My Betta Wasn't Sick

[bymauldin]

A few days ago I posted on this forum because my betta was acting very sickly. He had acted sickly for several days. He was very lethargic, couldn't swim to the bottom of the tank, and had a swollen stomach. I started treating him with Tetracycline. I have treated him with 2 doses and now he's acting as if nothing was ever wrong. He's swimming all over the tank and his stomach has gone down. Maybe he was just constipated ...I put him on a 2 day fast.
My question is this....Do I stop treatment and do a 100% water change to get the meds out? Or should I only do 50% now and 50% later? Should I continue with the meds?
I know how stressful it is on a fish to treat them with meds when they aren't really sick...or treating them for something they don't have. I also know that once you start treatment you're not supposed to stop.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[ibbledibble]

personally i would complete the treatment, unfortunately what often happens (with human meds as well as fish meds) is people stop treatment when they see an improvement (oh i feel all better now, i won't take the last two days pills etc) but this causes a resistance to the medication in the bacteria so next time your fish/you gets sick the meds don't work quite so well.
maybe he has improved due to the meds, or maybe it was just constipation, but you can't know for sure which.
so i say carry on with the treatment for the recommended amount of time.
good luck with him

 

[Million]

Definitely finish the regime. You're using an antibiotic, and if you don't finish the course you're encouraging bacteria to develop resistance

 

[bymauldin]

That's what I was afraid of!! I totally understand though.

I do have a question about the meds...

I got the Tetracycline tablets. My betta is in a 1 gallon tank right now until he finishes his meds. I dissolved a tetracylcine tablet in 10 tsp of water. The first day I gave him a tsp dosage and yesterday I gave him a tsp dosage. Should I do a partial (1/4) water change today? Then continue with the meds-changing 1/4 of the water every couple of days? What would you suggest? There is no filtration.

Thanks.