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How long to recover from SBD?

972 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Creat 
#1 ·
I've had my first female illness (from my 10-girl sorority).
Poor Sun (the alpha) appears to have swim bladder disease.
I've had her in treatment for a couple of days now. She's not showing much improvement. Just curious how long it might take for her to get better and if I could be doing something better to treat her.

Housing
What size is your tank? she was in the 20G
What temperature is your tank? 80
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 9 other female bettas, 3 black mystery snails and (at the time) 3 otos (I've since removed the otos to another tank where they won't be completing for alpha wafers)

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NLS betta pellets, occasional bloodworm treat. But she and her friends have been pigging out on the alpha wafers I put in the tank for the otos and snails - bad girls!
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1Xper day I feed all 10 girls

Maintenance

How often do you perform a water change? once every 1-2 weeks
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? approx 30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Tap Water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
I haven't tested the parameters in awhile - about a month ago ammonia was at 0 (planted, cycled tank)
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? not much in appearance other than being slightly more bloated, slightly more pale (but this was after I moved her)
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? difficulty swimming. I immediately suspected that she's been chowing down on the alpha wafers that are meant for other tank-mates. She's not the only one doing that but is the only one that has difficulty swimming properly now.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 2 days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes. As soon as I noticed she was having difficulty swimming, I moved her to a QT tank with low water level and plenty of resting places and put epsom salt in her treated water. (I also added some epsom salt treated water to the 20 gallon). Sun hasn't been fed for 2 days. I just fed the other girls a little bit this morning
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? Approx 1 year (purchased in Aug. 2011 from Petco)
 
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#2 ·
well I ended up googling the issue and found more information about SBD. According to the sticky, the SBD would clear up in a day or two. (which is why I started this thread).
I found other sources that said at least a week of daily water changes with treated water with epsom salt should do the trick.
I hate seeing Sun like this, hoping she will get better and be ready to be back in her sorority soon.
 
#3 ·
Hope she is doing better how much epsom salt are you adding? And yeah my girls will eat anything I add which can cause bloat.
 
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