Blue CrownTail - Tips are whitening; solid white "poop" etc.

[Kaury]

Hi All:

First time poster... long time reader. I've read through a lot of these posts, hoping to find a logical answer as to what might be happening with Zeus, and not re-post something someone might have already asked, however I can't seem to find a post that includes all I've been observing with my fish.

I've had him for 3 months now - he's in a 1.5 gallon tank, with a mini heater, gets a 50% and a 100% (with a gravel and decor hot water scrub down) water change every week, lights on at 7:30 am, and off at 6:30 pm, and eats Betta Bio Gold pellets. Water is always treated with Sera's water conditioner, and is Ph tested and balanced before he's placed in it.

Over the last, lets say month, he's been going through some changes, which I'm not sure is legitimately just growth, or if I have some reason to be concerned. He has not lost his appetite, defecates regularily, and is always zipping around his tank - with the exception of today.

Here's what I've seen:

1) The tips of his fins are turning white. They fade from his dark blue, to light blue, to white. Although not going up towards his body in one area in particular, I'm now noticing that it's happening on a lot of them.

2) His fins grew "spikes" - they're not splitting, but they've developed what looks like barbs close to the ends of his tails. I'm thinking this is just him growing.

2) About three weeks ago, I saw something white coming out from him. It was solid like his normal feces, however it was white, and didn't curl or ball up like his normal waste. I began doing 100% changes twice a week, and added some ES. It seemed to do the trick, so I went back to the treated water without ES.

However, it came back last week, for one day only. I don't give him anything different than the Bio-Gold, so I can't say that it's something I fed him.

3) Today was a 100% water change for him (since the reoccurance), so I did that and added some ES again... A couple of hours later I noticed a lot of white-ish, cloudy things floating around his tank - stringy - I can't quite describe it. I've never seen this in his tank before. So, I'm not sure if something is reacting to the ES??

Usually, after a water change he only takes about an hour to readjust and starts eating, swimming around and bubbling. Today, it's been 5 hours and he's lazily swimming and not reacting to normal stimuli (like chasing my finger across his bowl), and hasn't shown any interest in food.

I have pictures, but I don't have a site to upload them to in order to post here...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Kaury

[JadeSparrow]

not sure about how to treat him or whats going on but you can upload photos straight from your computer to a photo album on this site then use that to add photos to your post. I hope everything gets worked out with zeus.

[Kaury]

I'll take a look for the photo album...

I just came back from lunch, and some of the ends of his fins are starting to curl, and he's developed white spots on his head and around his gills.

There's no pet store near to my work either... I hope he holds out until tomorrow...

[Kaury]

Here are two pics

[callistra]

He has internal infection. Epsoms salts are good but you're going to have to add meds too.

The Hikari are wheat based pellets and they do tend to lead themselves to constipation issues, which overtime will lead to. I would switch to a protein based pellet. Look for Omega One, that you can feed 3-4 split up into twice a day. I prefer NLS Betta as it has garlic and is a natural immune booster and defense against internal infection. With those you can feed 5-8 a day (split up). Also make sure you're giving him a fast day a week.

His fins don't look too bad but in the photo anyway they tips look black.. you say they look white? White can be regrowth but black is rot.. Also some bettas just naturally have white tips.

Internal infections can be bacterial or parasitic in nature, but taking into account everything you're describing, I'd be treating with Kanaplex. Go for two week treatment, dosing every 48 hours with a big water change in between weeks.

What size is he in.. is that a gallon bowl filled up less than half way? This would be helpful: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233

[Kaury]

Thanks, Callista - he's in a 1.5 gallon tank, as mentioned above. It's filled with a 1.5" space left at the top.

He seems much better today... all the white as disappeared off of his fin tips, and his head... I'm thinking maybe the salt was doing its job in helping clean him out and off??

He's also behaving normally again - I found some new bubble nests, he's responding to stimuli and is active around his bowl.

I'll try the different food, and Kanaplex... thanks for your help!