# Clamped fins...stress, or something else?



## KandiiPanda (Oct 1, 2010)

*Housing*
What size is your tank? 2 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 75 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

*Food*
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari Bio Gold, bloodworms on occassion, flakes I can't remember the name of right now
How often do you feed your betta fish? Three times a day, usually one pellet or a pinch of flakes each time

*Maintenance*
How often do you perform a water change? Going to be once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Not sure about this yet, 50%?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Betta Bowl Buddies

*Water Parameters:*
Have you tested your water? Not yet =/
*
Symptoms and Treatment*
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His fins are clamped; nothing else as far as I can tell
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Acting normal, or as normal as he can be considering he can't really swim with clamped fins
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Yesterday morning
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? A year? I got him last Thanksgiving, so I would imagine this is about right

*Other info (posted in Y!Answers as well):
*My betta used to live in a really tiny tank (half gallon, before I knew they needed bigger). Anyways, a couple days ago I put him into his new, 2 gallon tank (all I have room for right now). I floated him in a baggie in the tank for about 3 hours *adding water from the new tank periodically*, and he was adjusting perfectly. He was swimming around and acting like he normally does until yesterday morning.

His fins are clamped and he doesn't do much of anything. He usually does his little Betta-dance when I come home and when its feeding time, but he can't anymore (he does try, though D= ) At first I thought he was bloated so I haven't been feeding him, but after noticing the fins I'm not so sure anymore. *I just fed him and he ate it all, so this is not the problem.*

I left the new tank to cycle using the fish-food method for two days before placing him in there.
He has no other symptoms, other than the fact he has difficulty swimming due to his fins and therefore he just kinda floats there. No scratching, nothing on the body, etc.
What should I do/what do you think this is? Is it just delayed stress of moving, a fungus, water quality issues?


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## karlhague (Aug 9, 2010)

KandiiPanda said:


> *Housing*
> What size is your tank? 2 gallons
> What temperature is your tank? 75 degrees
> Does your tank have a filter? No
> ...




To Cycle a tank fully takes 3-4 weeks sometimes longer sometimes less..

There is no way your tank is even slightly cycled after 2 days..

2 Gallons wont Cycle properly and will keep loosing the cycle..

Also You need to be doing more water changes per week in a 2gallon uncycled you need to be doing at least two 50% changes..

Without a filter, your going to need more than 2 changes to get rid of the ammonia all fish produce
However on the water changes somebody could correct me if I am wrong..


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## Adastra (Jun 18, 2010)

Here is my theory on what happened--I'm guessing since you didn't know they needed larger tanks, as you put it, you probably weren't changing the water often enough in his smaller tank which weakened him to begin with. Transferring him over to the 2G probably added a degree of shock since bettas can, over time, adapt to less than ideal situations. 

I would like to know more about what you did to "cycle" the tank, also. Whoever told you this method was effective was very much mistaken. As karl said, the colonization of your filter by sufficient beneficial bacteria doesn't happen overnight. It can take weeks to over a month to happen. I do not recommend attempting to cycle the tank without having a liquid master test kit like this one: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+4454&pcatid=4454
It's just not a good idea. Having a master kit will also help you establish a water changing routine and give you confidence in the cleanliness of your water.

If you had been adding fish food before putting the fish in and didn't do a water change, the ammonia has only been building since that point and once weekly water changes in a tank of this size are not sufficient for maintaining the health of your fish, sadly. I recommend doing 100% water changes every 3-4 days on tanks this size. The reason why I advocate 100% changes is because the only acceptable level of ammonia is 0ppm, in order to maintain that in unfiltered/uncycled tanks you have to do 100% changes. If you think about it, doing one 50% change today and doing another 50% change tomorrow adds up to 100%, but in reality, there is inevitably some of the old water left over plus whatever the fish has added to it in the meantime. Over time, partial changes become less and less effective.

Also, your temperature is a bit low. Do you have an adjustable heater? If so, I would slowly turn the knob up a degree every few hours until it reaches 80 degrees. If you have a non-adjustable heater pad or pre-set heater, you should consider returning it and replacing it with a 25 watt heater with an adjustable temperature dial such as this one: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3743+11368&pcatid=11368 Pre-sets and other non-adjustable heaters don't work on a reliable thermostat and can underheat or overheat the water based on the ambient temperature of the room. These heaters are low quality, and they're not a good long term heating solution. 

I really think your fish will perk up if you change the water more often and get the temperature up into a more comfortable range. There's a lot of misleading information out there about how to care for these guys and it can get really frustrating--a bit more research on your part about their needs and about what products are best will save you a lot of time and stress in the future. Methylene blue can help fish with ammonia poisoning, and if you feel he is particularly weak it might be a good idea to add some in order to prevent secondary infections.


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## KandiiPanda (Oct 1, 2010)

Alright, thank you guys for all the advice
Like I said, its a new tank so I haven't even though about water changes yet XD But I guess I'll start tomorrow, and I was planning on doing 100% ones but I heard they were stressful on the betta, so I'm kinda nervous about doing that when he's already stressed.
My heater is 25 watts and it is adjustable; agian, I kept it so low after reading horror stories about them going above their programmed range and cooking your fish =c I will try gradually adjusting it though

As for the cycling--before I started setting up the new tank, I read up on cycling and there seemed to be three common methods: using food, using a raw shrimp, and another one I forgot (adding pure chemicals maybe?) Anyways, I had to settle for the food since I didn't have any shrimp (I guess I could've waited but not having a car or anything, I'd be waiting a longg time and wanted to switch tanks over before the colder weather).

But yeah, I agree on the last part about there being a LOT of misleading information. Cycling is probably what confused me the most, because it seems for every positive way of doing something, there's stories of it going badly as well. But thank-you guys for your help; like I said, I'll do complete water changes more often and raise the temperature c=


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