Really sick royal blue fantail betta please help!!

[BellaDiva44]

My betta Blue has been living a happy life with me for two months. He is in a round glass 2 gal bowl, with a plastic rock/cave lots of black shiny pebbles, a philodendron he loves to "hammock" in, and was blowing lots of bubble nests, coming over to the side when I fed him, and was happy!

This past weekend I changed his bowl water (leaving 15% of previous water) using Betta Water in pint bottles I bought from the pet store. This morning he has three white stripes on his back, his eyes are popped out, he won't eat and he is laying in the water not moving, except when he slightly swims from time to time. He is acting kind of spastic..... please help!

[Sakura8]

Hi BellaDiva and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry your guy is so sick. I'll need some information from you so I can help you.

Is your tank heated and what is the temperature?
How often do you change the water and what amount do you change?

That information will help me be able to tell what's wrong for sure but right now I can tell you that your guy definitely has popeye and most likely ammonia poisoning. Can you tell me more about the stripes on his back? Do they look fuzzy, like cottonwool?

[BellaDiva44]

Hi and thanks Sakura. Bowl is not heated and I've kept the temp in the house around 75. When I change the water I put Blue and about 15% of the ecostinv water in a plastic large bowl. He just swims around til I finish rinsing out his bowl rinsing off the stones and cleaning the plants. Then I put treated distiller water that has sat and been conditioned overnight. Then the rocks the plastic rock with lots of holes to hide in and the plant. Then I place Blue and the rest of the water in. He's ways been very happy w clean water.


What fo I do about his swollen eyes?

[Sakura8]

Aquarium salt. Dissolve 1 tsp in a bit of tank water, then add to his bowl. For the next five days, change his water (100% or all but the 15% you save) and redo the salt treatment. If there is no improvement, he may need medications.

For a two gallon, unfiltered bowl, you probably need to change the water twice a week, one 50% water change and one 100% water change. You don't need to rinse off his stones every single time you change his water if you don't want to; good bacteria will grow on the stones and plants and will help to keep the ammonia down.

75 degrees is a little cold for a betta. You may want to get a small heater that will keep his water at 78 degrees or warmer.

Out of curiosity, why don't you use tap water and just treat it with a good water conditioner like Prime? I bet that bottled betta water gets expensive and it will get even more expensive because he really should have his water changed twice a week or his popeye will return.

I hope Blue gets better soon, keep us posted.

[BellaDiva44]

Thank u so much for your advice. I used tap water this morning with a water conditioner and changed it 50%. Blue now seems to have hurt his little fins on his right side.

[Sakura8]

Uhm, can you get a pic or decribe Blue's fin injury?

[BellaDiva44]

Hello Sakura - I bought some aquarium salt and put a teaspoon in Blue's water. He seemed to like it. And it seems his fin is doing a little better. I will try to take a picture tomorrow. I bought also a thermometer and it says the water temp is 74. I'll look for a heater. Also, final question, I bought some pH strips and it says the water is 7.8. What should I do to bring this down? Many thanks for your great help. I'm not as sad and I am hopeful that Blue will come back to health.

[Sakura8]

I'm glad to hear the salt is helping him. Yay! As for the pH, my water is 7.8 too and I found that's actually safer to just leave it that way than to mess around with it. Some of the chemicals used to alter pH can really screw up a tank. Blue will adjust to the higher pH if he hasn't already done so by now. Only time to worry is if it's over 8. But if you are very concerned, a safe way to lower the pH a little is to soak a teabag of decaff green tea with no added flavors (so just plain ol' green tea) for a few hours in his tank. The tea releases tannins that are good for the fish and will also reduce pH. In fact, the tea will help with Blue's fins as well.

I'm glad you aren't sad anymore. We will certainly do everything we can to make Blue better as fast as possible.