New beta fish has problems

[David P.]

Hello, I have an issue with my beta fish that I’ve had for about a week. It’s been sluggish for the past two or three days and now I’m noticing what I think are raised scales. Never dealt with this before. Going to attach pictures so hopefully someone can help.

It’s a PetSmart fish so it might’ve had something before I got it, but it did have a pretty stressful move into my tank. The main reason I got it was because my one year-old grabbed its jar at the store and broke it on the ground. Panic ensued and we decided it deserved a good life in our aquarium. But it never looked super comfortable to begin with in our tank, I think the other fish bothered it some. Then four or five days after getting it, it just really hasn’t moved off the bottom of the tank.

Some things about the tank. It’s well established with 5 neon tetras and 3 rummi nose tetras. 29 gallons. Don’t have any water quality issues. If you need to know more, just ask.

 

[Essjay29 144]

That does not look good. The photos show his scales are sticking out like a pine cone, which is the classic symptom of dropsy. This is not a disease itself, it's the outward sign of several internal diseases. These diseases could be bacterial, viral or protozoan and there's no way to tell which. The swelling and pineconing of the scales occur when the fish's kidneys fail and fluid collects in the body.

I'm sorry to say that when the disease reaches this stage, there is nothing that can be done. The kindest thing to do for the fish is to put him to sleep. The best way to do this is by using clove oil. This is an old toothache remedy which acts as a fish anaesthetic, and can usually be bought as a small bottle in a pharmacy.
This is taken from the RSPCA website in the UK. For fish the size of a betta they recommend using 0.4 ml clove oil per litre of aquarium water (or about 15 drops per half gallon)

For this method of euthanasia, some of the aquarium water is placed into a clean bucket, and then the fish to be euthanased is caught and placed into this bucket. The clove oil should be mixed with a little warm water first before it is slowly added to the bucket containing the fish to be euthanased. The clove oil must not be added all at once as this can cause the fish to get excited – rather the clove oil mix must be added slowly over a 5-minute period.

Clove oil smells so the bucket and container used to prepare the clove oil can't be used for anything else afterwards.


Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

 

[Lcc86]

I would say he probably had some sort of illness before you got him unfortunately, and agree that euthanasia is the kindest option for him now.

 

[David P.]

Thanks for your replies. I had done some researching and basically came to the same conclusion. Currently have her in a separate tank with salt and antibiotic, but ordered the oil (was already supposed to be here) and will probably use it as soon as I get it.

 

[Essjay29 144]

It is the kindest thing you can do for the fish, but it's never easy having to put a fish down

 

[David P.]

Thank you for the encouraging words. It’s done now. Really hated doing that, but any creature that I take care of will always get my best effort and I think y’all were right. In this moment, this was the best thing to do.