betta water question

Question
Hi Chris! I have recently been emailing you, my betta did a sudden turn and abruptly stopped eating and not moving.  After one week and some Tetracycline, he has done almost a full recovery and is now actually swimming and eating. I did cut his food back and do 2 pellets in moring, one in afternoon, two again at night.  Anyhow, he is in a 2.5 gallon tank, no filter so I do 100% water changes weekly. Now I am curious about this, b/c I want to have his life as stress free as possible from here on out to cut back on more illness. His tank is 81, I always do 3 day old water plus conditioner and salt.  But I do catch him in a net and have him sit in a bowl of his old water while cleaning the tank.  Is this water change too much for him to handle?"  I keep reading now to do not do complete changes, but how do I then clean the bottom?  I am wondering if after 7 months of weekly full changes, it took its toll?  On a side note, usually after the complete change, the next morning is a full bubble nest so that always had me thinking he loved it.  By end of week, no bubbles at all.  Day 1 of clean water- bubbles!  Should I cut back to weekly changes of just 1/3 of water? Is it even clean at that point though?  ARGH this is hard!  THANKS!  Alley

Answer
Hi Alley;

You are doing just fine. When I ran the pet store we changed our betta bowls every single day. It doesn't hurt them as long as the new water is the same temperature as the old and you use a water conditioner. We had the healthiest bettas in town.

Without a filter in his tank he definitely needs a weekly 100% change. A bubble nest the next morning is a sign that he likes it for sure. Since he seems to be stressed by the time you do change it, he may need an extra partial water change every week. You could scoop or siphon out part of his water in the middle of the week to help get him through until the end of the week. Or, just change all of his water twice a week.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins