Betta Fish Forum banner

Not eating well

Tags
not eating
1K views 34 replies 6 participants last post by  CoolishPrune3 
#1 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gallons.
What temperature is your tank? Nearly stable at 78 F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes, a sponge filter.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? There is an air pump attached to the sponge filter.
Is your tank heated? Yes.
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? No tank mates.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? New Life Spectrum Small Fish Formula.
How often do you feed your betta fish? I used to feed her twice a day, but now I feed her at least three times throughout the day, depending on how much she ate at each session.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? A bit more than 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Aqueon Water Conditioner, Atison's Betta Spa, and recently a bit of API StressCoat. Currently I am running a fungus treatment with API Pimafix (tomorrow will be the 7th and final day of treatment).

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

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 7.8
Hardness: ?
Alkalinity: ?

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? She has always been distressingly thin but now she is skeletal and her tail fin is a little ragged. There is also some "fuzziness" on her tail which I believe to be fungus and has abated somewhat since I started treating with Pimafix.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? She's very listless and lethargic. She just stays in one spot at the surface all day until she notices I'm there to feed her. Then she slowly comes over and eagerly takes in a pellet only to spit it out again. As the pellet falls, she attempts to dive after it but more often than not she gives up before reaching it.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Nearly a month ago.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? After attempting to simply lower the temperature to no effect, I've been treating the fungus with Pimafix, but also doing very vigorous water changes and giving her different "snacks" -- mostly frozen blood worms. I tried dried daphnia and another kind of food (don't remember the name) but the pellets were too big for her.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? She is nearly two years old.



She used to be a very active and lively fish. She loved darting everywhere! That's why I named her Dart. She never used to just float, like I've seen other bettas do. She would notice immediately when I approached her tank and would zoom up to greet me.

If there's anything else I can do for her, please let me know. Or if she's just getting old, or had too rough a start on life (she was a baby rescue from Petco), I'd like to know that too.

Thank you.
 
See less See more
#6 ·
She looks in rough shape. I have never owned a female Betta, so I've never had to care for one. She looks like she is in rough shape. How long has she looks liked this? Has she looked like this since you started treatment?
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the reply. She is indeed in rough shape. I never felt she ever really matured properly or filled out like a normal adult betta (I had her since she was a baby), but about a month ago she started looking worse, clamping her fins and behaving less actively. I only started the fungus treatment seven days ago. I don't feel the treatment really made any difference except to lessen the fungus slightly, though her poor eating has steadily gotten worse.
 
#8 ·
A lot of people will highly recommend AQ salt for external treatments before any medicinal treatments. If you want to try that route. Maybe, the Pimafix isn't working and it producing a false positive and he is only getting sicker. I would wait a week with frequent, nice warm water changes before starting. I read someones post here the other day that said medications can be just as harmful as the illness. So he might be on his way to getting better. Today I think you said was his last dosing. Did you notice any changes after the water change?
 
#9 ·
Completed a 100% water change and she is showing some sparks of life again! She's much more energetic and aware (she came over to the side of the tank when I stood close). Her swimming is still a little sluggish. I'm very glad she managed to eat a few more Micro Pellets.

The fungus "fuzz" is still there on her tail. I'll continue the frequent water changes but I'm going to stop the Pimafix. That was too scary!

Thanks for the AQ salt suggestion. I've read both pros and cons for it so I don't know what to think.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I apologise for all the he/him/his reference, when I know he's a she. Yeah AQ salt seems to do the trick, unless it is serious. I haven't treated for anything serious before. I look at her and she looks pretty banged up. Almost like as if she was suffering from the flu. If you are going to hold off on trying an AQ salt treatment, I understand, it is difficult. If you do go with an AQ salt treatment I would start of with 1tsp per gal. Unless you get information from someone else.

Post a picture if he is doing better and we can brain storm a new treatment hypothesis.
 
#11 ·
Hi Davina. Poor Dart. She looks like she's been through a tough battle. One thing to consider is her age. You said she's almost two? That's getting up there in betta years so any disease she contracts is going to affect her more than if she was a younger betta. My guess about her always being skinny is that she was stunted as a baby because of being a Petco baby. When they're that small, those high levels of ammonia in the cups do double damage. She's lucky to have made it. So many babies don't. You must have been taking such good care of her. :)

Because of she appears to be wasting away and because she looks like she has some excess slime coat going on (that would be the "fungus" stuff on her fins and body), she may have a parasitic infection, either internal or external or a combo of both. Some external protozoa can actually go internal once they burrow deep enough into the fish's body. This may be what happened.

