MrsRiot12

Test your water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates and see if the water quality is poor. You shouldn't ever be doing 100% water changes. You want beneficial bacteria in the tank. Do you change your filters out at all? What is the temperature of the water?

Honestly, most fin rot can be treated with warm clean water. Since he's new, I'd wait a bit and see if he gets better naturally, especially if he was stuck in a cup in his own waste for a while. You can add indian almond leaves and stressguard (if you have access to it) to help with healing. Put the filters back in or you are going to crash your cycle (assuming you cycled the tank before you got him). I'm assuming that you did not since you said you only had the tank for a week, so you'll need to get beneficial bacteria established in your tank to keep water levels safe. Since your tank isn't cycled, you'll need to be testing your water and doing multiple partial water changes a week. Do not change out your filter ever unless it's falling apart. If it gets clogged, rinse it out under old tank water in a bucket, don't use tap water.

What is the PH at? Typically unless it's super high, you don't really need to worry about it. A stable PH is more important than constantly trying to bring it down. Adding some driftwood and indian almond leaves can help naturally bring the PH down, but I wouldn't mess with the chemicals that bring the ph down. Just focus on keeping it stable.

This is definitely a huge bubble nest.

20 gal Heated, 25 Nitrate 10, nitrite 0 (taken with strips), ammonia 0 (taken with liquid test) Had tank for 6 months, fish 5 months Water changes have been every 2 weeks lately, about 30% per change, but will try to increase frequency back to once a week. 5 panda corydoras, 11 harlequin rasboras, some snails We feed him about 5-6 vibra bites per day and frozen food a couple times a week. Fasting maybe once a week. He eats some of the other fish's food too but there hasn't been a problem until recently. Heavily planted, some rocks and spiderwood

Have you fasted him for a few days, or are you just feeding him daphnia? If you haven't tried fasting him for a few days, I'd do that, and then feed a bit of daphnia. If he's eating the other fish's food, then you'll need to get a breeder box and put him in time out while the other fish are being fed. If the temp is lower than 78F, I'd bump up the heat too since colder water slows their metabolism down.

Yay! So my only other question if anyone could help me would be, what is the protocol for is i have to do a water change with a bubble nest? I'm still in the middle of cycling this tank lol. I'm not sure why my boy is so happy but i must be doing something right lately, right?

Bubble nests are just a sign of sexual maturity, not happiness. But that being said, as long as the water quality is good I'm sure he's fine and happy! You do water changes like you normally would. He will rebuild another one. I always felt guilty doing water changes right after my bettas made a bubble nest lol.

Why does it look like she has been sobbing heavily?

Because she’s using an awful filter that makes her eyes look like that. Someone else said it was the AI filter specifically and that she doesn’t look like that at all.

Nine god damn times, I'm starting to think he doesn't have much ass left to laugh off at this point.

He’s probably got that Hank Hill ass by now. Gonna need some orthotics.

Isn’t daphnia way better though?

Daphnia is a much better alternative that they can actually digest, unlike the pea.

A top down picture is really needed. It's hard to tell from this angle. If the scales are completely raised on the whole body, then yes it's dropsy.

this is the best shot i could take

It doesn’t look like dropsy from this angle.

[удалено]

Almost all of those bubbles are uniform in size in this picture, like I said in my comment before when describing bubble nests. OP has a lot of different sized bubbles, including tiny ones. A betta is not going to blow a lot of bubbles that are too small to even hold an egg. It could be that OP's betta's bubble nest broke off and floated over to where the air from the bubbler is going, but half of those bubbles are foam and way too small to even be part of a bubble nest. The left side (on the second picture) where the bubbles are larger could have been part of one at one time, but where it's located now is definitely not complete bubble nest and is full of air bubbles from the bubbler. Bettas mostly place their bubble nests in areas where they don't think it will be disturbed, which isn't the case for where it's at currently.

Please don't tell people to "research their animals" in a condescending manner when you are completely clueless and offering incorrect advice yourself.

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted when this is exactly what’s going on. The bubbles in a bubble nest are uniform in size, unlike what’s going on in the picture. The bubbles in this picture are varying in size and it’s also right where the air from the bubbler is hitting the surface.

Once again, it’s against Reddit’s TOS to promote stealing. So please, DO NOT PROMOTE STEALING. If it continues, we are going to have to lock this post.

