Sickly betta

[OohFeeshy]

Bascily, moved a betta to his own 3g. Noticed red edges on fins. Thought 'Finrot' and put in finrot meds. Now he hsa whitestringy poo. Put a topic in Bettas forum... and someone said it was septacemia. Ugh..... So, anyway, best treatment? Any other info?

EDIT- Right, been reading up. I'm moving him to my desk where I can see him, possibly getting rid of deco and substrate for now. 10% water change every day and MelaFake in conjunction with either an anti-bacterial or anti-internal parasites. Seem OK?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Septicemia is far more commanly caused by bad water stats or adding water the is too hot or cold to the tank during water changes or putting the fish in tank without properly acclimatising it- also jostling it around while in a transport bag or similar means will cause it too.
Heres some pics or septicemia;

http/www.fishpalace.org/septicemia_qianhu.jpg

http/www.fishpalace.org/septicemia_markdelgrosso.jpg

Basically sudden changes to its enviroment or shock in the fish or ammonia or nitrites are the most common causes of septicemia.
Turning the tank lights off and trying to make the fish's enviroment as stress free as posible i.e not keeping the tank in a busy or loud/noisy area will help it get over the the illness, its suggested you use broad spectrum antibiotics to help it get over the desease so i suppose Melafix will be a good med; anti bacteria or parasite meds will do little positive for the fish though to help the fish and are more likely to worsen its condition.
Keeping water quality good will help the fish alot too

 

[OohFeeshy]

The water quality should be fine, he only went in yesterday and it was clean water. Temp is possibly the problem, it has a dodgy heater, but accimaltising was fine as I moved him with tank water from the 20 he was in which had just had a water change. As I said, the main symptoms are red fin edges (just the edges) and white stringy poo, which apparently is a secondary infection from the septacemia. I'll go and do a water change and rustle up some BettaFake. Will salt help?

 

[WILDER]

Ammonia burns and poor water quality can take time to show, i would get on with the med as soon as possilbe, also try a salt bath on the fish.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I've never used salt to treat any of my fish so i couldn't say on how effective it will be at treating septicemia but because septicemia is a skin condition more than anything else and not a desease, the salt will be able to help secondary infections not set in but i doubt it will do much in treating the septicemia itself- Melafix i expect will pretty much have the same effect as the salt but as to which is the most effective at treating it i am not sure.

Because septicemia in your case is most likely a skin reaction to sudden changes in the water and not a desease, using the least stressful method of cure will be the most effective- a watered down dose of Melfix or half the dose of salt would be the best.

As for the white poo i have never heard of it been a septicemia related condition, white poo is much more associated with constipation or internal bacteria- it is also associated with internal parasites but these are more rare on the whole.
To decide wether which one your betta has, look at his weight- does he look fat or bulky and has he been wolfing down his food alot recently? bettas tend to suffer from constipation alot when it comes down to white poo- feed him some cooked de-shelled chopped up peas and see if this gives back his poo the right color.
If it doesn't help and his poo is still white after 2-3days, i suggest you try some internal bacterial med as this is the next option- i suggest you try the peas first as this will be the least stressful for him and if it is just constipation the internal bacterial med will only stress him out further so only use it once you are sure he is not constipated as the thing you want to do the least is cause him further stress.

 

[WILDER]

Wouldn't worry about the long stringy white poo just yet, as bacteria infections can cause this, i would give him some shelled peas to clear him out, then if it's still stringy it could be a parasite.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I haven't really seen him eat. But it wasn't dirty when I did a water change so I assume he ate them. I'll give him a pea (if he'll eat it...) and see if that helps. Poor lil guy... He probably misses the space as well.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I'll be off in a bit, but forgot to ask which meds to get? Duh.... Preferably something by Interpret, the shop does all of those.

 

[WILDER]

You will need an anti internal bacteria med by interpet, give him a salt bath to see if it will get rid of the infected area, as it will only infect his bloodstream, or the second thing you could do is cut if off with a razor blade, but it has to be sterlised.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Right, thanks. I'll give the fin trims a miss for now.... Don't want him to end up with no tail thanks a lot Wilder and Tokis

 

[OohFeeshy]

I'm happy to report that after a salt bath and some anti-internal bacteria meds, the red edge hsa gone and he seems a lot more lively Now just to sort out Vespasians tail.... The stupid guy is eating himself...

 

[WILDER]

That's good news, always another one to sort out afterwards.