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Frog is Full of Parasites. AGAIN.

1K views 29 replies 4 participants last post by  Indyfishy 
#1 ·
So, Frog, my sister's first female has once again been struck ill.

Not too long ago she recovered from a bout of fungus (probably, not sure but it cleared up with aq salt) and gained a bit of weight. My sister deemed her ready for a very slow transfer to sorority life.

that process consisted of floating in a tupperware container so she could kind of see the other girls for a little over a week. Then it went to sharing water with the sorority via tupperware where we would replace half of her water with theirs. After a few days of this, we moved her into the molly breeder so that she shared all of her water with them and so she could see them. All went smoothly with that process and she was allowed into the sorority, where no one really noticed that the barrier was gone between them and her.

She lasted, what, 5 days in with all the girls before getting sick again. Now, she has a history of getting ill whenever she sees another betta that isn't a male (she likes to flirt). And what she does is get a horrible infestation of internal parasites that further use all her resources, so instead of gaining much needed weight, she loses mass amounts of it.

She once again has parasites and this time, general cure isn't touching it. That's the medication that saved her life last go around with parasites. So, we treated her with 2 doses of general cure and tonight, I switched her to the hospital tank and Jungle Parasite medication.

She's the weight of the thinnest boy at the worst chain pet store.

Believe it or not, but she is still eating any new food put in with her.
 

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#2 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? Was a 10 gallon sorority, but now in a .5 gal hospital tank
What temperature is your tank? Was at 80* now at 78*
Does your tank have a filter? Sorority did, now no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Sorority was, hospital tank is not but holds stable
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Used to live with 4 other females (all ignored her)

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Krill (tried meal worms as well but it was a no go)
How often do you feed your betta fish? Small frequent meals, probably 4 times a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Sorority had weekly, hospital daily
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Sorority had 75% weekly, hospital 100% daily
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Tetra Aquasafe


Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Thinner, parasite poop, very pale
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Lethargic, on and off with eating
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? 2 rounds of general cure, first night with Jungle also on 3 tsp/gal equivalent of epsom salt
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Yes, mostly parasites
How old is your fish (approximately)? Unknown but older for sure

The general cure has not helped any that I can tell.
 
#3 ·
She has not been able to drop this parasite poop that she's had for 3 days now.

She has gone through 2 treatments of General Cure and is in the process of going through a treatment of Jungle Parasite Clear. Is there anything else I can do to help her?

She's already being fed 4 times a day with krill (60% protein). She will not eat pellets still.
 
#4 ·
Oh no!!!!!! Poor Frog, not again D= I think you're doing all the right things, but it's odd that she's not responding to medication this time. Perhaps PMing OldFishLady or DarkMoon17 would be a good idea, just to see if they can recommend something a little stronger?
 
#5 ·
I'll try that, but Frog is showing slight signs of improvement now. She just ate a small chunk of krill and is now eating the little flake remnants of it. so she has an appetite, which for her and parasites is unusual.

I'm hoping the Jungle will have an effect this time since General Cure didn't. She's gonna be due for a water change tonight so I'll redose her with Jungle then.

also, I have garlic powder, but I don't think it works the same as garlic juice even with water added, so I'm skeptical it'll change anything except for the water color.
 
#6 ·
I don't think garlic powder would do much of anything except change the taste, it lacks the potence of fresh or minced garlic. I hope she pulls through again!!!
 
#7 ·
I hope so too. she's still got her appetite for krill, and if needs be my sister can go get blood worms too. I just figured the krill is a bit better since the protein is higher and she'll need it.

She's going to get redosed on Jungle tonight at around 7 so she has a full 24 hours of the first dose. That along with a water change and tank scrub.
 
#8 ·
Sounds like a good plan to me, I sincerely hope it works!!! Perhaps when she gets better, since she's just so susceptible to these parasites, maybe it would be a good idea to always soak atleast one or two of her pellets in garlic everyday, and give the occasional preventative epsom salt bath. Seems like she has a hard time fighting those little bugs off!
 
#9 ·
Yeah. she's also going to be solitary for the remainder of her life. She's gotten sick every time she's seen another betta, so it might be too much stress for her.

For now she'll have to settle for the hospital tank and then maybe a 1 gallon. What's kinda sad is that she's so small, that she makes a 1 gallon with cave and plants look spacious. She's probably half to 3/4 the size of a regular girl.
 
#10 ·
Omg, that cup you have her in, when I was really little and unknowing I had 3 Betta fish in there. At different times of course. Surprisingly, they each exceeded 3 years.

