Help! My Betta Very Sick, Maybe Dying!

[wendyngd]

I've just posted this at emergencies, etc., but realized that I should go directly to BETTA LOVERS LIKE ME!

Please help--My Betta seems to be going down hill!! I love him. I'm heartbroken!

Request Help I think my beautiful purple Betta's dying!

Tank size:10 gallon
pH:All of these were stable last night when my husband tested the water....
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 80 degrees f.



Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

listless, not eating, coat appears faded, rear fins look clumped. He's hanging out vertically in each corner of the tank at the top--responds to outside stimulation and every 15 minutes swims a lap or two around the tank and then comes back to float vertically again with his nose pressed into the corner of glass! Think there might be a small brown spot on his back--but hard to tell--might be his coloring.

OTHER FISH--3 adult mollies-have a little popeye!

--

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
He's been like this since last Thurs.. My husband and I immediately did a thorough cleaning of tank--vacuuming and a 75% water change--We do at least a 25% water change every week or so...


Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: My husband handles this--but I know he has used things like "PH up" or "Ph down" when needed, stresscoat, acquasol, maracyn 2 antibiotic

Tank inhabitants: Male Betta, 1 female balloon mollie, 1 female dalmatian mollie, 1 male dalmation mollie, 1 catfish, and about 12 month old mollie fry!

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): We recently let more and more (maybe 4 or 5) of the fry into to community tank from their "nursery pen." Then we removed it. We just added a little stone pillar thing- but that was days after Betta got sick!

Dried brine shrimp. Two months ago, Betta got sick when we starting feeding them bloodworms--think it was bacterial. We changed water (75%) then, treated tank with antibiotic (marasyn 2) and within a day, Betta was his old fluffy, friendly, playful self again.


Exposure to chemicals: ?


So we've tried one antibiotic, Maracyn 2 for the last several days---curing some of the mollies' popeye but not doing much of anything for Betta. Can anyone suggest another antibiiotic we could try? Was thinking of COPPERSAFE in case he has any parasites???

A colleague who is a major fishkeeper suggested that I "put him out of his misery" by putting him in a styrofoam cup of water into the freezer to help him slowly "go to sleep." MY HUSBAND AND I ARE NOT THERE YET!!WE'RE STILL WILLING TO TRY TO SAVE HIM.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! (I'll try to figure out how to download a picture of "Mr. droopy" from my digital camera to post here)

Wendy

 

[lisie]

I'm not really sure what it could be but just a couple things...

First, do NOT put him in the freezer. Despite what many may think, it is a very inhumane, painful way to euthanize any animal.

Your tank sounds like it's quite overstocked as well. I would try to get a bigger tank to move your fish into, and you should really do more, bigger water changes than weekly 25% ones. However, for right now, I would take your betta out of the tank and put him into his own tank. Even just a one gallon container of some sort would do, and do a complete water change every 2-3 days. This would allow him cleaner water, and would prevent the other fish from stressing him out in any way. You also don't want your other fish to get sick, or to medicate the healthy ones, especially with an antibiotic. Antibiotics should really not be used unless you know it's something bacterial, because the overuse of them can affect the fish's immune systems. I understand that you wanted to treat your mollies with popeye (which is usually due to water condition, by the way) but if you want to try something else for the betta, definitely isolate him from the others.

Anyway, I hope you figure out what's wrong with your little guy, and that he gets better.

 

[wendyngd]

I'm not really sure what it could be but just a couple things...

First, do NOT put him in the freezer. Despite what many may think, it is a very inhumane, painful way to euthanize any animal.

Your tank sounds like it's quite overstocked as well. I would try to get a bigger tank to move your fish into, and you should really do more, bigger water changes than weekly 25% ones. However, for right now, I would take your betta out of the tank and put him into his own tank. Even just a one gallon container of some sort would do, and do a complete water change every 2-3 days. This would allow him cleaner water, and would prevent the other fish from stressing him out in any way. You also don't want your other fish to get sick, or to medicate the healthy ones, especially with an antibiotic. Antibiotics should really not be used unless you know it's something bacterial, because the overuse of them can affect the fish's immune systems. I understand that you wanted to treat your mollies with popeye (which is usually due to water condition, by the way) but if you want to try something else for the betta, definitely isolate him from the others.

Anyway, I hope you figure out what's wrong with your little guy, and that he gets better.

/quote]


Thanks so much! I was wondering if he was overwhelmed by all these growing mollie fry--We don't have another heated, filtered tank--I'll see what I fcan come up with and.or afford.

I agree with you about not (freezing) him. We want to give him every chance to recover!

By the way, wherer in western NY are you. We were just up in Geneva on Lake Seneca for a college reunion and I still love that area-hope you're there--for your sake..hhhhaaa

Thanks again.
Wendy

 

[lisie]

Oh my gosh! Geneva's about a half hour from me! Too crazy!

Don't worry about filtration for the betta, it's not necessary as long as you do enough water changes. As for heating, maybe you can just put him somewhere warm?

 

[wendyngd]

Oh my gosh! Geneva's about a half hour from me! Too crazy!

Don't worry about filtration for the betta, it's not necessary as long as you do enough water changes. As for heating, maybe you can just put him somewhere warm?

Hi Western NY- Thanks to your great suggestions, went out last nt and picked up a 2 gallon glass bowl and some extra meds for Betta. He actually seemed to be doing a lot better last nt when we put him in there---swimming around a lot. STILL NOT EATING and scares me todeath when he lies so still in the foliage. But we're going to try --put maracyn and maracyn 2 in alone with the Copper--thing to fight parasites. And we're just gonna pray.

Thank you so much for your suggestions last nt. They made a lot of sense to me. I wondered if he might have been stressed out with --4 adult fish swimming around him in the 10 gal tank--but also the dozen active 1 month old mollie fry--zinging around th tank. That would stress me out. So we'll just hope for th best and keep giving him his meds...

Wendy.

 

[lisie]

Glad to hear he's a little better! Hopefully he'll continue to improve.

 

[wendyngd]

Glad to hear he's a little better! Hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Thanks much! I'm just concerned cause I cant get him to eat a thing --not even a little chicken soup (I sound like the real Jewish mother that I am!!)


Wendy