First-Time Betta Owner, Concerned About My Betta
Hello, about 2.5 days ago, I noticed that my betta, Nexus, was very bloated around his tummy area. After consulting with people in a facebook group and giving info (10gal tank planted, weekly water changes, temperature is 26C, 3 pellets daily, fasting on wednesdays, bloodworms thursday, repeat. I know now, that's terrible.), it turns out that it was diet-related bloating. Still, my local fish store told me to treat for everything just in case, which I now see wasn't really necessary. They had me put a tbsp of aquarium salt and some ethylene blue in my tank and told me I didn't need a hospital tank.
I went to the store and bought daphnia, where I fed it to him the morning after. His tummy went down by the time I got home from being out all day. However, Nexus is still chilling around the bottom of the tank, which I haven't seen him do before.
I don't see any signs of dropsy. No pineconing, weird swimming, nothing. He chills at the bottom and sits in place for a few minutes before moving around again sort of like he's resting (no gasping), and sometimes sits in place near the surface for a while before moving again.
Is he just tired? In pain? I performed a 25% waterchange this morning to get the aquarium salt and ehylene blue outta there, and bring the nitrates down. I also fed him a little more daphnia after fasting for the weekend to make sure his system is flushed out.
Thank you in advance. I really hope my baby is okay. I don't want him to be in pain and I don't want to lose him, and I already feel horrible that he got so bloated because of how I was directed to feed him.