betta troubles

Question
I don't see anything wrong with my beta other than it keeps twitching all over the place and he is laying around more then he use to. I've been reading up on everything possible on line. The only thing I'm not sure of is the water temp. Could this alone cause my Beta (Oliver) to twitch?
I don't want things to get worse.
Andrea

Answer
I'd suggest getting a heater and setting the temp 70-75 degrees if its not already. Heat can really help in addition to medication.

The twitching could be due to a number of causes. I'd suggest checking him over to see if he has parasites.

External parasites are very easy to spot, you'll probably see them hanging off your fish, but internal ones are very had to diagnose. Fish can exhibit many unusual behaviors when they are infected with internal parasites, twitching is one of them. Hex-a-mit it an amazing internal parasite medication, so is clout. If you can't find them or any parasitic medications at your local pet store, this website has an amazing amount of medication for sale. http://www.mops.ca/

Ick is probably the most noticeable, as your Beta will have little white spots on his body. Its very easy to treat ick, your local pet store will have an abundance of medication for this as it is very common fish disease.

Velvet is also pretty easy to catch, shine a light on your fish and see if he has a gold or rust colored shimmer. If he has velvet you are going to need to sanitize everything in his tank by rinsing it out with boiling water and letting it soak, especially the gravel. Look for a product called Maracide at your pet store. Start treating him in a clean tank with new water.

I'll keep my fingers crossed!