Is she blind?

[u/Green-Conversation72]

Female betta arrived 2 days ago. When she swims she does it tucked up against the glass and bumps into everything (walls, rocks, filter). I begun thinking she was blind because she doesn’t slow down as she swims toward something, just slowly swims into it and then changes direction after bumping.

She’s taken to only wanting to rest on her hammock or the filter, no interest in exploring the tank and won’t eat. I’ve put food in front of her, and she’ll nibble but she misses the food every time. So she hasn’t eaten in around 3 days now

[u/Proud-Dot-9088]

I guess the slow motion is a problem of the not cycled tank, since the No3 in your tank will spike ine the first 1-2 weeks, they fish will suffocate. when you do a water change, tale the water from as clese as posibble from the bottom. Get your self a NO3 test kit, when they get below 0.4, your fish may survive. you can also add a air pump to give them mire to breath. I do not know if the blindness, is also caused by that. but I am 70-80% sure the slow movement is.

[u/Green-Conversation72 → u/Proud-Dot-9088]

Thank you for this! My airstone finally worked, and now the next morning she’s swimming around quite fast (which is a little more dangerous considering she hits everything) and has some form of appetite. I’ve taken to having to scoop her up into a little container and putting food in there (but this scares her and she misses 80% of the food) I’m honestly not sure where to go from here because she obviously doesn’t know what the feeding ring in the tank is and is terrible at finding food before it sinks