Hi, I'm Alie and my betta's name is Marley. I have had him for a little over a year now, and I love him like I would love a child (he is my baby). I am very scared though because he has gotten very sick lately (with what seems like every disease on record), and I don't know what to do to make him better! At fist I just noticed that his belly was looking big; there wasn't any 'pineconing' but I thought better safe than sorry and did a full course of Marycin 2. After that he seemed to be a little happier, but I noticed a nasty gooey white film had formed on the top of his tank. I thought maybe this was because of the medicine, so I just cleaned it out. Then a few days later I noticed he had a few white patches on him, so I think that must be Ick. However before I can go out to get medicine for Ick, I notice his stomach is bloated up again AND his gills are swollen and red. I start thinking there is nooo way he has this many illnesses at once... right? SOOOOO today when I woke up I looked in and what do you know? His fins are black on the end and are coming off IN CHUNKS. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen. I became devastated because I don't want him to be this sick. He has been so healthy up until the last couple weeks...
(not to mention this whole time he has been hiding and lethargic and not eating and well... just not acting like himself. I am so terrified I just want him to be healthy again.
I have put him in his tank with NO GRAVEL OR DECORATIONS so I can monitor his condition more closely. I have also dosed him with Marcyn, and Maricyn 2 at the same time hoping that these will cover all the ailments he has...
Does anyone have any idea what could be going on or what else I can do to help him get better? I just can't bear the thought of him dying after knowing him for what seems like such a short time. Any advice would be helpful... thanks.
Before I start answering anything, could you please fill this out? It helps me figure out what is going on.
Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?
Housing
What size is your tank? 5 Gallons
What temperature is your tank? usually around 80 or 82
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? none
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? tetra betta plus (I have also been trying to feed him hikari daphnia recently but he won't eat anything)
How often do you feed your betta fish? twice a day (when he was eating)
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 25% about every week, full 100% clean out every month
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? (explained above)
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? none
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: (everything should be normal now because I just changed the water 100%)
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? he has white spots, red gills, major black fin rot, big swollen weird colored belly, and he's pale.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? very lethargic, hiding and staying in a corner and no longer gets excited to see me.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? this all began about 2 weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? yes I just gave him one dose of marycin and marycin 2
Does your fish have any history of being ill? NOT AT ALL
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had him for a year and 3 months
Housing
What size is your tank? 5 Gallons
What temperature is your tank? usually around 80 or 82
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? none
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? tetra betta plus (I have also been trying to feed him hikari daphnia recently but he won't eat anything)
How often do you feed your betta fish? twice a day (when he was eating)
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 25% about every week, full 100% clean out every month
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? (explained above)
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? none
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: (everything should be normal now because I just changed the water 100%)
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? he has white spots, red gills, major black fin rot, big swollen weird colored belly, and he's pale.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? very lethargic, hiding and staying in a corner and no longer gets excited to see me.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? this all began about 2 weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? yes I just gave him one dose of marycin and marycin 2
Does your fish have any history of being ill? NOT AT ALL
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had him for a year and 3 months
Hmm, well I don't know about the swollen belly or red gills if everything should be normal like you said, but if I had to take a wild guess I would assume internal parasites may be the problem. Maybe if you PM OldFishLady or Sakura8 they may be able to help more, it seems like this is a bit too serious for me to honestly know WHAT it might be. Is there a possibility of putting up pictures of him and his condition now?
Yes it is possible. I will post pictures in a few minutes. How do I "pm" those people? I want to get as much help as possible
Well, I can give you their profiles. If you hit "send them a message" You could either send a whole message to them explaining what you just posted here, or you could leave a comment on their profile asking for help and send them a link to this forum post.
Thank you! I will definitely do that. And I don't treat the water, I just buy spring water from the store in jugs.
That could be a big part of the cause of the problem then: Spring water lacks some of the minerals needed for fish. You're better off using tap water.
Also, no matter what type of water it is (save for maybe distilled) it ALL has chlorine in it that makes it safe for humans to drink, though it can kill a fish. That's why it's so important to add water conditioner and that right there may be a MAJOR factor in the red gills and other problems, the chlorine may be poisoning/stressing your poor boy leaving him VERY open to other diseases. I would say get some conditioner as soon as you possibly can, it may very well help some of the issues. (Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a lecture, but the conditioner is very important in my opinion for a healthy tank)
Ok, I will definitely do that. Is it possible that is the problem even if I have been doing that since I bought him over a year ago? Is it possible he just started to show symptoms now?
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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