Unsure if my betta is sick... Please help!

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

First of all I really need some help and truly do appreciate any insight into this that you can offer. I am absolutely at my wit's end as to what to do. So, here's the situation I purchased a male betta approximately one month ago and had him housed in a small tank with a tetra whisper filter and a mini heater set at 80 degrees. When I first got him I had to be careful not to overfeed him as he took to the mini pellets right away. He has always had silver markings around his gills and underneath his chin. A few weeks after I got him, I wondered if I was imagining that his silver markings were looking more pronounced. He began to become inactive and stopped eating. Then I noticed that down the side of his body he was developing a white/grey streak. I tread him for five days with Jungle Lifeguard thinking this was some type of a fungus or maybe an external parasite. The white/grey down the side of his body went away and he went back to eating although he wasn't eating nearly as much as before. My husband bought me a 29 gallon tank to move our platy fish into. So we moved the platties from out 10 gallon to the 29 gallon and completely cleaned the 10 gallon, even boiling the gravel to sterilize it. We moved the betta to the 10 gallon to give him more room, make cleaning easier, and also to keep the water (and him) healthier. Convinced that he was well (he was actively swimming again and eating again) we moved him into the 10 gallon. I have a heater with the temperature reading 80 degrees and just have a few fake plants in there right now until I can get everything switched over to live plants. I also have a sponge filter (with air pump to drive it) ordered and that will hopefully be here soon. So, this weekend when we moved him I conditioned the water, used API's stabilizer to help avoid new tank syndrome, and used a PH conditioner for the water as well. It usually lowers the water PH a little too much though so I try to use a little less than what the directions call for. I believe it was reading around 6.8 when I checked it this weekend before I moved my betta. This is the same routine that I was doing with my betta in his small tank. He ate a little when I first moved him to the new tank but has since stopped. I was wondering if it was stress or just plain picky eating habits so yesterday I bought him what I believe to be some higher quality food than what I had initially purchased. He also appeared to have been having a hard time with the mini pellets so I switched over to flakes. He completely ignored the flakes as he has the pellets, freeze dried bloodworms, and freeze dried brine shrimp. He has been completely ignoring food for about three days now. He was eating like a pig before getting sick then afterwards was eating some and I thought quickly recovering, but now has gone to eating nothing. I thought he might be constipated but I see no signs of bloat, no signs of swelling, etc... in fact it's the exact opposite, his stomach appears to be getting smaller. He has also stopped building a bubble nest - whereas in the small tank (and I think it way too small for a betta - one and a half gallons) he was obsessed with building a bubble nest. Instead he's started chasing his reflection up and down the length of the 10 gallon aquarium and basically fighting his reflection in the corner so no lethargy and no rapid breathing or problems breathing. Even though he's been chasing his reflection I've noticed that he's stopped "bowing up" at himself and at us. He's keeping his long flowing fins in check rather than puffing them out. He also used to flare his gills out but he has not been doing this either. I've questioned whether he was going after his reflection or trying to rub himself against the glass but he appears to not be touching the glass and he is definitely not rubbing himself against the fake plants or the gravel. I can find no signs of ick, no white/grey patches, etc... He seems to have a texture to his head but they do not appear to be holes or indentations but raised - this may be his normal texture - he's been like this since we've had him and he's always had the silver around the gills and under his chin. The light in the small tank was LED. The light in the 10 gallon is just a regular plain jane type of lighting. We also held the florescent lighting strip that goes with the 29 gallon over the tank. His coloring seems to have changed from how it appeared in the small tank. My husband said it's the lighting but began having doubts when he saw that under the plain light bulb from the 10 gallon and the florescent he looked the same. His color was blue with some greenish coloring mixed in. Now his body appears bluish/purple with a wide brownish/red streak running the length of his body on the lower bottom half of his body. After photo comparison I can say it is not red streaking as appears in ammonia poising and after doing an ammonia test (using an API liquid test kit) last night I had a 0 ammonia reading. What in the world is going here? Please help I am clueless.

