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Advanced ich

640 views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  LeoTheLakerBetta 
#1 ·
I've had my betta for about 2/3 days now and he has got ich. I didn't notice anything wrong with him but I think that must have been inexperience because he's now covered with the white spots - fins, gills, body everything.

I moved him into a hospital tank yesterday evening and turned the temperature up to about 86, adding a teaspoon of pure sea salt. I think I would have been okay to treat him like this until I get proper medicine (ASAP) but when changing his water today I broke his heater! He's now in the hospital tank floating in a sink of warm water and the radiators are on so hopefully he'll be okay... I didn't know what else to do :(

How successful is it treating ich that's advanced beyond one or two dots? It's like this density http://betta-fish-care.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/BettaFishIck.jpg but over his body. I don't know what normal betta behaviour is like but he seems happy, still making his bubble nest, still watching me and playing with my fingers, not rubbing or darting but not eating either.

Housing
What size is your tank? Normal=5gallon Hospital=1gallon
What temperature is your tank? 80 normally, 86 at the moment
Does your tank have a filter? Normally yes, hospital no.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Normal tank has live plants
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Betta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Every other day normally, every day at the moment.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Normally 10%-25% (depending on how much is left by the time I've vaccumed the gravel), 100% for hospital tank
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? NutraFin Aqua+ water conditioner

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

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
pH: ?
Hardness: ?
Alkalinity: ?

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Lots of white spots, fin clamping
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not much but he's not eating and his stomach is definitely not full
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Yesterday
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Raising temperature, adding 1tsp pure sea salt every morning and evening and doing 100% water change every evening
Does your fish have any history of being ill? I don't know, only had him a couple of days
How old is your fish (approximately)? Unsure
 
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#3 ·
No not sea salt!!!!

Sea salt is for saltwater fish. Bettas are freshwater!!! Get him out of sea water immediately and acquire some aquarium salt for freshwater fishies. For his 1 gallon tank make sure you are doing at least 2 water changes per week; 2 100% water changes would be good. Your treatment is kay besides the salt. AQ salt is more preventative but you can use it anyways if you like. I'm not sure about the medicine you are using but I used Kordon's Rid Ich Plus and it knocked my Ich problem out cold.

If you can go to your local petstore and pick up a medicine if you don't have one already. It's not alwasy safe to wait for an order to come in...
 
#4 ·
Oh no! I thought it would be okay because aquarium salt is made from evaporated sea water :S

My local pet store is hours away, I'm in the middle of nowhere which is the problem. I think he's going to die though - in the last hour he's developed stress stripes (I think due to cold) and is just lying there in his tank :(
 
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