MY FISHS BREATHING IS SCARING ME

Question
I just got my beta and a snail on saturday ever since i put him in hiz gallon tank he has been acting weird.
He has not eaten(at least i have not seen him eat) an he stays at the surface of the tank and sometimes just floats around. I look at him closer and i noticed that his breathin is slow and his gills open so big it looks like he is about to fight( not quite there though). I am really worried about him and i want to know what i can do or if this is normal. I have a snail in there with him which sometimes he cuddles up by. Is he ok and what can i do? I want to know for sure. I have plants and rocks in there also.


Answer
Hi Lizzy,
Firstly, Bettas like bigger tanks, so if you could upgrade to a 5 Gallon in the next couple of months that would be good.
Are there any other fish in the tank? If so, what are they? Other Bettas, Guppies, Platies or Mollies are rarely compatible as male Bettas are very territorial and aggressive. They are not good community fish.
How slow is his breathing? If it is less than once a second I would be worried. Over the next few days, look closely at his gills. If they go red, I would be worrying about bacterial infections or ammonia poisoning. I assume the tank has not been appropriately cycled? If not, there will probably be levels of ammonia and nitrite in the tank, which are both extremely poisonous. I would buy a test kit for ammonia, and test the tank water. If it is over 0.0, do 20 percent water changes daily for a week or so.
Feed him a variety of food including bloodworm, brineshrimp, daphnia as well as their normal food.

I hope he will be ok.
Best wishes,
Kathryn