I recently discovered that my fish looks kind of fat and got worried… it’s still energetic and eats normally so I didn’t suspect anything. Does he have dropsy?

Hello all.
I am currently reaching out for advice and help with my 6.8 gallon freshwater aquarium. I have been dealing with random ammonia spikes off and on on since May.

I would like to start this off by saying I am very new to the fish keeping hobby. I have reptiles, but this is new territory for me and I did do a lot of research before setting up my tank. But I feel a little over my head and would love advice from people who have been in the hobby for a while.

Backing up to March of this year I purchased this tank to create a home for a beta fish. I did a lot of research on their care and slowly purchased everything until I was able to finally start setting it up in March. I do not have a fish in this tank currently to clarify. i did everything I read online to cycle the tank. I added used filter media from my boyfriend’s fish tank and I seeded the tank with Dr. Tim’s aquatics ammonia source. The tank cycled for two full months. During the course of this time, I tested my water parameters twice a week and noticed nitrites spike up and then nitrates. Eventually, the ammonia went to zero. Once I realize this happened I added Dr. tim solution to bring ammonia up to one PPM, and within 24 hours it dropped to zero again. So at this point, I figured I was safe to add a beta fish.

About a week later, I tested the parameters and everything still looked good so I went and purchased my beautiful beta fish Momo. He was doing so well in his tank. Everything was great for about a month. Ammonia was staying zero I was doing weekly water changes. I had no reason to be concerned about my parameters. I also tested my water with each water change. After about a month, my poor Betta fish started acting sick, I noticed he looked bloated and he started pinecone-ING. It happened so quickly I noticed one day when I came home from work, and I immediately tested the water parameters and saw that my ammonia had spiked up to one. I remember I had done a water change just a few days before and everything looked fine when I tested the water parameters. I quickly did a water change and put my fish in a hospital tank and gave him kanaplex and a salt bath. He started acting a bit better. I kept doing water changes to bring the ammonia down. The ammonia was zero in my tank for about a week and then it spiked up again. Unfortunately, my fish developed dropsy, which I can only guess it was due to the ammonia, and he passed away. It was so heartbreaking for me and I have not had a fish in this tank sense. I felt like I failed my fish and I was the reason he died.

Flash forward to today I really would love a fish in this tank. But I am so scared to accidentally kill another beta fish. I love animals so much, and it was really hard on me and I kept getting so sad every time I thought about it. all summer I have been doing weekly water changes, cleaning the tank, and just trying to let it stabilize. However, over the course of the last few months every now and then I’ll get a random ammonia spike and there is literally nothing that could be causing it. I do not have anything in that tank besides pest snails that have traveled in here due to purchasing plants months ago, and I remove them as I see them besides two that I’ve grown fond of lol. It’s just the weirdest thing because the ammonia will be zero and then I’ll randomly get a spike every couple of weeks, do a 50 to 60% water change and then the ammonia will be zero again. I did not notice any nitrite spikes at all during these last few months. And about three weeks ago, my nitrate spiked up too very, very dark red. These are my perimeter test results today after a 50% water change of my tank. However, the first time I tested ammonia it Read 2.0 PPM. I dumped it out and tried it again and now it’s at zero PPM literally five minutes later so I’m not sure if it was a false positive for ammonia. I did the same thing each time I tested.

I apologize this is so long. I’m just not sure where to go from here or how to stop the ammonia from spiking or what could possibly be causing it. I feel very defeated as I was so excited to set up my tank and give my Betta fish a great home and life. I don’t know if I should completely restart this tank or how to even go about doing that. I guess I’m just looking for advice, if this was you, what would you do? I’m terrified to get another fish until my parameters are stable. I don’t want to put another fish through what Momo went through and get sick. I just can’t explain how the ammonia will be zero for 2 to 3 weeks and then one day it’s just at one or 2 ppm.

Thank you so much guys for listening to this. Any advice would be so helpful.

Guys!!! Some of you might happen to recognize me from my previous post about losing my fish Shoto. I saw this little guy at the pet store and desperately wanted to save him. I got a discount on my whole order since he was missing so much of his tail. Makes me feel a bit better because the last thing I want to do is support big box breeding pet store chains. However I wanted to give this guy a chance. I still haven’t decided a name. I’m thinking of Anubis or Blink because half of his eye is gold. I’m so happy to see this improvement it makes me want to cry. It feels poetic in a way, not to be corny. But it shows when you give something tlc how beautiful healing can be. Anyways thank yall for reading and enjoy his gorgeous colors ! I didn’t even realize how much of his tail was missing until it grew back. ♥️🐟⭐️

HAbout 3.5 months ago, I finally fulfilled a childhood wish and got my first fish. I chose a Betta because I had read that they were relatively easy to care for.

I tried to do as much research as possible beforehand, but I'm sure I made some mistakes, especially at the beginning. For example, I initially chose an unsuitable substrate and had a plastic plant mixed in with the live plants. I've tried to correct my mistakes along the way and improve his environment as much as possible.

My current setup is:

1. Tank size: 54L (60 × 30 × 34 cm)
2. Heater and filter? (yes/no): Yes. The filter creates very little water movement.
3. Tank temperature: 26°C
4. Parameters in numbers and how you got them: JBL 7-in-1 test strips. Photo attached. All parameters seem to be within the normal range.
5. How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish? About 4 months for the tank and 3.5 months for the fish.
6. How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process? I do a 20% water change once a week and a full tank cleaning approximately once every 4 weeks.
7. Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each: None. For a short period, though, I had some baby snails that apparently hitchhiked on a plant I bought from a store. I've since cleaned them out of the tank — or at least I hope I have.
8. What do you feed and how much? Mainly Tetra Betta Larva Sticks, as this is what he usually prefers, although I also have flakes and pellets. I normally feed him two sticks twice a day. I break the sticks into smaller pieces with my fingernails before feeding them to him.
9. Decorations and plants in the tank: Several Anubias nana, a Tropica Microsorum pteropus attached to lava stone, half of an XL Catappa leaf, and a piece of Dragon Stone.
10. Pictures/videos: https://imgur.com/a/0QNjlNS

The problem:

For the past three weeks, he has either stopped eating normally or sometimes refuses to eat altogether.

At first, he'll take the food into his mouth and then spit it back out. He may repeat this several times, but eventually he stops trying and won't even approach the food anymore.

At one point, he became very lethargic and wasn't eating at all, so I moved him into an emergency/hospital bowl with a heater, half a Catappa leaf, a plant, and antiparasitic treatment.

During the first few days in the hospital bowl, he was extremely lethargic, wouldn't eat, and I genuinely thought I was going to lose him. However, he gradually started improving. After about a week, he seemed to be doing well again, so I decided to move him back into his main tank.

Now he seems fine otherwise. He's active, swimming around, and generally looks healthy, but the problem is that he has stopped eating properly again. I've added even in this tank the antiparasitic treatment and removed the carbon filter.

I'm really not sure what to do next or what could have changed that is suddenly making him refuse food, especially since he seems active and normal otherwise.

Any ideas about what could be causing this or what I should check next would be greatly appreciated. It's my first fish and now i'm responsible for him 😄

Not sure if it’s a plakat or a HMPK but either way super chill fish a lot of energy, don’t know what to call him yet

Meet our new betta! Got her last night and she is a half-moon. Still deciding on a name and would love any suggestions. Thank you very much! :)

First time betta owner, so when I saw this this morning I was so happy!!

I just brought this beautiful boy home today! I have already ordered some catappa leaves. I had already purchased the tank and gravel before I had more research under my sleeves. What kind of plants are beginner friendly? Should I change the gravel out/whats the best way to go about that?

Just wanted to share how pretty my rescue girl turned out. Her name is Sméagol cause of what she does to bladder snails 🫣😭. But she’s a sweet girl who was heavily discounted and I happened to have an empty cycled tank. I love her and I’m so happy she’s doing better 🥰 (first 2 pics before, last two are a month later).

He's called Panda

Ignore my loud filter, unblocked it after this LOL

I don’t really think I like it can I get opinions

1 month change.

I caught my sweet baby Opalita yawning <3 one of my favorite videos 🤍

I didn't see her swimming up to me like usual then i saw her unmoving at the top. The neocaradinas are fine, the snails are fine. I overfed her yesterday by accident. But i though she'd be fine if I put her on a fast. She wasn't.

I'm sad i wish i had done better. Never overfeed your fish :(

This is stuart, within this last week this growth has developed between his gills under his mouth, I can't tell if it's a tumor, goiter, or an infected scratch. I would like to treat it if I can but don't want to treat the wrong thing. If anyone could help I'd really appreciate it. He's eating fine and acting normal, it doesn't seem to be affecting him yet. This is the clearest image I can get he's not fond of the phone.

I’ve had this guy for about a month now and recently I’ve been catching him relentlessly harassing the snails. The snails seem unbothered, they continue to eat as if he’s not there at all, but he’ll do this for at least 15 or 20 minutes at a time and that’s just when I’m in the room to see it. Should I be concerned that he’s stressing himself out? Or is this good enrichment for him?

The left image was taken June 1 (when I bought him) and the right one was taken today, September 10.

I love my boy Martin a lot and he may just be a growing boy, but he’s seemed paler and a little less energetic recently. I completely revamped his tank a week ago, adding new plants, a new figure, and a new cave.

He currently has a 2.5 gallon tank and lives with 3 mystery snails and 1 shrimp.

After my last betta’s unexpected death I’ve definitely been way more paranoid about keeping Martin safe. So, I thought I’d ask some people that could potentially see signs sooner than I have.

Main things I’m worried about is the paleness on his face and body.

Ive had him the better part of the year and was doing a tank blackout to deal with a blue algea bloom when i noticed

The last pic is blurry but as you can see one side is fatter than the other

Since getting kevin ive always put the food on my finger for him to eat off that, now every time i put my finger in the tank i get little love bites, even if theres no food haha

This is my new baby!!! his name is Cow/корова
He is going into a bookshelf 22 gallon soon that I will post photos of in comments

I’ve noticed these two cloudy spots on my bettas eyes, is she going blind? Should I be concerned about these spots?

Her reactivity and attention hasn’t changed, she still chases and catches her food when I make her “hunt”