How to treat stress in betta fish

 How to treat stress in your betta fish

hi Everyone !

In this article, I will explain to you all about how to treat stress in your betta fish. There are many factors that caused stress in your betta fish. There are 2 main factors that caused stress in your betta fish, that are parasite factor and non parasite factor. Most common parasite factor caused by pathogenic fungi, such as white spot. But, in this article i will explain about stress in betta fish that caused by non parasite factors. There are some causal factors that could indicate that your betta fish is in stress condition. So, what's that? 

    1. passive movement

One of the most common characteristic features is passive movement. Usually if your betta fish in stress condition, they would like to dwell at the bottom of tank. Sometimes they will go to the top of tank just to take air after that they will return back to the bottom of tank. 

    2. Tend to swim at the bottom of tank

like the passive movement, Sometimes betta fish would swim slowly at the bottom of tank. They feel like they are lazy to swim but actually they don't, this is because they feel uncomfortable with the situation in the tank. 

    3. no have appetite

Occasionally, betta fish doesn't have appetite with their food that you have given. they tend to ignorant it. If you find this situation, better you don't give them food. Because, giving food will make your tank dirtier and finally it will make your fish health worsen. So don't give them food for a few days.

    4. doesn't make bubble nest

If you find bubble nest in your betta fish aquarium, it indicates that your betta fish is in good and healthy condition. As we know before, if our betta fish in stress condition, maybe they have some health problem (of course). In this situation, they won't make the bubble nest.

If you find trait like above, maybe your betta fish is in stress condition. In some case, betta fish will act like mad fish ( lol ), they will jump out of the tank and they will dry up at outside of their tank and finally they will die. My suggestion is cover the topper of your tank with book or whatever you want as it could prevent your betta fish to jump out. Before I start to explain the treatment, better you to know several factors that cause stress in your betta fish. 

    1. Mixed your betta fish with other betta fish

Betta fish would fight each other if you mixed them (except female betta fish or baby betta fish) because naturally they have their own territory. For betta fish, fighting will hurt their body and even worse their body would wound and finally one of them will die. I think make betta fish to fight each other is animal abuse so don't do that again, ok?

    2. too late to feed your betta fish

Ideally, feeding betta fish done 2 times a day but literally betta fish could live without eating for 3 days. But sometimes if we want to have vacation outside for 1 week or more, inevitability we will leave our betta fish in home (except you want to bring all your betta fish and you want your betta fish to accompany your vacation outside). And your betta fish will starving without you and when you return to home, you will find your betta fish in stress condition or even die. This is one of the factors.

    3.  bad quality of water in your tank

Bad water in your tank caused by many factor but the most common causal factor of bad water is content of NH3 in your tank has passed the limit of NH3 normal levels. Where did they come from? So, NH3 comes from the bowels of your betta fish. Simple solution for this problem is change your tank water into the new one. 

    4. your tank is too small for your betta fish

Usually it happens for those who put their betta fish in a small bottle or glass. Small place for them to swim will make them uncomfortable. So, you must adjust your tank size with your betta fish size. No problem if you put baby betta fish in small glass because of their small size. 

    5. the water is too cold

normal temperature for betta fish is around 26 C. If too cold, betta fish would stress and their tail may bud. Also their color will fade too and turn into dark or light color. Because betta fish is tropical fish so they live in warm place, if you live in subtropical area and it's winter, you can adjust your tank water temperature using heater and set it to 26 C and it's important for you who live in subtropical area (especially when winter) to add some catappa leafs to your tank because it will make your betta fish more comfortable even in cold temperature.

So, that are some causal factor stress non pathogenic in your betta fish, there are more factors that could cause stress in betta fish, it depends on you how do you take care of your betta fish. Now, I will start to explain to you about how to treat stress in betta fish. 

- place your betta fish in dark place

because betta fish would feel comfortable in a dark place. you can put your betta fish in dark colored bucket or you can also place your cover your tank with paper or dark cotton maybe. After that don't disturb them, you can open your tank when you want to feed them after that cover it again. 

- give catappa leafs that have processed before into your tank

catappa leafs are very important for betta fish, it has million of benefits if you put some catappa leaf into your tank. like what i have told to you before, catappa leaf will make your fish more comfortable even in bad quality of water. It also could prevent some pathogenic diseases that might have infected your fish. 

- give a teaspoon of salt

i would recommend you if you use aquarium salt for your fish or salt without iodium, but if you don't have it, you can use table salt for your tank. A teaspoon of salt can be used for 2 liter of water if your tank is bigger you can adjust it. The role of salt in this treatment is for neutralize pH of water and also it would make osmosis inside their body went well.

- fasting them for 2 days

we know that if our fish are stressed, they won't eat food/pellets that we have given, it just wasting our money and there will increase NH3 levels in our tank and it's dangerous for our fish who lived in that tank. after 2 days, you can start to give them food better if you use live food (tubifex worm, microworm, etc) and don't give them much food. 

literally there are many ways to treat stress in betta fish but in this article, I used my own way and I have tried it and it worked. don't forget to pay attention about the environment in the tank (temperature, pH). 

So that guys little bit information about stress in betta fish. if you have additional information about this treatment just comment below or if you have some question you can comment in this comment section. Sorry guys if there are some mistakes in my grammar or vocabulary.