betta maybe sick??

Question
Hi, I've had a betta now for about 2 months.  The last couple of days I've noticed that he is not happy.  Before he would swim back and forth, run up when ever he saw me, blow lots of bubbles but now he just goes into the big sea shell that I have in the tank and won't move.  Can you please help.  I'm very worried he may be sick.  

Answer
Hi Angela;

It's possible he has a swim bladder problem. If you can't see any other signs of illness and he seems to have trouble staying afloat, that's probably what's going on. Here is a web page about it;

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/31/338/

If he is able to swim but just hides a lot, maybe he is constipated or the water isn't warm enough? Does his belly look kind of big? Is the water temperature at least 76f all the time? Does his tank get cleaned weekly? Sometimes dirty water causes them to just feel sick. Let me know...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins