Foster-Homing A Sick Betta.. ***day 7 Update..pic Heavy**

[Channti]

So here's the sitch.
My friend has had this betta for about a year and a half. It's your average veil-tail betta. She's been keeping it in a bowl for that period of time. I'm not entirely sure on what kind of cleaning the bowl has undergone as her boyfriend has been caring for the fish for the past six months and refuses to answer any of my questions. She called me this evening concerned because when she picked up her fish from the ex, the edges of her bettas fins were black and it was lethargic.

She's bringing me the betta tomorrow afternoon (once I have it, I'll post some pictures), but I suspect that it has finrot (from the dirty water, as I'm certain her ex-boyfriend was slacking on the maintenance). I've convinced her to move the betta into a proper filtered tank this summer, but for now, the only tank space I have is a 1.5 gallon bowl with a DIY sponge filter (still better than the unfiltered bowl he's in now).

If I've diagnosed this correctly over the phone and it is indeed finrot, besides the typical 1/2 dose of melafix and frequent water changes, is there anything else can I do to speed this betta to a healthy recovery?. I'm planning to get it onto some decent foods (I've got blood worms, shrimp pellets, and hikari betta bio-gold pellets <the old formula..not the new one>, with 1/4 of a pea once a week).

 

[BethK]

More frequent water changes too? Rather than the 5 day (if that's how you do it), try every 2 - 3 days, if it keeps the water quality up. Have you got real plants in your set up?

I would post this in the emergency fish section, you'll get more of a response I think (or making a new thread and posting this link rather than redoing it all).

Use tetracycline or Ampicillin to treat and combine it with a fungal eliminate.

I found this picture of a betta with fin rot, if it might help a little;

But if it is advanced fin rot, you may need to treat the water for over 4 weeks and possibly over dosing to help but I am sure someone else will be able to let you know more info. I am only going by what a friend did with her betta that had a severe case.

But I will say that this will take a lot of dedication, esp if the current owners have ignored the illness signs.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Daily water changes, change a little every day.

 

[silverrabbit]

Hope you manage to help the little guy

 

[Channti]

I will definitely update this thread once I get the fish in my hands and while I'm working on "fixing it" for Alex. She's really lucky that I haven't met her ex boyfriend in person... I'd probably hit him for letting a fish get sick without doing anything about it.

 

[BethK]

It will take a lot of dedication to get him back to 'normal' and to keep him that way.

Do you know what size tank she has now? If she hasn't got a decent size, pets 4 home stores sell 17ltr tanks for £17 - £20, with the filtration and she can get a 25w heater for £8 on ebay. Let me know if she needs any equipment, as I have a few odds and ends laying about, that I do not use, if I can get the money for the postage, more than happy to send it, unless you/her can get down to Berkshire x

 

[Channti]

Really appreciate that,but I'm in Canada and postage would cost you a ton.

She's got a 5 gallon sitting at home, which I plan to set up for her in July/August when we're back together (the university school year is coming to and end here right now, and we live 4 hours away when we're at "home"). She's got all the equipment, she just didn't think a betta needed it(stupid petstore advice...), so she kept it in one of those awful cube things. My 5 gallon here is filtered but runs without a heater because, even without a heater, it runs at a steady 29 degrees, 27 at night. I'm planning to put her betta in the 1.5 gallon bowl I have with a DIY sponge filter and some gravel from my tank... I figure that should be a decent temporary home for it, and better than the conditions its living in now. Hopefully I can at least start the reversal process for the damage that has been done, and then set her up to continue to treatments. I should have the betta some time in the next 12 hours in my hands... *fingers crossed* that it survives the 3 hour car trip to the university.

 

[BethK]

Ah ok, no probs.

A smaller tank is better for a sick fish, makes the water changes easier. Tell her not to feed the fish, they travel better with no food in them.

Let us know how it goes x

 

[Channti]

Built a new sponge filter this afternoon for the tank with some 8-month old filter sponge from my betta tank, some gravel, an old pill bottle and some plastic mesh leftover from my tank divider... it seems to work fairly well, but not quite as good as the last one I made. Should work well enough for my purposes though. Set the bowl up with a couple of plastic plants I had lying around (my bettas get stressed if I move their plants around so I couldn't steal any of their silk plants. They're very possessive.)

