Velvet and Finrot help

[andama08]

Housing
What size is your tank?
My betta is in a 1 gallon tank, I am heading out today to seek a 2 gallon

What temperature is your tank?

Not sure
Does your tank have a filter?

Not currently
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?

No
Is your tank heated?

Not currently
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Just himself

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
Freeze dried bloodworms and omega one pellets

How often do you feed your betta fish?
right now, I feed him about three times a day, trying to get him to eat. He hasn't been as interested in eating since he got sick.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?

Normally, I change 95% of the water once a week. Lately, I've been doing complete (100%) changes every day.

What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?

The last 5 days it's been 100% changes.

What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

I use AquaSafe to take out chlorine and other nasties. Also been using QuickCure to get rid of a nasty case of velvet

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

No.

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
Used to be 75% covered in velvet, now is only around 10%. His fins are more clamped than usual, and his tail fin now has tears, which seem to be getting worse.

How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
He doesn't eat like he used to. He actually ate more when the velvet was worse. He also doesn't move around as much, and seems depressed :(

When did you start noticing the symptoms?
I caught the velvet 5 days ago. The fin rot I noticed yesterday.

Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?

Yes, 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon and also a drop of QuickCure with 100% water changes everyday to get rid of the velvet. I also keep him in the dark. This has worked wonders on the velvet thus far.

Does your fish have any history of being ill?

I've only had him 10 days so I am not sure

How old is your fish (approximately)?

Don't know.



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Last week I noticed him behaving extremely strange, i.e. lying on the bottom of the tank gasping for air and twitching. I freaked out and from my research found out he had a NASTY case of velvet. I feel like a horrible person for not noticing earlier, but I had never heard of or seen this disease before. I was really worried he wasn't going to make it, but after seeing him still eating his pellets I figured he was a fighter and would do all I could to save him.

I chose to use quick cure to medicate him, and shut him in my closet where it is pitch black. And the results have been phenomenal. It is his fifth day of treatment and the velvet is very very sparse now, when before it was covering 75% of his body. However, he seems to have a nasty case of fin rot now. This is another disease I have no idea how to treat. I am using 1tsp of aquarium salt/gallon of water. From what I read that is supposed to help not only diminish fin rot but ease his gills from the velvet. Unfortunatelty the finrot doesn't seem to be slowing. How should I treat this in conjunction with the velvet? Can I use, say Jungle's Fungus Guard along with the QuickCure? I've very new to both these problems :(

[MoonShadow]

First of all you need to get a heater, a stable temperature is vital for the health of bettas. Get his temperature around 80 degrees. Quick cure is decent for velvet, I've had success with it. A good friend, and well know breeder told me with velvet you can put a couple copper pennies (copper not zinc so pennies made before 1982) at the bottom of the tank and when the velvet falls off the fish it will attach to the pennies instead of reattaching to the betta. I've tried the trick and it works really well!

As for the fin rot you can keep using the aquarium salt, and since fin rot is caused by a bacterial infection treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic wouldn't hurt either!

[teeneythebetta]

What temperature is your house set on? Typically the water is a few degrees cooler than that.

I suggest you look out for a thermometer as well as a heter to maintain 78-82 * F