ANSWER: Natalie,

 It is good that you moved him, and I thinking the heater might not be working right. Do you have a thermometer that goes into the tank to see just how warm the water is? In the smaller tanks, there really is no heater that will keep the water at the right temperature. If you are using the same heater in the 10 gallon, I would get a heat checker. They have the kind that suctions to the inside of the tank, or the kind that sticks to the outside. It is very important that the temperature is a constant 80 degrees. Fluctuations in the temperature will cause stress which leads to illness. When you are testing the water, are you testing for nitrites and nitrates too? These are also very important and need to be tested for as well as ammonia. As for the "flaring" it is common for the males to flare at their reflection, but not good if they continually flare. Him not doing it now is ok. He has learned the reflection can't get him. Have you checked him for velvet? Take a flashlight and shine it on him. Does he have a golden/copper look? Like someone dropped copper powder on him. Any time you add a filter to a tank, you have to cycle it before you add the fish. If he is going to be the only fish in that tank, I would not use a filter. Sponge filters are ok, and I only use them in my fry tanks, but Betta's really do not need them. They have an organ called a Labyrinth, that allows them to come to the surface to get air. Males have very long flowing tails and fins, which make them slow swimmers, adding a filter just adds stress. If you had a filter in the tank, either one, and put him in right away, he could have suffered from the first of two bacteria blooms. I always advise people to cycle the tank, which takes about 6 weeks, before adding any fish. The tank goes through too many changes before its ready to go, and just stresses fish. Also, moving them to clean tanks, or from one tank to another, can stress them a little. When my males start to act different, the first thing I check is the temperature of the water. I know I have said this a few times, but it is one of the most important things for a Betta, after all they are tropical. When the water gets too cold, or is fluctuating, they will become lethargic and will stop swimming, eating, even building bubble nests. When the males do not make them any more, that is their way of telling you something is wrong. Another thing that can bother them is using things in the water that they don't need.  For example the API's stabilizer and the PH conditioner. It is better to have the Ph stable than to have it jumping around. Most fish will adapt to the higher Ph a lot easier that having it go up and down. You can try adding some aquarium salt to his water and see if that perks him up. The ratio is 1 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water or 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. Just remember, he is tropical not salt water so you do not want to add too much. When mine are sick, I replace the water removed during the weekly water change and replace the water with the salt water. Some people say that it is ok to keep salt in the Betta's water all the time, and you can certainly do this, but I only use salt for treatment. Salt also does not evaporate, so you will have to keep an eye on that. Let me know what the actual water temperature is.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I really do appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. I actually was able to find an adjustable mini heater (not the awful presets that do not work at all) that works. It is an Elite mini-heater and I bought it off of Amazon. Elite does make a mini submersible but this one hangs on the back. The fully submersible one was too long for the small tank. It makes a funny noise but he absolutely was in love with that heater. He was building his bubble nests around it and kept trying to wrap himself around it. I think he was having a love affair with it - LOL. But this heater is way too small for the ten gallon. I have two heaters in the ten gallon and both are thermostatically controlled and both set at 80 degrees. They were the same heaters that I had with the Platties I just wiped them down and rinsed them off with hot water really well. They are both working fine and the thermometer is reading a steady and consistent 80 degrees. In the little tank I had a suction cup thermometer on the front of the tank and checked it daily. It stayed at a consistent 80 degrees. He was fine in the small tank until the white/grey discoloration showed up on his side. When I treated with the Jungle lifeguard it did go away and he started acting normally then after the move stopped eating and stopped building bubble nests. There was a filter in the small tank but a tiny one that didn't cause really any kind of resistance to his swimming and he really seemed to enjoy that tank. I know it's a mental thing but I'm having a hard time accepting a tank with no filter and would feel much better having one in there (yes I wash my hands way too much#. He's in the ten gallon now and I don't want to move him again. Is there anyway that I can introduce the sponge filter without making him sick or disrupting him? This may sound absolutely nuts but is there anyway that I can cycle ten gallons worth of water using the filter but in a different container and then swap out the water for the water in the Betta tank or is that just plain nutty and too much of a change/stress? I didn't check for nitrites/nitrates last night just the ammonia but those tests are in the kit and I have checked them in the past. I thought though that with new water that those wouldn't be present? I mean I thought those had to build up in a cycled tank sort of situation? I was changing out the small tank 50% once a week and 100% once a week when he was in there. Could they have been present in there? #By the way I am keeping the small tank just to use as a little hospital tank just in case I have to quarantine a fish for a short period of time to treat it.) I am concerned with what you said about the PH and I am wondering if this is partly the problem. Our PH runs high here and we have hard water. I'm talking about around an 8 or slightly higher like an 8.2 to an 8.6 - to be honest I hate the PH chemicals, hate it. It looks like slime and leaves an odd residue in the water - h-a-t-e it so if I could get away from it, so much the better. The stabilizer I was just using when doing 100% water changes. I should stop this then with the betta but with the platties as well?  Sorry, back to the PH how do I get him used to this high of a PH? Any suggestions are welcome!!!
Also, my husband got him to eat 3 of the Tetra mini pellets tonight but he wouldn't touch the Omega One betta flakes - not that I really care what he's decided to eat so long as he's eating again. So, thankfully he is eating for the time being anyway. I would ultimately like to put a divider in and another betta on the other side and plant the tank with bamboo. In the meantime I am going to add a little salt but I really want to know first your thoughts on what to do about the PH. Also how long do you recommend keeping the salt in the water? Also, I am concerned about maybe putting him on a weekly feeding schedule that involves a day of fasting and a weekly pea. Is this necessary/advised? I've seen some who have commented that it's like giving a betta a laxative and others who equate it to a bran muffin - what's the real story on this? Thank you again so much and I'm so sorry for the lengthy entries :)

