim bladder issues.

I'm dealing with something similar and I'm pretty new to this too. I've got my Betta in with Harlequins, Neons, and Corys. I picked up the API Fin Rot medication and some aquarium salt, but I'm not sure where to start. Should I try the medication or the salt first? And if I do use one of them, can I just add it to the community tank? I don't have a separate hospital tank to quarantine him in.

FinFan wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 7:19 am Considering my tank's parameters and the issues my Betta's experiencing, I'm thinking of doing a 50% water change and adding some aquarium salt - maybe that'll help alleviate the fin rot and swim bladder issues.

I appreciate the advice, thanks. Should I do the 50% water change and add aquarium salt just once to see how it goes, or repeat it for a few days to ensure the issue is fully addressed?

I would do daily water changes since you're getting some ammonia readings and add the aquarium salt each time, just to be safe.