Help again please

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Sylvan

Fishaholic
Joined
Jul 27, 2019
Messages
437
Reaction score
405
I noticed at the start of the week/end of last week, I can't remember the exact day, that the dark Betta had white spot, fins and body covered in little white dots so I've been doing daily water changes of 75%, turned up the heat and added some aquarium salt in. I am making the assumption that he was the first one to start with it but it could easily have been the white one because there's no chance of seeing it on him.
After a couple of days it looked like things were improving, there was less white spot visible, the fish looked a bit happier again and I was optimistic. I'm still doing daily water changes and keeping the heat up as I've read on here to do it for 2 weeks so I was fully committed to that. Then it returned with a vengeance, the dark one was really covered and I saw it on the red and white one's fins for the first time.
Since then they all look thoroughly miserable but it's the white one I'm most concerned about. I noticed the other day he had had a chew on his fins, I could see blood in them, but wasn't overly concerned as I just assumed if they were itching because of the white spot he might have tried to get rid of the itch. I've come home from work and he has a raging fungal infection on his dorsal and tail fins, it looks like someone has stuck cotton the wool on him. I initially thought one of his pectoral fins was gone but it was just clamped to his side.
I don't know what to do now, will the treatment I've been doing for white spot work or is this exacerbating the fungal problem? Do I start looking at actually medicating the tank?
I will get pictures when I get home, I spotted it just as I got the dogs ready for a walk.
 
Is the water temperature 30C (86F)?
The water needs to be at 30C to kill the whitespot parasite. If it's 28 or 29C it doesn't kill them.

If it is 30C and the whitespot is back, get a broad spectrum fish medication that treats external protozoan infections (whitespot, velvet, costia, etc), bacteria and fungal infections. Look for something that contains Malachite Green, Formaldehyde/ Formalin, and Methylene Blue or Acriflavine.

--------------------------
Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank with the formula below:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the tank.

Turn the heater down to 26C (79F).

--------------------------
If you have catfish, loaches or eels in the tank, look for a medication that is safe for scaleless fish. If you can't find one for scaleless fish, use the normal medication at half strength.
 
20191006_191819.jpg
This is the best picture I could get.
 
Yep it's at 30C. All water is treated with Tetra Aqua safe which is thoroughly mixed in and then left to stand for a bit before I put it in. I turned the pump up and turned it more to the surface when I turned the heat as I'd read heat takes oxygen out of the water. I will stop at the shop tomorrow then and pick something up
 
Unfortunately the white one has died, I was doing the water change and noticed he had gone. Hopefully I can keep the other two alive.
 
This is the dark Betta as he is now.
20191006_232954.jpg
 
I bought some interpret white spot + as it was the only one in the shop with malachite green and formaldehyde in and have medicated the tank. On the positive side they are both still eating and on the negative side they look very ill especial the red and white one, I won't be very surprised if I lose him too.
 
Further update, the dark one just died as well. I dosed according to the calculator and repeated as per the instructions on the box but made no difference. The red and white is still hanging on, I suspect probably due to the fact he was the best water of the 3 so has more reserves to draw on but the way things have gone I'm not holding out much hope for his recovery.
 
You are doing your best for these poor guys.
I'm trying though it doesn't feel like it especially as I had been debating taking the dark one out and euthanising it but held off just in case he turned a corner and now I wish I had. The red and white looked a bit livelier this morning just before I left the house so I'm hoping I can get some food into him when I get home and hopefully he might make it. Just gutted about the other 2 as they were a lovely looking pair of fish and it wasn't the nicest way to go, to put it mildly.
 
They were beautiful. All we can do is all we can do.
 
They were beautiful. All we can do is all we can do.

That is very true. The red and white seemed better today, he was up and swimming a bit, more than yesterday and I managed to get some food into him so hopefully he might have turned a corner. He's looking a little bit bloated but bearing in mind for the last few days he's been on the bottom and barely moved a muscle I'm not overly surprised, it wouldn't shock me if he had something similar to a gassy colic going on as well from not moving. Hopefully the swimming he did might have got things moving again. I did debate not feeding but he's not eaten for a few days and on the balance of things I'd rather get some food into him to give him energy to fight off the bigger problem.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top