Illness or age?
I have a Betta that is 3-4 years old. He lives in a 10gal with the temp usually sitting at 78F. I have anubis and a glass planter suctioned to the top along with a floating Betta bed. I usually would find him close to the water but the past few months he has hung out at the bottom of the tank, often sleeping in the little coconut hut. I assumed he was suffering with swim bladder and ive fasted him off and on but he never seemed to improve much. Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, whereas nitrates have been around 40ppm (I live in Iowa where we have a nitrates in our water so I've been switching to using purified rather than treated tap water). Is the nitrate causing him to hang towards the bottom? Is he getting old and just prefers to not swim as much? He doesn't come to the top to eat anymore so he usually eats them off the sand once theyve sunk. I know bettas are fairly food motivated so I hope I havent taught him to search the floor for food all day.🥲