My Poor Betta

[Dae]

Hello again!

If anyone read my previous emergency with this betta, they'll know what I'm talking about. If not, here's the original post here.

Anyways, now this betta is homed in a brand new tank. I used filter media & a log w/ anubias on it, added water from another tank halfway, then filled the rest with tap water. Conditioned it, and voila. Now, not only a few days later, I think my poor betta has ich!

The tank I gained the water from doesn't have ich, as none of the fish in there exhibit any symptoms (ie: no white spots, lethargy, lack of appetite, etc.) I know how to treat this, but as I have no experience with ich before, I wanted to know whether it was really ich or not. Also, I want to know if cyphoning the rocks really well and then treating the tank will have any damage to the bacteria I just started getting in there. As it's a brand new tank, I'm not sure whether to go full-out with the high temps, full clean, and dosing?

Here's some photos to show what I'm looking at. What's not showing is there's a few spots on the left fin, not just one.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

always a bit hard to ID ich from pictures (although those pics are pretty good) do the white bits look like grains of sand sat on the body?

it is fairly likley to be ich though, after the stressfull few days he's had it wouldn't be a surprise to pick something like this up. get onto dosing the tank up quickly and you should fix it no problem. i recommend king british ws3 for ich.

 

[Dae]

Thanks for that. Even though I have a dslr, it still has troubles taking pics of fish, very frustrating!

I too think it's ich, they're little tiny salt grains, the poor thing. He's been through so much already, I hate that he's gained this now. I've never ever had it in the 3 yrs I've been fishkeeping now, so I'm shocked I've managed to get this. I'm also surprised because he's showing no other symptoms, he's still energetic and hungry!

I'll try and get some meds asap, but may not be able to get them until tomorrow. Do you know whether bettas can accept as high a temp as 30c??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah tiny salt grains is the best way to describe ich so i'd say that's what he's got.

for the time being make sure the water conditions are immaculate, get him some healthy food in him.

not positive so check with the betta section, but i think they can take temps of 30oC, get some extra aeration in the water to compensate though.

 

[Dae]

Thanks, I'll check over there to be sure.

Will give the gravel a bit of a clean, and I'll steal the bubbler from the small tank to add some more aeration. But I still won't be able to get meds until tomorrow. Having only one car between me and my husband is extremely inconvenient sometimes. Hopefully, he only has a few spots, I can only hope he won't get too much worse overnight.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aye, for this very reason i keep a fish medicine cabinet at home

just try and keep some pimafix, melafix and ws3 in at all times as that'll cure you're basic problems meaning you can get on with treatment straight away

 

[Dae]

I know, I should

I have some treatments for fin-rot and the like, but that's not for ich. I've just had so few illnesses it's never even occurred to me to keep some basic medicines. They do say hindsight is 20/20 *sigh*

I'll see what I can do to get my hubby to pick up something on the way home, if he has enough £ on him. If only I had a car! I'm in a little village, so getting to a LFS is not really an option.

 

[Cory_Dad]

Hi Dae.

I just read in a book last night that the ich parasite could be in your tank but kept in check because the a healthy fish's immune system. So when you too k the water from the other tank you could have brought over some of the parasites. The Beta, just in recovery, has a depressed immune system so bam!

As for treatment, a product containing formalin and/or malachite green works well.

Good luck.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I know, I should

I have some treatments for fin-rot and the like, but that's not for ich. I've just had so few illnesses it's never even occurred to me to keep some basic medicines. They do say hindsight is 20/20 *sigh*

I'll see what I can do to get my hubby to pick up something on the way home, if he has enough £ on him. If only I had a car! I'm in a little village, so getting to a LFS is not really an option.

all easy with hindsight isn't it!

well good luck getting some meds, keep us posted with his recovery

 

[Dae]

Corydad, thanks for that. I don't know about ich laying dormant in a tank, but in either case, the fish in the tank I took the water from are not showing any symptoms or spots. I'll be keeping an eye on everybody.

Thanks miss wiggle! Here's my tiny update:

I had a bit of luck and my husband was able to pick up the meds on the way home. We went with Interpet #6 as king british wasn't stocked there.

I gave the tank a bit of a siphon and hoovered the gravel. I didn't want to go crazy as I just set this tank up, I didn't want to cause the cycle to crash and restart by taking out too much. I dosed the tank and started raising the temps, it's now hovering just below 30C at the moment. I did also add some extra aeration even though the betta DOES have a labyrinth lung and probably doesn't need it. Betta is still happy as anything in there at the moment, energetic and hungry! His spots are already starting to disappear, which is great. Will let you all know how it goes in a few days when I go to redose the tank on Tuesday.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

brilliant, sounds like you've got it covered and he should make a good recovery

 

[Dae]

Time for an update: I've now got the betta on the 2nd dosing for white spot, and he still seems to be doing well. I can't find any white spots on him now. But I'll continue treatment anyways, and will do the last dose next tuesday. It doesn't say it's necessary, but I'll do it anyways just to be absolutely sure. Then I'll likely start turning down the temp, put the carbon back in the filter, and give the tank a water change.

As it turns out, corydad was correct, the small tank I had the betta in before with other fish also developed a case of white spot. Not nice! So this one is also under treatment, with a 2nd dosing due this thursday.

That's all in a nutshell, if anyone can give me more advice or tips, I'm more than pleased to hear them. Thanks everyone who've already given me valuable advice.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad the betta is on the mend, you're right to finish off the course of meds, just like if the doc prescribes you antibiotics, even if you feel better you should always finish the course

looks like you've got it all under control anyway and hopefully both tanks will be ich free in a few days

 

[Dae]

Just wanted to give one last update, and also to thank everyone who gave me great advice. Thanks to what help i got here, i was able to minimize the damage to my tanks.

The betta is doing fantastically well, and has really settled in now. No sign of any whitespot now, and I'm in the process of lowering the temp once again to about 26. He HATED flakes food, so he's now on sinking granuals at the moment, which actually are so light they float for a bit before sinking. Perfect for him and he loves them. I haven't found any betta food yet and I'm not pushing my DH on it as he's still disgusted on spending so much on one fish

The other tank (where the betta got the white spot) is doing much better as well, I seem to have caught it in time to save most of the fish. I still lost a few in this tank, which just must've been too weak to fight it off. I'm quite sad about that, but all the others seem to be doing well.

Again, thanks to everyone, especially miss wiggle, for all the help I was given.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks for the update, glad you managed to get it all under control and minimise the damage