Around Christmas my little sister got a betta, but I pretty much took care of him. About a month ago he got ich, we gave him medicine it sorta cleaned up but there still are spots on him, so we still give him the treatment. A few days ago I noticed ALOT of fluffy algae, so today I cleaned out his entire tank. I also noticed he had lost a lot of pigment, and as soon as I put him in his take he turned white!!! I don't know what to do anymore. Please help, this is one of the first betta's I've owned
Sick betta!!
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Baker
Fish Fanatic
One thing that will help is to disturb his enviornment as least as possible. It's not good for fish to be netted and relocated and have arms and things constantly moving things around and disturbing his personal space. Excessive algae growth is the fault of the owner and it's not ok to move around and stress him out simply because you don't enjoy the look of the tank. Especially because there are many preventative/counteractive measures that can be taken that don't require this invasion. For one thing, the algae was most likely nothing but beneficial for the fish and for another, tearing the tank down completely isn't going to fix the reasons why you have such a build up anyway. You need to address the causes of these two issues rather than just sort of "starting from scratch" when they crop up.
So to address the first issue, ich: it's probably caused by stressful conditions in the first place. Ich is present in all environments but usually remains dormant because a fish is naturally able to fight it with its immune system. Bad water quality, mishandling, and too small of an enclosure are some of the most common reasons why fish develop ich so making sure you have a big enough tank and are providing adequate water quality in the form of regular (and proper) filter cleaning as well as regular water changes will usually prevent ich (as well as most illnesses) from appearing at all. Treatment should be secondary to keeping a pristine enviornment.
Second, the algae: I'm going to draw from a few assumptions to diagnose your growth problem as I don't know your set up, but if you aren't dosing fertilizers and you're performing regular water changes, then your algae cause is probably a combination of over feeding and running your lights too long. balancing your nutrients in the water with the amount of light you use is key to prevention and reversal of excessive algae. Tearing down a tank to clean unsightly algae is not going to prevent it from happening again and it's not fair to put the fish through that ordeal. Not to mention the irreversible damage you do to the beneficial bacteria that are working to clean your tank for you.
From this point forward I would treat for ich by following the directions on the bottle precisely and not drawing out the treatment process as it seems you have, and I would leave the tank alone apart from doing regular weekly water changes (more if necessary if you have indeed wiped out a good chunk of your BB colony) and gravel vaccing once a month or twice a month splitting the vacuum job in half to do one half on one day, waiting 2 weeks, and doing the other half that way BB levels in your substrate aren't being wiped out every time you vacuum.
I'm not trying to be offensive, just trying to point out some errors in your part that you possibly didn't know you were making. Good luck and I hope this helps
So to address the first issue, ich: it's probably caused by stressful conditions in the first place. Ich is present in all environments but usually remains dormant because a fish is naturally able to fight it with its immune system. Bad water quality, mishandling, and too small of an enclosure are some of the most common reasons why fish develop ich so making sure you have a big enough tank and are providing adequate water quality in the form of regular (and proper) filter cleaning as well as regular water changes will usually prevent ich (as well as most illnesses) from appearing at all. Treatment should be secondary to keeping a pristine enviornment.
Second, the algae: I'm going to draw from a few assumptions to diagnose your growth problem as I don't know your set up, but if you aren't dosing fertilizers and you're performing regular water changes, then your algae cause is probably a combination of over feeding and running your lights too long. balancing your nutrients in the water with the amount of light you use is key to prevention and reversal of excessive algae. Tearing down a tank to clean unsightly algae is not going to prevent it from happening again and it's not fair to put the fish through that ordeal. Not to mention the irreversible damage you do to the beneficial bacteria that are working to clean your tank for you.
From this point forward I would treat for ich by following the directions on the bottle precisely and not drawing out the treatment process as it seems you have, and I would leave the tank alone apart from doing regular weekly water changes (more if necessary if you have indeed wiped out a good chunk of your BB colony) and gravel vaccing once a month or twice a month splitting the vacuum job in half to do one half on one day, waiting 2 weeks, and doing the other half that way BB levels in your substrate aren't being wiped out every time you vacuum.
I'm not trying to be offensive, just trying to point out some errors in your part that you possibly didn't know you were making. Good luck and I hope this helps
Hi.
How exactly did you treat the Ich? There is no " sorta cleared up" He was cured or he was not.
We also need a lot more info.
Can you provide a close up pic of the fish?
Can you provide a photo of the tank?
Is the tank heated?
Has it got a filter?
Is the tank cycled?
What additives do you use? Eg Seachem prime?
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