We adopted 5 more fish in cups yesterday, And I'm hoping to find some more ideas on how to help the males recover from the trauma of it all.
One of our males looks like his gills are inflamed. They stick out further than I've ever seen. I put a little bit of epsom salt in his water, and gave him a nice hammock for easy breathing access. I've ordered some IAL, and blackwater extract (to tide us over until the leaves come in).
His water was dingy brown with huge black clumps of poo on the bottom of the cup.
Does anyone else have any ideas that would help poor Don Quixote?
I'm not an expert by any means, but i was always told to just keep up on water changes, make sure the temp is between 78-80, and one tsp of aquarium salt per gallon - so for a small holding tank it'd be about 1/4 of a tsp along with dried maple leaves - though the season has passed.
It helped my two rescues recover very quickly, when i got them they had absolutely no fins left :[ But now they've got the signature veil tail fins although they're kind of wilted, but I'm attributing it to them having had to actually regrow fins.
I'm not an expert by any means, but i was always told to just keep up on water changes, make sure the temp is between 78-80, and one tsp of aquarium salt per gallon - so for a small holding tank it'd be about 1/4 of a tsp along with dried maple leaves - though the season has passed.
It helped my two rescues recover very quickly, when i got them they had absolutely no fins left :[ But now they've got the signature veil tail fins although they're kind of wilted, but I'm attributing it to them having had to actually regrow fins.
Just to add to this:: never add salt for more than 10 days. Also, you can try oak leaves, keeping him in a quiet dark room without a lot of traffic, and adding some stress coat.
Second; I agree with what's been said. Keep up the water changes, stress coat, and not too long with the salt. If the water was as bad as I'm picturing it, then his gills could very well be inflamed. Just keep watch to make sure he keeps breathing. Inflammation will usually clear itself up with some rest and quiet time and a bit of treatment. Just try to keep him nice and warm and clean. Hopefully he'll be swimming around like a healthy fish in no time. :)
Definitely warm, and clean, I did use Epsom salts in his water. His tank is in the darkest corner of our room, although I moved his tank over to my desk so I could keep an eye on him for a bit.
He looks like he's feeling just a little better, he's not breathing quite AS heavy as he was. Still not normal though, same with his gills, not as swollen, but still not "normal".
He's doing better today, his breathing is less labored, and he's actually interacting with us instead of hanging out in the back corner near the surface.
UPDATE:
Don Quixote is breathing a bit easier today. Unfortunately, he still hasn't eaten anything.
Apparently, my future hubby is a scary guy, as soon as Donqui sees him, he hides behind the t rex skull in his tank! lol
This is from when we brought him home Wednesday night.
Here's a picture from today.
Last edited by Skyewillow; 02-07-2013 at 11:46 PM.
he looks a lot happier! hes a cutie too!!
give it a couple days, he'll eat eventually. might want to add some stress coat to help his recovery.
AQ Salt also helps with slime coat production and has been proven to perk bettas up if you want to try that for a day or two.
Until I looked at the pictures side by side, I didn't notice just how much of an improvement he's made so far! I still think it's funny that he hides from my fiance. ^_^
I think we have some AQ salt booting around here. Do I use it WITH Epsom? or IN PLACE OF?
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