Advice Please

[bigcheed]

hi im just looking for a little advice. got myself a lovley fighter last week for my newley vacant 10 gallon. there are lots of plants and a large hole filled rock for him to play in. ive turned the filter right down and directed the flow up to the surface. i am running an air stone but its very weak and is more for decoration. he is quite active and always comes to the front of the tank when i look in. thing is he dosent seem to eat any thing. at least not while im watching. ive been giving him freeze dryed daphnia and bloodworms in jelly by tetra. ive been alternating between the two and gave him a rest day on friday. he always comes and checks out whats on offer but often just swims away or has a nibble spits it out and swims off. ive got some new life spectrum betta pellets on order but until they come im worried for him. also ive noticed he has a few little white specks on him i dident notice in the pet store. im wondering if its ick. ive no experience with it and was wondering if its ok to add a little aquarium salt to a betta tank.

 

[Wildbetta]

Are the spots like little grains of salt?  If so then it is probably ich.  Raising the temps very slowly 1 degree every 2 hours up to 86F and adding a little bit of aquarium salt is a good way to treat ich without any medications.  Keep up on with your water changes and vacumn the substrate regularly because the parasite drops off the fish and multiplies like crazy at that stage before searching for a host again. 

 

[bigcheed]

i suppose they are like grains of salt. there are so few of them though. pictures of ich ive seen look far worse. i just cant make my mind up. thanks for the advice though its much appreciated.

 

[Wildbetta]

When it first get a hold of fish--it can show up as only a few random tiny white spots and then as the parasites keep reproducing--there will be more spots will appear on the fish.

 

[bigcheed]

Thanks so much. I raised the temp and added a table spoon and a half of aquarium salt. My betta is already spot free. Oh I cleaned the gravel and did a water change before hand. So here's to 10 days of water changes and gravel syphoning. Will be worth it tho. My fighter is very active and interactive. Love him to bits.

 

[Wildbetta]

Glad to hear that he is doing much better!!