Very Poorly Betta

[Flute]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice please.
I have a male veil tail betta who I have had since the beginning of March (he was bought from Pets at Home and given to me, so I have no way of knowing how old he is).

He's been fine and very healthy up until very recently. Since yesterday he's become very lethargic, sits on the bottom of the tank, is spitting food out and is very pale. He'll come to the surface for food, but seems to have problems eating it.

I currently have him a floating hospital tank so that he's closer to the surface, but I'm getting really worried about him now. He's deteriorated badly in the past hour or so, and is gasping, lying on his side, and generally looks as though he's dying D:

His fins look a tiny bit ragged, so I treated him earlier with API Stress Coat which we had some really good results from with a neon tetra with bad injuries and ripped fins. It's description: "Contains Aloe Vera which promotes healing and regeneration of damaged fish tissue and forms a synthetic slime coat."

Otherwise he's showing no other symptoms- he's not bloated, pine conned, swimming on his side, etc.
He just seems to have no life left in him

He's really not looking good, and I'm not sure if I can do anything for him, but I'm willing to try any suggestions anyone else may have.

Just tested the water and everything is fine, no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. His tank is cleaned weekly, and his other tank mates, 4 dwarf cory's are absolutely fine, very active, eating well. He's in a 25 litre tank with lots of plants and hiding spaces. The cory's have been in there for months too.

I'd appreciate any advice that could help him,

cheers

 

[Luzi]

Sounds like a vicious bacterial infection
Everything points to an internal bacterial infection, especially if he can't eat. Are the corys still looking ok? You should probably treat them to keep them safe

I don't think there's much chance of saving him - every time my fish started lying on their side they died in 24h
Add antibacterial meds - esha 2000 is best for the US and myxazin in the UK, but any others will do. If he makes it through the night then he could recover

Good luck!

 

[Flute]

Thanks for the advice Luzi- I've treated him with a bacterial med, but I'm not hopeful. For a little while he made the effort to swim, but he's going back to lying on his side and is gasping again D: I just hate seeing him suffer like this.

Thankfully the corys all seem fine, but the tank has been dosed now so it should at least protect them if nothing else.

Thanks again :3

 

[Luzi]

Poor guy
If he tried to swim it could be an improvement, and i'm glad he survived this long
If he's worse tomorrow it might be best to euthanize as bettas especially can take a while to die
Keeping an eye on him is the best you can do

 

[Flute]

He's back to lying on his side and gasping this morning. I'm really debating as to whether I should euthanize him yet or not. He made it through the night, so I think I'll give him till later on today before deciding.

 

[Luzi]

As a last resort you could try a strong salt bath for 5 mins (20g/L) - it won't make him worse than he is. Check how tolerant bettas are to salt though, and don't use salt with iodine

 

[Flute]

Thanks for the new suggestion Luzi, but he died this morning before I could get to the shops. Poor little thing D:

I'm not sure what I should do with the rest of the tank now though- the corys are all fine, so should I do a water change and put the active carbon back in, or should I leave the bacterial meds in and wait for the rest of the 4 days before doing another water change?

I don't want to get another beta straight away, but I will be looking, so would it be safe to put one in the tank?

 

[Luzi]

Aww, bettas are so beautiful too...

Leave the meds to run their course as any leftover bacteria could survive the treatment if left alone. If the corys are all fine in 2 weeks it's ok to add fish but make sure you QT them with some general disease-killer to avoid another incident

Good luck with the new fish