Answer
Natalie,
The reason he built the nests at the heater and wrapped himself around it is because it is the warmest part of the tank. The further away from the heater, the cooler the water. With having 2 heaters, make sure they are on opposite sides of the tank to ensure his water stays at 80. I would also add the thermometers as far away from the heaters as you can. This way you get a true reading. A lot of people have issues with no filter and that is normal. As long as the filter's current is not too strong. In my fish room, there are 20 aquariums and only the 4 (the fry tanks) have filters. Everyone else is filter free. It's just a preference things. The best way to cycle a filter is in the tank it will be used in. What I would do, is let the filter media, in this case the sponge, float around in the tank for a few days, and then set it up. You will still need to check the water perimeters everyday to make sure everything is ok. At any given time, in the set up of a tank, nitrites and nitrates can be present. That is why it is very important to check for them all. Too many water changes can also be a bad thing. In the smaller tank, 25% weekly water changes are normal with a 100% change once a month, or sooner depending on the water readings. As for the Ph, the levels are not as important as keeping the levels constant. Your Betta will adjust to the Ph levels as long as they do not get to far off. There are products on the market that will either raise the Ph or lower it, and keep it at a certain level. The product is called, Ph up and Ph down. I believe API makes it. I am told it works very well. I would also suggest not feeding him the flake food. I wish that no company makes them because they are not good for them. I would just feed him the pellet food. Many experts have different ideas about salt. Some say you should add it to the tank all the time, and others, like myself, say it should only be used when needed. I do not like using medication in my tanks, so I only use salt when needed. If you just want to keep it in the water until he is better, than I would use the salt for a couple of weeks and then slowly remove it. You can also use it all the time, but you have to remember, that salt does not evaporate and having too much in the water is not good. All my Betta's are fasted one day a week and then fed the pea the following day. This helps prevent constipation, and swim bladder disease. I have been raising and breeding them for over 30 years and I have not had either problem with any of my fish.