Memories.
 
#12 ·
That makes sense. I had to hold my older Betta in there for a week, due to an ammonia spike in my Goldfish's tank, so I had to hold the new fish in his tank. He barely swam. Now he is a ball of energy!!!
 
#13 ·
Frog finally managed to drop that parasite poop yesterday and I removed it immediately, but she has another one going today. She's still eating 4 times a day to compensate for her weight loss and the parasites, but I don't know if the jungle is working or not. I redose her every day with her water changes as well as rinse the tank and plant in hot water.
 
#14 ·
Have you tried the Jungle Anti-Parasite pellets??? You have to soak them in garlic to get the fish to eat them, but maybe those combined with the medications would help get rid of these bugs.
 
#15 ·
She won't eat them even with garlic. If it looks like a pellet she refuses it. She didn't ant to eat her krill this morning either and she's looking bloated now too.

I am going to make another batch of the jungle since it's been mixed for 3 days now just to make sure it's fresh and still usable.

Is there any way that I can make the medicated pellets into a paste or something to soak the krill in? She might eat the krill soaked in it, but I'm not sure since she didn't want to eat this morning. She's due for her second meal in just a few minutes so I'll see if she wants to eat then.

These are from this morning at 7 am:
Fish Fish Feeder fish Tail Organism

 
#16 ·
Oh my goodness, she's so skinny, poor girl!!! You could try crushing up the parasite pellets and sort of mixing them in with the krill, that might work!!
 
#17 ·
I'll give it a shot. If she doesn't eat, then she doesn't eat it. I really hope she does. This is definitely the skinniest I've ever seen her, and we got her emaciated from Petsmart a few months ago. She just can't gain weight.

After this is done and over with, she is never going back in the sorority. She's already shown us it's too much for her.
 
#19 ·
Poor girl, I had really hoped that would wor =( have you PM'd oldfishlady or darkmoon17 yet?? they might have some better ideas that i might not be able to come up with.
 
#21 ·
Hmmm maybe try Oldfishlady if you haven't already, i think she gets online more often than darkmoon. If this doesn't work, you could take her to the vet and get her a prescription for Metronidazole. It will definitely be more expensive, and I don't know how you feel about taking a fish to the vet, but it would be stronger and it might finally kill these parasites.
 
#22 ·
There's no vet in town that takes aquatic pets. There are a few bad vets, a few mediocre, and a few good vets, but none of them take aquatics unfortunately.

I'll try Oldfishlady too, but I don't think Frog can do the garlic treatment. She won't last long enough for it to take effect and she's not eating anyway.

She's breathing a little heavy right now and still refuses to eat. If this goes on for more than two days I think it may be best to put her down rather than let her starve with how thin she is already.
 
#23 ·
I agree, putting her down might be the most merciful thing you can do for her if she doesn't start coming around in the next couple days. You've done a really good job taking care of her, and it's awesome that she got to live with somebody that was willing to do so many treatments to make her feel better.
 
#25 ·
I really hope she makes it too, it sounds like she has such a fighting spirit!!!
 
#26 ·
It sounds like she may be getting toxic and the parasites have built immunity to the product you are using....I would get her cleaned out/detoxed for 3-4 days...before you try a different type of internal parasite medication...since I don't use those type of products I can't recommend any pesticides to use...just too toxic for my taste......

To understand-this little girl has been with you for how long, list of symptoms....the white poop is all the time-never changing color correct-this will be hard to tell due to her diet-this is so we can rule out normal white poop related to eggs and her overall look/condition from over treating with toxic pesticides and poor nutrition......

I would get some treatment water mixed up in a 1gal jug of dechlorinated water and add Epsom salt 3tsp/gal (Not aquarium salt) and tannins-natural tannin source-either IAL or dried Oak leaf and let this water steep until it is fairly dark in color and use this Tx water for 50% water changes every hour for 3 hours today and start 100% tomorrow

Get some live food...go hunting for some mosquito larva and feed these...the freeze dried krill is offering her very little nutrition-great treat but not so great as a staple.....you have to get her immune response built back up for her to have a chance and by adding more toxic pesticides to an already compromised fish could send her over the edge

If you can't get any mosquito larva, chop up some red worms, smash up a shrimp into a paste (the kind that are steamed/frozen for us to eat)add in some blanch spinach and crushed fresh garlic.....the garlic may not help much for the internal parasites at this time-but it will help build her immune response so she can start fighting for herself......

Good luck.....
 
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