Sick betta advice needed

[lynhagan]

I bought a betta two weeks ago and put in a 10 gallon fluval flex 34 l (filled to 30l with a filter sponge) tank that I had cycled with Seachem stability and Dennerle.
He was very small, a bit pale and I put a few plants and a catappa leaf in there with Seachem monitoring system.
HIs dorsal fin is clamped, he stays on the bottom or his bed leaf and spits food out (Dennerle betta booster).
I googled like hell and ordered some meds and a nitrate nitrite testing kit ( my nitrates are 0 and my nitrates are 2)
I just checked my p.h and it is around 6.2/3.
I got a 9 gallon hospital tank, nano heater, air stone, spong filter and some meds along with aquarium salt (I figure if he dies, I will have it all for another but hope it wont come to that because my kids are watching)
I took out the catappa leaf and plants which looked like some leaves were browned.
It looks like a white edge on his back fin - only the clamped fin alerted me something was wrong.

Should I keep him in the fluval and give him salt or Interpret Anti-fungus and Fin Rot or Interpret anti-bacteria
or move him (and if so, how so).

 

[foxgirl158]

What is your ammonia? Nitrite and nitrate are important, but ammonia is the one that kills the fastest if it builds up.

Pictures and a short video of him and the tank please? (Upload the video to YouTube then link it here)

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post pictures of the fish?

Clamped fins are normally caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the fish. The best treatment is big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate. This will dilute any nutrients or disease organisms in the water and should help buy you some time to get pictures and test the water for ammonia.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks. See how the fish looks after a couple of water changes. If there's no improvement after 2 big water changes, or it gets worse, post pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[lynhagan]

What is your ammonia? Nitrite and nitrate are important, but ammonia is the one that kills the fastest if it builds up.

Pictures and a short video of him and the tank please? (Upload the video to YouTube then link it here)

My ammonia is <0.02 so in the safe zone

 

[lynhagan]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Can you post pictures of the fish?

Clamped fins are normally caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the fish. The best treatment is big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate. This will dilute any nutrients or disease organisms in the water and should help buy you some time to get pictures and test the water for ammonia.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks. See how the fish looks after a couple of water changes. If there's no improvement after 2 big water changes, or it gets worse, post pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Thanks - it's great to have experts to ask. The water quality is too acidic I think? I took the catappa leaf out for that reason I can't figure out if having nitrates of 2 is bad or good (and if bad, whether to start to play with it or add more stability).

The fish is quite small (I'll get my boyfriend to take a photo with his better phone tonight and post it) but I can't remember if his fins were always this way. He was the only one available in the shop and I remember thinking he looked small and paler than normal (so wondering if sick then).

I've just diluted 3 tables spoons of aquarium salt to add (seems like this is ok) and I've bought some API test strips for chlorine etc which mine don't show.

If it gets worse, do I move him to a hospital tank and use the Interpret product?

Thanks guys
Lyn

I

 

[foxgirl158]

My ammonia is <0.02 so in the safe zone

Unfortunately, no amount of ammonia is ever safe, no matter how small. I would recommend a large water change whenever ammonia is present, 30-50%.

 

[lynhagan]

I have the Seachem Ammonia alert test kit - it says safe? I'll use test strips tonight to double check.

 

[Colin_T]

Post pictures of the fish before adding medications.

Normally if a fish is sick, just treat it in the fish's normal tank so you don't stress it out by chasing it and moving it. But post pictures first before anything else

 

[Naughts]

I'm not sure why you need to move him to another tank? Are there other fish in his tank?

That salt level sounds too high.

 

[lynhagan]

Photos of my betta Sammy attached. Small and difficult to photograph
Shall I do a water change then for the salt - I went on Aquarium Co-op advice
I have a 10 gallon tank filled to 30 litres.
I am using Api Aquarium salt and just read that one table spoon of that (rather than the US brand recommended below) is 25g so I have dosed 75g for a 30 litre/9 gallon tank.

1 Tbsp Salt per 3 Gallons of Water
Add 1 tablespoon (Tbsp) of salt per 3 gallons of water. You can pour the salt directly into the aquarium or hospital tank, but some people like to dissolve the salt in a small cup of water first.

I am doing a 50% water change very quickly with treated heated water
I'll probavly lose him, right?

 

[lynhagan]

I've just done the water change and an API test strip
Readings are
gh 0
kh 40
ph 7.5
no2 0-0.05
no3 0-20

Looks like the water is too hard? What should I do?

 

[lynhagan]

I've just done the water change and an API test strip
Readings are
gh 0
kh 40
ph 7.5
no2 0-0.05
no3 0-20

Looks like the water is too hard? What should I do?

The Ph is also very different from the Seachem reading which looks much more like 6.6

 

[Colin_T]

The fish looks fine besides slightly clamped fins but that is nothing to be concerned about. I would just do big regular water changes and gravel cleans and see how he goes over the next week or two.

Your pH, GH & KH are fine for the fish. You don't need to adjust anything with the water you are using.

 

[Essjay]

gh 0

Unless that's a typo, a GH of zero is very very soft.

 

[lynhagan]

The fish looks fine besides slightly clamped fins but that is nothing to be concerned about. I would just do big regular water changes and gravel cleans and see how he goes over the next week or two.

Your pH, GH & KH are fine for the fish. You don't need to adjust anything with the water you are using.

Thanks Colin. I thought I was prepared for keeping a betta but its been much more complicated (and expensive but that is fine) than I thought.

I did a 50% water change last night - will that be enough for the salt dosage to be ok now or do I need to do further water changes (what percentage and when?)

Two more questions also please -

Q1 - I bought a Boyu small sponge filter (fry/shrimp size) and an air stone in case I needed to move him to a 2 gallon hospital tank (I feel good to have all these things in now just in case) and I put it in the 10 gallon tank last night. Should I keep it in there and run it (at the same time as the main filter) to seed it; or will it seed without running it (sorry for the naive question; I'm not sure running two filters, even a low one like that will make him happy - in many ways I think he would be happier with the smaller one but I doubt it would cope with the tank on its own

Q2 - I have Seachem stability and have put it in again after the large water change but I have some plants just starting off. Can I use UV light and should I keep it low?

Thanks - happy to know he is ok (so far)

Lyn