UniquityBelgians
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- May 5, 2011
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Hi everyone, I'm new here! Been meaning to join a fish forum for a while but haven't had too much of a reason until now.
I have two female bettas I'm worried about. Well, one seems to be recovering but one is quite ill. She had been mopey for a few days and I was pretty sure it was because the water was in poor condition; My daughter dumped ALOT of fish food in by mistake and it clouded the water up. Took me ages to scoop it all out with a net, but even after that it wasn't great, it even plugged up my filter. A few days after that, I noticed the betta scratching herself against one of the plastic plants, and keeping herself sucked onto the head of the filter (on purpose) as if something was really bothering her skin. Her fins suddenly looked deteriorated; My fish are in a community tank but nobody bothers eachother so I know someone wasn't biting her fins; I figured she was getting finrot, so I planned to get some meds the next day. Well the next day her scales raised and it appears she has dropsy. That was yesterday. I went out immediatly yesterday and bought two kinds of antibiotics, antifungal, and meds for internal/external parasites. I kept reading that dropsy is a symptom of another problem so I figured I'd better cover all my bases. I seperated her and treated her with those, as well as colloidal silver. I kept getting mixed opinions on how much water to change when a fish has dropsy; On the safe side I did a 100% water change to my tank (which actually seemed to make all of my fish ALOT happier) so I'm glad I did).
Anyways, she's secluded in a bowl now. Her scales have raised more. Her eyes are large and bulging, though don't appear nearly as big as the pictures of popeye that I see online. They have turned a sickeningly pale colour. She won't eat. She barely moves, but I must say that she's moving a tiny bit more since medicating her yesterday. She has a white line across her head that wsn't there before. Her fins are clumped and torn apart.
Does anyone know what else I can do for her? I read that most bettas with dropsy will die. I really don't want her to die. The antibiotics I got are primarily tea tree oil -- Does anyone know if I can add diluted oil of oregano to the water? I use that to treat nearly everything and it works great.
My other betta, I believe is on the mend. She started out spitting up everything she ate for days. Then she also started scratching herself on the plants, to the point of open sores. She stayed fairly active, though less than usual. She began looking a bit "cloudy" around her face (the pigment wasn't right) so I figured fungal ifnection? Fins/tail looked normal. Her colour was pale and she showed stress lines until I did the 100% water change and then it was like a night/day change. Her colour was vibrant again, and since administering the meds yesterday she has stopped scratching and today she began eating like MAD, she couldn't get enough food. The colour around her head is still cloudy and her gills are really red, but I think she'll be okay.
I think the fish food incedent was really the catalyst. The only other changes in the tank were over a month ago. I added some guppies, and I switched one of my cories over to this tank because he wasn't happy being in the only cory in the 5 gallon bowl with my male betta. Since adding the guppies I have noticed the tank is alot more prone to algae, despite three of my fish being algae eaters (going to get some more now), so I got rid of 3/4 of the guppies and have just the prettiest four now.
Anyways, any ideas? Would love to know something else I can give my betta to try and make her better. Also, the medications say to take the carbon cartridge out of the filter. Any idea how long till I can put it back in? I have to administer the meds every day for 7 days and that seems like a long time to have no cartridge in the filter. Thanks in advance!
This is my really sick betta, before she was sick:
And this is my one that's doing better (this was shortly after I got her, she wasn't happy yet lol):
Jordan
I have two female bettas I'm worried about. Well, one seems to be recovering but one is quite ill. She had been mopey for a few days and I was pretty sure it was because the water was in poor condition; My daughter dumped ALOT of fish food in by mistake and it clouded the water up. Took me ages to scoop it all out with a net, but even after that it wasn't great, it even plugged up my filter. A few days after that, I noticed the betta scratching herself against one of the plastic plants, and keeping herself sucked onto the head of the filter (on purpose) as if something was really bothering her skin. Her fins suddenly looked deteriorated; My fish are in a community tank but nobody bothers eachother so I know someone wasn't biting her fins; I figured she was getting finrot, so I planned to get some meds the next day. Well the next day her scales raised and it appears she has dropsy. That was yesterday. I went out immediatly yesterday and bought two kinds of antibiotics, antifungal, and meds for internal/external parasites. I kept reading that dropsy is a symptom of another problem so I figured I'd better cover all my bases. I seperated her and treated her with those, as well as colloidal silver. I kept getting mixed opinions on how much water to change when a fish has dropsy; On the safe side I did a 100% water change to my tank (which actually seemed to make all of my fish ALOT happier) so I'm glad I did).
Anyways, she's secluded in a bowl now. Her scales have raised more. Her eyes are large and bulging, though don't appear nearly as big as the pictures of popeye that I see online. They have turned a sickeningly pale colour. She won't eat. She barely moves, but I must say that she's moving a tiny bit more since medicating her yesterday. She has a white line across her head that wsn't there before. Her fins are clumped and torn apart.
Does anyone know what else I can do for her? I read that most bettas with dropsy will die. I really don't want her to die. The antibiotics I got are primarily tea tree oil -- Does anyone know if I can add diluted oil of oregano to the water? I use that to treat nearly everything and it works great.
My other betta, I believe is on the mend. She started out spitting up everything she ate for days. Then she also started scratching herself on the plants, to the point of open sores. She stayed fairly active, though less than usual. She began looking a bit "cloudy" around her face (the pigment wasn't right) so I figured fungal ifnection? Fins/tail looked normal. Her colour was pale and she showed stress lines until I did the 100% water change and then it was like a night/day change. Her colour was vibrant again, and since administering the meds yesterday she has stopped scratching and today she began eating like MAD, she couldn't get enough food. The colour around her head is still cloudy and her gills are really red, but I think she'll be okay.
I think the fish food incedent was really the catalyst. The only other changes in the tank were over a month ago. I added some guppies, and I switched one of my cories over to this tank because he wasn't happy being in the only cory in the 5 gallon bowl with my male betta. Since adding the guppies I have noticed the tank is alot more prone to algae, despite three of my fish being algae eaters (going to get some more now), so I got rid of 3/4 of the guppies and have just the prettiest four now.
Anyways, any ideas? Would love to know something else I can give my betta to try and make her better. Also, the medications say to take the carbon cartridge out of the filter. Any idea how long till I can put it back in? I have to administer the meds every day for 7 days and that seems like a long time to have no cartridge in the filter. Thanks in advance!
This is my really sick betta, before she was sick:
And this is my one that's doing better (this was shortly after I got her, she wasn't happy yet lol):
Jordan
