# New Betta not moving much



## bentley (Jan 18, 2011)

Hello everyone. New to the forum as well as owning Betta. We just recently bought a male from Wal-Mart last Friday. Originally just bought a small bowl for him but after getting home and reading some online, I saw that Betta's actually DONT like being cramped up in cool water so we went back, bought a 5-gal tank with a filter, heater, some gravel, and a pack of decoration plants. Got back, wiped down the tank, rinsed off the filter, rinsed off the gravel, got everything set up. We were gonna leave it over night to let it run but the bowl he was in seemed really cold and the tank was nice and clean with warm water so we just transferred him over. 

We left town Saturday night and came back Sunday and the tank is a little cloudy (whitish). We went to PetsMart and they said it was natural because its a new tank and it'll eventually cycle through and we had the water tested and it was fine. We've been watching him all day today he just stays near the bottom, usually laying in a corner so we went and PetsMart said he needed a place to hide so we bought a rock cave, rinsed, and put it in but he still seems to just lay around a lot.What could be the issue?


I'm sorry for the long post but just really worried about our Bentley and just want to take good care of him.


----------



## TheKingsFish (Jan 8, 2011)

How did you acclimatize him to his new surroundings?


----------



## bentley (Jan 18, 2011)

Not very well, if at all...we really didn't wanna put him in just yet but his bowl was really cold so we just poured him over.


----------



## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Welcome to the forum and sorry you are having problems....

What is the water temp? you want to maintain a stable water temp in the 76-80F range

I would go ahead and make a 50% water only change-make sure the water temp is within a couple of degrees between new and old water and use a little extra dechlorinator with this water change.....you will need to make at least 2-50% weekly water changes during the nitrogen cycle process(4-8 weeks) to keep him safe with the fish in cycle without having water test products in hand
Once the cycle is completed-1-50% weekly with vacuum in all areas that can be reached without moving anything in the tank or disruption of plants roots should maintain water quality in a 5g filtered tank.
One of the twice weekly water changes you need to include the substrate cleaning with a vacuum and the other needs to be water only

Your filter media needs a swish/rinse in old tank water with a water change a couple of times a month and when the water flow slows to maintain good water flow...as long as you have good water flow I would try and wait at least 30 days before you rinse it

Keep us posted....


----------



## plakatfighter123 (Jan 15, 2011)

i think its because ur water is too hot cause this happened to me and i putted him back in to his cup and he start ed to move so mady thats why


----------

