THIS was not there LAST NIGHT when I changed 50% of his water. It was not there this morning when I fed him and admired him. It was not there this afternoon. Suddenly it is there. Grey, he has never had grey on his body ever. Please help.
is this fin rot? all his fins look so ragged all of the sudden. I don't understand! I keep my fish in impeccable conditions!
5 gallons
filtered
heated
no tank mates
80 degrees
stress coat plus conditioner
omega one betta buffet pellets
he has been lethargic as of late but i thought it was because he wasn't eating enough. he is always hungry and I was only feeding him 3 or 4 pellets twice a day. he's 3.75 inches long. i discovered he should be eating more so i just today started feeding him more and he's perked up. been swimming back and forth, flaring at esmeralda. the usual. he still did take a couple of naps but I thought that was normal. He has always been beautiful. show quality if VTs were allowed. Perfect, very full fins. all of the sudden they are ragged and turning green to grey to black.
DO NOT TRUST ME ON THIS ENTIRELY. I am asking, would it be possible to get him in fresh water no gravel or anything and remove (cut) off the effected part? That might help?
I have jungle lifeguard. it says all-in-one treatment for ick, fungas, fin and tail rot, septicemia. should i use it? or should i just go with the aq salt?
Do you have Kanaplex? (It's an antibiotic, but unfortunately, most petstores don't carry it. People generally buy it online.)
If you don't have Kanaplex (and most people don't), I would use either API Furan 2 or Jungle Fungus Clear. Both contain the same two furan antibiotics, which treat a wide range of gram negative bacteria.
Do not cut his fins. If it is something like Mycobacteriosis, the fin issue is a late-occurring symptom of the disease. By the time it occurs, the internal organs have already been infected. Removing the fins will not affect the progression..... And if it is not Myco, it is probably a gram negative bacterial infection, which Furan 2 or Jungle Fungus Clear may be effective in treating.
API Furan 2 is available at Petsmart. Jungle Fungus Clear is at Walmart.
i'm not going to cut him. I will go to pets mart first thing in the morning! the only thing they had at pets mart was this life guard and that ich away thing. the funny thing is, as bad as his tail looks, he is swimming around exploring the hospital tank like nothing is wrong. he's just put out that he can't see esmeralda and doesn't have any of his things. when he was in the cup acclimating, there were beads of blood coming off of his tail. its so awful :'(
if it is finrot (which i hope to GOD it is) I just don't understand how he got it if it isn't, is it possible that the disease has been passed to my other 2 fish? one is a red vt and the other is a pk
It is possible that it was transmitted to the other two, but you won't know for sure until they either show symptoms, or don't...and I'm not sure how long the possible incubation period is.
By the time it shows up in their fins, it's been there for awhile, which means that if you shared *anything* between tanks (water change vacuums, cups, even just your hands) then the others have the possibility of having been exposed to it. I hate hate hate to give you such awful news like that, but it's best to be informed.
But, now that you know he's got a problem, definitely give him a strict QT, because if it is the graphite disease, I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly how to fully disinfect for it. If it was me, I'd toss out anything that was with him, or barring that, treat it the way people do to sterilize after myco outbreaks (which may be what the graphite disease is, last I read there was still debate/questions).
I'm so SOO sorry for you, and I hope it's nothing horrible and that he gets better.
Bleach does NOT kill it.
Boiling water kills it.
UV light kills it.
Hospital-strength Lysol kills it.
Soaking for several hours in 70% or higher alcohol solution kills it (but clean it first to remove any organic material).
You said he is swimming around and exploring..... This is not how they usually behave in the final stages of Myco. Hopefully, he just picked up an infection that can be treated with a good antibiotic.
But to answer your question, from what I've read on the threads here, fish in the final stages of Mycobacteriosis (which is when the fins start to turn gray), usually don't survive more than a day or two.
Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure whether they have Myco is via lab analysis after death.
If I had any suspicion of Myco and my other bettas had been exposed, I would immediately begin treating them as if they had a serious bacterial infection with the strongest medication my pet store carries. This probably sounds extreme and I expect it will be controversial. I have not yet dealt with this disease, but my CT boy has recently been really sick with something else. I suspected for a while that it could be this, so I have read about it extensively. From what I have read, if you keep your fish in the same tank, it will spread like wildfire. If you net them with the same nets, it will spread. If you put your hand from one tank to another without washing, it could spread. What we DON'T know is whether or not it is treatable in the early stages, likely because no one has ever treated in the earliest period of infection because they can't see any signs of it until it is too late. If your fish with the suspicious symptoms begin to get worse, I believe I would personally begin treating the other two aggressively to try to knock out any contamination before it is too late. So sorry to hear about your sick fish, I hope he only has fin rot!
Actually, Mycobacterial infections in fish are a common problem, and have been studied extensively.
It is not considered "treatable." However, if you only have one (or several) fish, then I, personally, would suggest trying to treat it, since there is no way of knowing whether it's Myco or something else. Lab analysis is the only way to know for sure if Myco is present..... If you are a breeder, then I feel it's worth obtaining a lab analysis, as Basement Bettas and Coppermoon did.
I am not a breeder. My 3 bettas are simply loved pets. They all have separate tanks but I used the same syphon on all 3. I also seeded my new tank with media from the other 2 tanks :'( I will be getting furan II hopefully tomorrow morning. I only have one hospital tank though. I can treat the other two in their normal tanks? Also, if they don't have anything wrong with them and I give them medicine, will it hurt them?
If you are concerned about your other fish, I guess you can treat them all with the Furan 2. (The instructions give info on treating the tank, and many fishkeepers have community tanks.)
A few months ago, I rescued a fish that may have had Myco. The disease progression was very fast. I would have tried to treat it, but there wasn't time. I did not treat my other fish, who are all in separate tanks. And they did not become ill. But I did watch them closely for a long time. So I understand if you want to treat the others as a preventative measure.
Another option may be to just treat the one sick fish, and see if he responds to the Furan 2. If he does, you can then decide whether to use it on your others as a preventative measure, or just use it if they become sick too.... And if it's not effective on your sick fish, then you won't have subjected your other fish to a harsh medication unneccesarily.
Thank you. That sounds like sound advice. I am hesitant to treat with strong medicine if no symptoms are present. I will treat Galileo only and go from there. Definitely will not be sharing his supplies however. The other 2 look perfectly fine for now but, we know how that can go. Thank you all for the support. I love Galileo so much, he was my first. I hope he makes it!
I am really sorry to see this. I don't have experience with the Mystery disease. If it's the mycobacterium I read an article that says:
Fish can be treated with the same drugs as humans get when they become infected by Mycobacterium marinum, e.g. Kanamycin. Since this is a very resilient microbe, normal treatment involves administering at least two different medications over the course of at least three months." It also says salt doesn't help and increasing the temperature makes it spread.
Read the mystery thread and look at the pictures. Also you may want to search the emergency forum for Dr. Seuss. There is a member who started treating her fish with natural remedies when others failed. I did find one other article about this but I'd have to PM it to you because it's on another forum.
please, I would be open to any information you have. I have some hope that it is not myco or mystery disease because of how he is acting but if it is, i'd like to be well prepared.
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