Well what do you do for hobbies? Crocheting? The average pound of wool takes 101 gallons of water to produce. Having some wine? 872 gallons of water to produce one gallon. Like to paint or draw? Each sheet of paper in sketchbook takes an average of 3 gallons. Hell, one pair of jeans take 2,000 GALLONS to make.

They might have meant that it’s a huge waste of water financially. That’s how I took it anyway. It’s one thing to pay for your own hobby, but her parents are having to pay for the every day baths and we don’t know what their financial situation is like. I think the way OP approached it was respectful, acknowledging that it’s something she likes to do but that something needs to change in their household regarding it.

Bettas don't eat plants. How long are you going to be gone for? They go a week without food and be just fine.

Ask over at

I’ve had the same decorations for a tank I set up at work (which is in pediatrics)… and the paint never flaked. That said, I found very rough edges that had to be filed… if you zoom in on the pineapple, you can literally see the jagged edges on the inside of the doorway which should be taken care of immediately! If not, he’ll have ripped fins pretty quickly! Many of the ceramics have sharp inside rims.

Yep! It's not toxic, and I also sanded the sharp edges down and it was fine for over a year. But there are tons of sharp parts on that thing lol.

If you want to keep the SpongeBob pineapple and the other, you can, as long as you got it from a reputable place like an LFS or Petsmart and not Amazon. While some people think it looks tacky, it is in no way harmful to your betta as long as you sand down the sharp parts. It's made from non-toxic polyresin, and I had one a few years ago because my 3 year old wanted to add it to our betta's 20g long tank. We had it for over a year and never had an issue, and my betta never got sick from it. The Penn Plax brand is the one that you want to get. Other brands I have no idea about, they could be questionable, but I know for a fact that the Penn Plax one is ok and safe. Bettas do like a lot of plants as well so add either silk or live ones to your upgraded 5 gallon tank. But the SpongeBob house is really just a matter of taste as far as decor goes.

I took paxlovid and same symptoms… if anyone has any similar experiences i’d like to hear how it turned out 😭

If you're still interested in an update, I was sick for a few more days after posting this, but it cleared up fairly quickly. My sore throat came back again, so I went to the doctor and found out that I had developed an ear infection as well as having a perforated ear drum from coughing so much and so hard, secondary strep throat, and my lungs were pretty inflamed. I got sent home with antibiotics, ear drops, and an inhaler along with the basic version of mucinex and a nasal spray. After 7 days I was soooo much better. I've been doing pretty well since then, although my lungs are still completely pissed off and I still need to take my inhaler at least twice a day. It's completely obnoxious as I've always been really healthy and have never had issues with my lungs. My doctor said it should take at least another month before my lungs will stop being inflamed.

Looks fine to me. I had a 100watt heater in my 10g and it was almost the full length of the tank from top to bottom, but submerged fine and it worked like a charm. As long as it's submerged properly like on the directions, and it's not overheating or underheating the water, it should be fine.

Can you answer the bot questions please?

I had that happen to one of my sims once, but his head grew out of his stomach and his eyes were growing out if his forehead like a snail. 😳

If you want to criticize and discuss bad betta tanks and care, there is already a subreddit for that called

Tank size: 2.5 gallon

The cold water and possibly bad water parameters likely caused this. I’m glad to hear you’re getting a heater and a filter. Water colder than 78F will weaken their immune system and make them more susceptible to disease, and it will also cause them to become lethargic, as well as their metabolism slowing down making them more prone to bloating. In a 2.5 gallon tank you should be doing partial water changes at least 3 times a week, and don’t let food float around/sink to the bottom if it’s not being eaten, since it will rot and cause an ammonia spike in your tank. Definitely try and upgrade to at least a 5 gallon tank. It’s less maintenance and the water quality stays better longer, and they also enjoy the swimming space.

I could be wrong, but the bubbles are all different sizes and usually bubble nests are more uniform. Unless it was disturbed by the filter current or something, it could be something else? But I'm not too sure!

I agree with this. Bubble nests are uniform in size. Usually when I’d get a clump of bubbles like this, it was from the filter and the little air bubbles that my betta would make when going to the surface for air.

What about freezed dried blood worms and brine shrimp

They're freeze dried so they don't require any extra attention, neither do pellets. The only time I've stored anything in the fridge/freezer was the frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. I don't use freeze dried much since they don't have much nutrition compared to the frozen ones.