My male betta

Question
I have a male betta, 3 years old this month. About 2 or 3 days ago I noticed he didn't want to eat much. I decided to do a 50% water change and when I filled the tank back up he began to get jumpy(as a fish normally does when you add water or something)and I filled it to high and he jumped out. I didn't notice he was out until about 10-15 seconds later and I picked him up and put him back in. Well then he quit eating and now at random times he becomes VERY jumpy and bounces off the walls of his tank, just at random times, sometimes he acts just fine. Most of the time now he just sits at the bottom, he does swim around some, but very little. I think he might have lost a little color in his fins and he hasn't been eating AT ALL. I tried the feeding him the inside of a pea but he ignored, so I have been trying the epsom salt bath to try to relieve any constipation(if that is even the case. i wanted to be safe than sorry so I went ahead and gave him a salt bath).He jumped out one more time after that when he was acting all scared and jumpy. I am currently giving him a quick second salt bath in the epsom salt now and i have been keeping his water from 75-85 degrees (F). I haven't changed his tank environment any but i did begin, before all of this occurred, to feed him 3 pellets 3 times a day instead of just 2. I don't know if this affected him any. If he does start to eat again I am going to give him a better variet diet, but I was just wondering why he is so jumpy now and doesn't eat. Sorry this is such a long letter, but please help if you can. Thanks very much, Zane

Answer
Hi Zane,
If your fish is jumping out of the tank there is something wrong with your water quality. Ph shock could have also caused your betta to behave this way. Im assuming you have a small tank for a betta and a 50% water change is a little too much for a tank that size. You dont want to remove any beneficial bacteria. Try to do no more than 30%. You can try feeding him shelled peas although if he is not eating try to keep water parameters in acceptable ranges. Test your water.

Regards,
Chloe.