The betta is arriving in an hour or so, once it arrives, I'll post some pix of it, but this is the setup its going into... The water is already dechlorinated, treated with bettafix, and ready to go. I'm going to head up to the pet store tomorrow morning to pick up some meds, but for now, the bettafix is all I've got. I've made a lid for the bowl out of a the lid off one of the cups my bettas came in and a ruler + some elastics (it's slightly smaller than the rim of the bowl, so it's suspended from the ruler, but will prevent the betta from jumping out.

*edit*.... excuse the mess in the background, that's the side of my fridge, a VCR (old-school... I know, we have VHS nights, we're that cool.), part of my TV, and some various fish stuffs (Melafix, a breeder box I was using for isolation and storage, and other stuffs).

 

[Channti]

So; the black edging is looking like fin rot. The bowl is running at a steady 26 degrees, expecting it to go down to 22-24 degrees tonight (gradual change...) If this is too cold, I have a heater for a 5 gallon tank (I think it's 25 watt... whatever the wattage for a 5 gallon heater is...)... but I'm thinking its probably too powerful for a 1.5 gallon bowl, and that the bowl will be okay even if its not necessarily ideal.

Besides the fin rot, the fish looks healthy, although chubbier than my bettas so I suspect some overfeeding. The anal-fin (I think that's the anal fin on a betta.. the big wide one on the underside of its body) is showing some new growth so I'm suspecting that it was torn or ripped in the past few months. He's a lot more passive than my bettas... it took quite a bit to get him to flare so I could see his fins properly.

I'm headed to the pet store tomorrow... As I've only ever treated Fin Rot on guppies, and i know the needs for bettas are different, what medications should I look at for the betta?.

 

[BethK]

Poor fishy xx

Try keeping the water at 24c or above, it's more comfortable for him then.

Least it's not as bad as first thought, good luck and keep us posted x

 

[LilyRose Tank]

good luck honey, to be honest, although it does look like finrot, its in its early stages i hope, he certainly hasnt lost a lot of finnage. good luck helping poor fishy. beauty that he is. xx

 

[loraxchick]

if he has lived in that bowl for a while, and the water parameters are poor (ie lots of ammonia) the black is likely from poor water quality (ammonia burns) and not actual finrot. i would keep up with water changes(50% every day for a week or 2) and see if the black edging improves. i wouldnt medicate just yet.
cheers

 

[Channti]

UPDATE ON JAYLA (....she's convinced that her MALE betta is a girl.... *sigh*. not going to argue with her, I've been calling him Jay.. )

He's eating, taking Hikari Betta bio-gold pellets from me, and I'm planning to drop in a blood worm or two later this evening... possibly a shrimp pellet.. as my bettas ADORE them. I'm planning 50% daily water changes (already did one for today). Headed to the pet store to have the water he was brought to me in tested as well as my own tank water (my test kit is at home, and I'm fighting an algae problem.) Ammonia burns are sounding likely for his fins, as opposed to fin rot, as they're not as ragged as the finrot was in the guppies I have at home. In the bowl, after just 24 hours, he's already much more active, having staring competitions with the betta-next-door, and just all around exploring (Alpha is in his line of sight, but neither of them flare or have a clear view of each other). He's obviously not used to water moving, as he's been blasted in the face with a few bubbles from the sponge filter and keeps going back for more .

Alex asked me why we couldn't just cut the black parts off and let him regrow them as he'll be in clean water from now on... I couldn't answer her question, mainly because I didn't know HOW to answer it. Is that even possible?.

At the pet store, I plan to dig around in their meds aisle looking for something for finrot to keep on hand just in case... I seem to be prepared for just about every other illness EXCEPT finrot. I've decided that BettaFix is a pain in the you-know-what because the bowl requires TWENTY SEVEN drops of it.

I've convinced Alex to set up the 5 gallon, and have offered her a bunch of my extra fishstuffs that I have laying around (Gravel, plastic plants <while not ideal... they'll work temporarily for a betta>, a few old ornaments, etc). Her only expense in setting up the tank is gonna be a few dollars for some new lightbulbs, and whatever her filter material costs her (Turns out, she's got an AquaClear Mini at home, so that'll be perfect!)

 

[Lacuna]

Alex asked me why we couldn't just cut the black parts off and let him regrow them as he'll be in clean water from now on... I couldn't answer her question, mainly because I didn't know HOW to answer it. Is that even possible?.

If any bits of his fins are completely dead I'm pretty sure they will just drop off by themselves. I wouldn't go cutting his fins as you don't want to risk cutting healthy tissue, and it would probably just stress him out.

Good luck with him, I hope he gets better.