Possibly Sick Betta

[catxx]

my newest betta (had for about 2 months now) has, for about 4-5 days now, swimming around almost permanently stress striped and spitting out his food. he's had a water change, and has water changes once a week, the tank has been running in its current state for almost 2 years (filtered, heated 5 gallon hex) and he's the only creature in the tank. the feeding regime has not changed, and my other 3 bettas are fed the same and they're fine. he's beginning to look a little...portly...so had mashed pea and a starve day yesterday...he still spat out the proffered pellet this morning (it's Attison Betta Pro pellets, never had a betta refuse one up until now).

he still flares when a mirror is put in front of, and loses the stripes when he does so. he still actively swims around the tank and is not otherwise lethargic.

could it just be a bit of a poopy blockage? any ideas?

 

[rabbut]

Hum...hard to say for shure what it could be. Do you have any water stats? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH would be good

From what you have posted, we could be looking at one of two, mebe three;

Constipation
Bacterial infection

Are any of his scales raised? How often do you feed what? for example, granules every day each week, excluding saturday bloodworm and sunday fast.... This would also be useful to know.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[catxx]

i feed once in the morning and once in the evening, only one or two pellets each time, and attison betta pro, so no shoddy crap pellets. every now and again they get jellied daphnia or brine shrimp. and i try and do a starve day or half day once a week. his body condition apart from the stripes and the slight bloating is otherwise healthy, no fin rot not nothing. he gets a 20% water change once a week without fail.

i am currently lacking an ammonia test, but the nitrite is at a safe level under 0.3. and with him being the only fish in the tank, and there being no inverts, i don't see how there could be any kind of ammonia spike really.

this evening he seems a little brighter and his colour looks better. i thought maybe he'd had a poop but i can't see it anywhere (sand substrate, would be obvious you'd think..oh and stir the sand at each water change.).

 

[rabbut]

I would speculate that you are looking at a case of constipation.

I say this because feeding dry feeds, regardless of quality, for a long period of time can caurse blockages in the digestive system. This is because they quickly break into smaller pices, thus ruffage is lost. It is this ruffage that the fish requires to push the meal through it's digestive tract. Lack of it can mean that the food clumps together after a while, in a lump that is too hard to move. This leads to constipation.

The general advice is to ensure that live or frozen foods are offered at least one day a week, to "flush" the digestive tract. Some speculate that this is best done the day before the fast day, to ensure the tract is clear for the next few rounds of food

The cure is as simple as prevention. Feed plenty of frozen or live feeds for the next few days, and the blockage should clear. More persistant blockages can be cleared with a bath in baking soda for 3 mins max, at a dosage of 1 tea spoon per 2 litres of water. This is a dip solution, so don't add the soda to the tank. Draw the water into a food safe container, then mix in the baking soda. Catch your fish and treat in the container. Once treatment is done, move back to the main tank. If the fish rolls over onto its side during the dip, move to the main tank immediately Keep an eye out for raising scales though, as this would indicate an infection, as would long white stringy poo.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[catxx]

baking soda is a new one on me. you sure you don't mean epsom salts? i've done epsom salt baths before. i can't have live foods, got nowhere to keep them, and my freezer is [] that big and my housemate doesn't quite get the need for bloodworms being in there...hehe. which is why is stick to the tetra fresh delica jellied ones.

 

[rabbut]

So long as the jellied ones are fresh, then they are ok I've never used them, but hear good things from those that do.

Epsoms salts I belive would work, but I do recall it being baking soda that works here, for the same reason some use it for cleaning . Epsom slats are mildly safer, but won't clear serious blockages IME.

Try Epsom salts first by all means, just leave it at least 24 hours before trying a different dip.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[catxx]

he's still appearing stressed and i'm hardly feeding at the moment as he's unwilling to eat. however, he's still actively swimming about and yet to appear lethargic. any kind of baths i want to do as a very last resort.

can anyone recommend any anti-internal bacteria meds available in the UK? i'm not sure whether to trust liquids added to the tank...do they really work? or is medicated fish food preferred? if so, who makes that stuff? i've only been able to find interpet no.9 anti-internal meds.

 

[WILDER]

Fish need a good balanced diet of frozen foods and veg.
Frozen daphnia very good at digesting a fish food.
I would cook some frozen peas for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell, mush between fingers into small pieces, and add to the tank.
Can you issolate the sick fish.
Anti internal bacteria med by interpet.
Uk bacterial meds are only good on mild bacteria infections.

 

[catxx]

wilder - he's alone in a 5 gallon tank anyway, he's always been isolated and has already had pea. i can't have frozen foods because there's no room in my weeny freezer which is shared between 3 people. he had jellied daphnia 2 days ago.

 

[WILDER]

There only epson salt baths left and havent seen great results from them yet.
How long did you treat with the interpet bacterial med.

 

[catxx]

no anti-internal meds at all, i don't have any. yet. i don't live near an aquatics store and can't get things delivered because i live in a block where things get theived, and can't get things delivered to work. not sure if i might be able to get out to somewhere next weekend.

 

[WILDER]

Next weekend could be to late.
Good luck.

 

[catxx]

this morning he's showing signs of dropsy. started him on a course of anti-internal bacteria meds on thursday, he had an epsom salt bath a short while ago. le sigh.

it's times like these you want to give up fishkeeping. i was really proud of this boy, he's my only boy who looked truely healthy (i have 2 elderly thin bettas, both with tail damage (they came to me with the damage) and one halfmoon tailbiter) and now it looks like i'm going to lose him.

really upset me

 

[catxx]

i found him this morning wedged into a hole in the bogwood (a hole i didn't know existed) just with his tail sticking out. he died during the night. he had some injuries to his head, so whether he just got stuck and died or the internal whateveritwas killed him, we'll never know.

he's now buried in my peace lilly pot with 2 other bettas who died of natural causes.

next step - how to cleanse this tank? i had a betta die of unknown causes then dropsy a couple of years ago, i'd only had him for a month, i was gutted then as well, but after him i completely tore down the tank and put it through the nitrogen cycle. but now i like the way this tank looks so would rather avoid that. suggestions?

 

[WILDER]

Sorry I forgot I had replyed to this thread,
R.I.P.
You can clean the tank in a salt solution then rinse well, and then let the tank dry out for aday.
You don't have to strip the tank down and start again, dropsy only contagious if a fish pecks on the dead body.