Help, lethargic heavily breathing betta

[Kristen]

Hello all,

Need some help with my Betta. I’ve had him for a year and a half, not sure how old he was when I got him. For the past week he has been lying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavy through his gills. His color looks good, no evidence of ick or fun rot. He comes up for food 1-3 times a day but immediately returns to the bottom of the tank.
Parameters
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
KH: 0
GH: 120
pH: 7.0

Those have been the same stable numbers every 1-2x per week I do 40-50% water changes.

Nothing precipitated this behavior, just happened out of the blue. I’ve tried Bettafix, parasite remedy by imagination, Betta plus. I’ve done 30-50% water changes every other day with no improvement.

I’m out of ideas of what could be wrong, any suggestions??

He also has been darting alot, he’ll come up for food then dart quickly to the bottom. Haven’t noticed him rubbing against his decor or plants. I have attached a picture and a video...

 

[Kristen]

Sorry got a better video, the first one was right after a 50% water change so some debris were still floating around.

 

[Colin_T]

He is definitely not a happy fish. Do you use a fish only bucket for water changes, or do you grab any bucket in the house?

Turn the filter off of a few minutes and see if there is an oily film on the surface.

Make sure you don't have any creams, perfume, oil, grease or any other products on your hands when feeding the fish or working on the tank.

Make sure you don't use any sprays (hair, bug, air fresheners, etc), smoke, paint or do anything in the room that has fumes.

Are his eyes sticking out more than normal, they look like they are in the first video, altho it could be the angle of the video.

Have you got carbon in the filter?
If no, then you could try adding some activate or highly activate carbon to the filter. You buy it from any pet shop and give it a quick rinse under some tap water to remove the dust, then add to the filter. It should come in a mesh bag, if it doesn't you can use the leg off a pr of stockings to put the carbon in and tie the open end up, then put that in the filter.

If there is no improvement after a few days of using carbon you could try Paziquantel. It is used for treating tapeworm in cats and dogs but also treats tapeworm, gill flukes and some protozoan infections in fish. Gill flukes might be the cause.

 

[Colin_T]

There are 2 links about this so if one of the mods could merge them it would be groovy

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/help-lethargic-heavy-breathing-betta.449148/#post-3796818

 

[Kristen]

There are 2 links about this so if one of the mods could merge them it would be groovy

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/help-lethargic-heavy-breathing-betta.449148/#post-3796818

Sorry about the double post, I’m new to the forum and wasn’t sure where the best place to post would be

Anyways I use a fish only bucket, never been used for anything but tank water changes.

I have a carbon filter in place, change weekly with water changes.

I have the paziquantal coming in today, had to order online since the petco in town didn’t have any.

He seems a little better today, had his fins fanned out. I did notice now that he’s not laying at the bottom that his fins look a little raggedy though. Could fin rot cause his other symptoms?

 

[Colin_T]

Fin rot is caused by poor water quality damaging the fins and allowing bacteria to infect the damaged tissue.

General symptoms of fin rot include split fins, milky white edge to the tail and fins, red lines running through the fins & tail.

Your water quality is good and the fish shows no signs of fin rot. He is having breathing problems and is lethargic, but he still eats, and looks in reasonably good health. He either has a gill problem that started a week ago or he has been poisoned by something.

The most common gill problems are flukes and Praziquantel will deal with that. Then there are bacterial and fungal infections that can infect the gills but they are uncommon.

There is a possibility he was stressed and the medication you used upset him more and he just needs a few weeks to recover.

Has anything new has been added to his tank just before he came down with this?
Did you do anything to his tank just before this started?

 

[Kristen]

Fin rot is caused by poor water quality damaging the fins and allowing bacteria to infect the damaged tissue.

General symptoms of fin rot include split fins, milky white edge to the tail and fins, red lines running through the fins & tail.

Your water quality is good and the fish shows no signs of fin rot. He is having breathing problems and is lethargic, but he still eats, and looks in reasonably good health. He either has a gill problem that started a week ago or he has been poisoned by something.

The most common gill problems are flukes and Praziquantel will deal with that. Then there are bacterial and fungal infections that can infect the gills but they are uncommon.

There is a possibility he was stressed and the medication you used upset him more and he just needs a few weeks to recover.

Has anything new has been added to his tank just before he came down with this?
Did you do anything to his tank just before this started?

Thank you for the quick response. I did not add anything or change anything in his tank prior to his condition. Everything has been the same with his food, water, and tank changes. The decor has been the same. Once he became like this I scrubbed the decor of any remaining algae (with water and a paper towel).

I’ll try the praziquantel today if he still looks ill. Hopefully he’s on the mend though /

 

[MollyJustMolly]

Hello all,

Need some help with my Betta. I’ve had him for a year and a half, not sure how old he was when I got him. For the past week he has been lying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavy through his gills. His color looks good, no evidence of ick or fun rot. He comes up for food 1-3 times a day but immediately returns to the bottom of the tank.
Parameters
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
KH: 0
GH: 120
pH: 7.0

Those have been the same stable numbers every 1-2x per week I do 40-50% water changes.

Nothing precipitated this behavior, just happened out of the blue. I’ve tried Bettafix, parasite remedy by imagination, Betta plus. I’ve done 30-50% water changes every other day with no improvement.

I’m out of ideas of what could be wrong, any suggestions??

He also has been darting alot, he’ll come up for food then dart quickly to the bottom. Haven’t noticed him rubbing against his decor or plants. I have attached a picture and a video...

Weird thing to say but stop feeding him for two days. My betta did that one time because she was literally just constipated. He looks extremely healthy but a bit round in the tummy. I did this for my girl and after that she was back to her normal spunky self. Sometimes after doing that it’s good to switch up the food and give them a couple blood worms.

 

[Kristen]

Update: tried beta revive for 3 days with no improvement and now api general cure. Instead of laying on the bottom of the tank, he went into hiding in one of his caves. He came out of hiding finally and though his breathing is better, one fin looks inflamed still and now his scales on his left side looks raggedy. Anyone know how long it takes for api general cure to work? He stopped eating two days ago as well .

 

[roushaa624]

hi, my fish is doing the same thing now. how did your fish end up doing? did you find anything that worked?

 

[Barry Tetra]

hi, my fish is doing the same thing now. how did your fish end up doing? did you find anything that worked?

This is an old post, please start a new thread. @essjay

 

[Essjay]

The OP hasn't been on the site since August 2018 so you are unlikely to receive a reply.

Please start a new thread in the Betta or Emergencies forum.

I have locked this thread to new replies.