After I clean my beta bowl I notice it swims strange for a little while, like if it doesn't know how to swim..

Question

I don't use anything except water and a paper towel to clean it so I don't understand why this happens...

Answer 1

If you can go and buy some declorinator for your water.  If not buy some distilled water or you can sit your betta water out for 48hours it will get rid of the toxins in your drinking water.  They sell this at PetSmart.

Answer 2

Sorry about your Betta.  Yes use dechlorinator everytime you add new water.  But please do not use dish soap on anything that has to do with your fish!  The dish soap residue can kill your fish.  You might want to consider having a filter for your fish.  There are small aquarium kits that are relatively cheap at Walmart.  If you go this route you will have to pay careful attention to the initial tank cycle and do frequent partial water changes.  It is much better to do partial water changes rather than changing all the water, to avoid disrupting the beneficial bacteria and to not shock your fish.

Good luck,

Stacey

Answer 3

this happens becos you have to do a complete water change in a bowl...this upsets the chemistry of the water he was living in...he gets stressed getting used to the new water...which ofcourse will take time for him to adjust to...try getting a 3-5 gallon tank with filter and heater and then you will be doing 30-40% water changes every week...so it won't stress him...also betta don't tend to do that well at room temperatures...a heater to a setting of 80 degrees F is necessary..try these things...and he wont do that....AND distilled water has got nothing to do with it...50% distilled water is ok...but try and avoid it...regular tap water is absolutely fine for the betta...also if possible get your water tested at a pet store..they usually do it for free..

Answer 4

Don't change all of the water at once, leave the fish in the tank and change say a 1/4 of the water once or twice a week, if you are using tapwater you will need conditioner.

Answer 5

I go with the guy and his dish soap... but my little guy uses drinking water from a bottle like me. Distilled is um distilled as in basiclly dead water. Would u drink it? If u don't um he shouldn't ...k. It's for batteries and dead stuff. Right! My little guy swims like a hurricane when I change his, then he swims up to the glass and says "Hello". I'm pretty sure that's a really good sign. Keep ur water in the bottle at room temp. He likes that part too! ... faucet water bad ! It has chemicals ...k. Bottled drinking water is always the way to go.U like it so does he !!! Why would u add chems to ur fishy .... What if he glows?

Answer 6

Does he swim from side to side then down quickly? My betta did that and he was fine, I did loose him to Fin Rot though, be had a great 2 years.

The person above me saying things about dechlorinatiors. I agree, when you clean it use dish soap and a sponge.

-Add dish soap to the bowl.

-Scrub with a little sponge, nothing fancy.

-Rinse, cold waters gets bubbles away easier.

-Rinse with hot water, so you heat up the bowl

-Dry off, I use one of those fuzzy things people use to dry tires off with on cars, it doesn't scratch my bowl.

Now, this is what I do but since I don't know your bowl size, I'm gonna take a stab in the dark.

Go out and buy Distilled Water!

If you have a 1/2 gallon, add 1/4 gallon of distilled water.

If you have a 3 gallon, add1.5 gallons of distilled water.

If you have a 5 gallon, add 2.5 gallons of distilled water.

So on, add the rest to be tap water. Do NOT add all distilled water, there are, believe it or not, some chemicals in tap water that are good for fish. Add AquaSafe, if gets rid of the harsh chemicals in tap water. It's about 2-3 bucks at PetSmart for ones you put drops in, and about 1-3 bucks at Walmart, if your walmart carries fish supplies.

I hope I helped, if you're  confused about the distilled water thing, e-mail me.

Answer 7

You didn't dechlorinate it??

It could also be temperature shock.  The water temperatures need to match exactly when you're doing a water change.

Also:  http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/...

Please consider this before getting another fish.

Answer 8

did you declorinate the water?  If not then the fish is dying.  Get the fish into clean water ASAP to prevent death.  Otherwise if that's not the case then I don't know what's wrong with it.  The water temperature could have changed and shocked the fish as well.

Answer 9

Condition the water. Don't bother buying bottled water or distilled water- betas are pretty hardy little fish and can stand some temp change.

Tap water works works just fine, as long as you treat it for chemicals. I buy something called "Bowl Buddies" from Jungle at Petsupermart, it's about $2-3 and comes with 8 fizz tabs that make tap water safe for betas immediately. One tab is good for two gallons.

Answer 10

Beta are tropical fish and don't do well in cool water. I put the clean water out in a bowl for a few hours so that it gets room temperature. This also allows the chlorine to evaporate. Hope this helps.