Red Fish, Blue Fish... Sick Fish!

[lilsey]

Originally Posted by thekoimaiden

That is quite a large range some of which is uncomfortable for a betta. I would get a better thermometer. The floating glass ones from a local pet store should do. Those temp strips are very unreliable. They will look something like this:


Do you by chance have a reading for the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

Heading to a pet store today and will pick up a better thermometer (we have the strips now) and will also look for a chemistry test kit. Our heaters do not have thermostat, just the disks that sit under the gravel.

[thekoimaiden]

The API Freshwater Master test kit is the best available. It's going to have ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH tests. Just be sure to follow the directions closely.

For a heater, I would look at a new one, too. I have one of those disks in with a betta in a 1 gal quarantine tank right now, and it's not keeping the water warm enough. Heaters that aren't adjustable will only heat a few degrees above ambient temp. But once you get a better thermometer we'll be able to see the exact temp and whether or not those pads are doing their jobs.

[xjenuhfur]

+1 to the API master test kit. Its expensive but worth it in the end.

[lilsey]

Originally Posted by xjenuhfur

What are these drops?

I don't remember what they were called but an aquarium store sold them to me when the fish started first losing bits of fin. They told me to use another round of them a few months later when it developed yellow spots. Both rounds of whatever they were seemed to help for a time but the fish continues to decline.

[thekoimaiden]

When you are at the store today, try to look through the medication section and see if anything looks familiar. Unfortunately many pet store employees don't understand the intricacies of proper fishkeeping, and we need to know what kind of drops those were to make sure they didn't do more harm than good.

[Twilight Storm]

The API master test kit for freshwater is around 20-40 dollars. It usually hovers around 30 something in the stores by me.

If you can get a picture of bluefish that would be really helpful. The yellow spots you said he developed doesn't sound really fun. Without a picture on our end, look up velvet disease in bettas, try to compare pictures between the disease and your fish maybe? Loosing chunks of fin could be a few things. A picture is worth 1000 words though in many cases. Some bettas have irridescent coloring though which could look like velvet if you haven't experienced it before.

Before you panic though and start treating for something your fish may or may not have really try to get a picture if you can. (and filling out the information on the sticky post will expedite the help you will receive. It just puts the information in a format people are used to reading and can see problem areas faster.) Many people have pasted the sticky information in their thread then changed the text color to type in the information right into the form.

Some fish are more prone to being sick. It sounds like poor bluefish might just be more delicate then redfish but everyone here will try to help get things sorted out.

Did the drops make the water blue and is the container shaped like a little fish?

[lilsey]

Originally Posted by Twilight Storm

Did the drops make the water blue and is the container shaped like a little fish?

Yes.

[Bombalurina]

How often do you change the water, and what percent? :)

If you want to tempt your sick fish to eat, I suggest leaving a bucket of water outside and letting mosquitoes lay eggs in it. When they hatch into squigglies, you have a ready-made supply of nutritious live food that should tempt even the most sickly betta. The only difficulty is weaning them back onto pellets when the weather gets too cold for mosquitoes.