After her Pimafix treatment is over, give her a few days in clean, dechlorinated water with no meds. Then I'd suggest trying AQ salt at a dose of 2 tsps per gallon as long as you don't have live plants or snails or shrimp. If you do, you'll need to either remove her to a treatment tank or remove the plants/snails/shrimp. I would also suggest increasing the heat to 86 F because this drastically speeds up the life cycle of many parasites. Do a partial change every few days, using a gravel vacuum to thoroughly clean the substrate if you can. If she hasn't shown any improvement after two weeks in the salt treatment, then we can try an antiparasite medication like Kordon Rid Ich or Rid Ich + or Mardel Quick Cure.

She sure looks like a little cutie so I hope she pulls through! Good luck with her. :)
 
#12 ·
Thank you so much, Sakura8. I hadn't thought of excess slime coat; that makes a lot of sense. I'll let her rest for a couple days and then try the AQ salt in a high temperature treatment tank.

She's having a rough time that's for sure, but she's also a tough little thing. I think she has a good fighting chance.

Thank you both for looking into the problem for me. :) I'll keep updating this as things progress.
 
#13 ·
I'm relieved to report that Dart is doing a little better. Here you can see she opened her fins when I put my finger up to the side of the tank:


But there's still some white fuzz on her tail and dorsal fins:


She's eating okay today, still with the habit of spitting out the pellets before finally swallowing -- something she never used to do though I know other bettas do this.
 
#15 ·
What I did when I got my new Betta(younger, smaller) and my Omega One Pellets(big), was to take some of those pellets out and crush them with the lid and then put them in the tank.
 
#19 ·
I am not familiar with the size of these pellets. But I do know they like to chew and these pellets are called pellets for a reason. The are formed that way, whether it is during a cooking process or not, I am not sure. However, crushing them breaks that barrier and it seems like it goes down a whole lots easier.
 
#20 ·
I did another 100% water change on Thursday and rinsed my gravel (in conditioned water). Dart ate well that morning (and has been doing well in the mornings since) but was very lethargic and inactive most of the rest of that day. I think she was stressed by the water change.

The fuzz on her tail has diminished quite a bit but it's still very visible on her dorsal fin.

I'm going to wait a while longer to start new treatment. Meanwhile, she eats very well in the morning and I've been coaxing a few worms or pellets into her in the evenings.

Thanks for all your help, guys. :) I'll keep you informed.
 
#22 ·
Hi everyone. I have some great news: Dart is doing so much better! Here's a pic:

You can see how her tail fin has grown back!

I hadn't yet started the AQ salt treatment and she seemed to heal up on her own. I can't see any fuzziness on her at all and her appetite and energy are back. She's almost back to her old self again! She still can't eat any larger pellets than the Micro that I've been giving her, but I think she's well on her way to gaining some weight back.

Thank you to everyone who offered advice and support (and those who didn't talk to me directly but I read your posts ^^).
 
#23 ·
Sorry- I don't have much advice, but wanted to mention the food. There are a couple of better foods on the market- New Life Spectrum betta pellets and Omega One Betta Buffet- that are higher in protein. I personally use the NLS, but both are good. When you get a chance to get some, one of the higher quality, high protein foods might help her put on a little weight. I'm sure that the food is not her main problem, but as long as she's perking up, a change to a better food might help her out in the long run, too. :)
 
#25 ·
Wow. What a strong fish. I was almost certain he wouldn't pull out. Good work! How do you have your tank setup right now? Do you have the water temp increased? Are you still thinking about doing the AQ salt?
 
#26 ·
Thanks, everyone! I'm so happy she's doing better. :) Her color is fantastic!

About the food, hollyk: I agree NLS is better and I'm going to get some for her (ordered online). I couldn't find it at the store so went with the Micro Pellets. I look forward to seeing her fatten up! Thanks for the advice. :)

Sakura8, yes, I think I will probably have to crush them up for her. She's still too tiny.

Oh she is such a strong fish, CoolishPrune3! Honestly, her recovery really caught me by surprise. My tank setup is basically the same except I think the gravel rinsing I did decimated my beneficial bacteria. I was trying to be careful (used water conditioner in the rinse water) but I must have washed them away since the ammonia levels have been all over the place lately. So I'm doing frequent water changes and monitoring the ammonia levels until they stabilize. The temperature is about 76 F. I saw a bit of fuzz on her dorsal fin last night, so I might go ahead with the AQ salt treatment.
 
#28 ·
The temperature is about 76 F. I saw a bit of fuzz on her dorsal fin last night, so I might go ahead with the AQ salt treatment.
I would wait until she fully recovers before starting the AQ salt treatment. Try increasing the water temp first. I noticed that when I was doing my AQ salt treatment, which was 3tsp per gal, my fish could easily notice an additive and instantly felt discomfort for a few hours. So, we don't want to add too much stress at this point.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top