# Head Shaking?



## rswbaez2011 (Jun 9, 2014)

I think something is wrong with my betta. He has been sitting at the top of the tank and every few minutes he shakes his head and darts around the top of the tank a few times. The head shaking is really weird. He will go inside his treasure chest and sit for a few minutes but hes mostly at the top. I dont know what this head shaking is


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

Sounds to me there is something irritating him. Has he eaten something that may have gotten stuck in his mouth? Do his gills look red and irritated?

Is he in a cycled tank, what temperature is his water? How long have you had him? Have you checked the tank for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? 

How big is his tank and how often do you change his water? How much water do you change each time?

ETA Do you see any parasites hanging off his gills?


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## rswbaez2011 (Jun 9, 2014)

Housing 
What size is your tank? 3 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 80 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? pellets and occassional frozen bloodworm
What BRAND of food do you feed your betta fish? TetraBetta Plus
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 pelelts in morning 2 pellets at night

Maintenance 
How often do you perform a water change? 50% once a week 100% once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? conditioner and dechlorinator

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? No, I just changed the water

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity: 

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? NO change in appearance
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He is sitting at the top of the tank and will occassionally swim down, he does random head shakes
When did you start noticing the symptoms? about 4 hours after water change
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)? We have had him maybe a month



He doesnt have anything on his gills or white spots. He looks completely normal. Just behavior change. he has always been my more active/aggressive boy so this is weird for him.


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

Was this the 100% water change that he just had? Maybe the parameters were different enough to irritate him. Oftentimes a change in pH can be quite hard on fish, a change of .5 can be enough to cause death in very sensitive fish.

Do you know if your city is using chloramine to treat the water? If your dechlorinator is not one of the kinds that convert Ammonia into the non-toxic form Ammonium then the freed Ammonia may be what is bothering your Betta.


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## rswbaez2011 (Jun 9, 2014)

Yes he just had the 100% change. This is the 4th 100% change and it has never bothered him before. I always float him in the water in the cup he came in when I bought him. I slowly add some of the new water to the cup to get him acclimated. he was fine for a few hours and now this. What should I do? should i take him out?


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## rswbaez2011 (Jun 9, 2014)

Im not sure what our city uses to treat the water. I know some of the cities around us switched from chloramine to chlorine to treat but i dont know if our city did


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## rswbaez2011 (Jun 9, 2014)

Usually if I come up to his tank he will blow his gills out at me. Right now if I go up to it he swims to the bottom and hides


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

No, leave him in the water, you need to check your dechlorinator. It will tell you if it changes the Ammonia into Ammonium. If it does you're OK for at least 24 - 48 hours, at which point the effects wear off and the Ammonium will turn back into Ammonia. If in fact your city uses chloramine.

You should be able to find out online, do a search for your city and whether they use chlorine or chloramine. If your city hall is still open for calls, you might find out phoning them for the info.

If you had a cycled filter, the beneficial bacteria in the filter would remove the ammonia/ammonium completely. Our city is using chloramine and it takes somewhere around 9 hours for my filter to "eat" the ammonia/ammonium that appears after a 50% water change.


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## Netti (Apr 25, 2014)

Not sure if I was clear enough in explaining, being German I might word things a bit confusingly:

If your city uses chloramine then the dechlorinator will free the ammonia that is bound to the chlorine. This will result in your fish being subjected to Ammonia in the water.

If your dechlorinator has the ability to convert the Ammonia into Ammonium, then it will be in this non-toxic form for 24 - 48 hours and then convert back. It will then start being a problem for your fish.

If your dechlorinator does have the ability to convert Ammonia into Ammonium, then your Betta's head shaking is for a different reason, since he would now be in water with Ammonium, which is non-toxic!


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## Taeanna (Apr 2, 2013)

if you are able to fill out the form and hopefully submit a picture we can be more sure of the treatments we recommend, otherawise we need to ask each question one at a time and it can take quite a while


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