Mystery Illness (May be dying/ need advice)

[Hadoken Kitty]

I got my first Aquabid fish in the mail today. I was so excited. He acted so rambunctious. Constantly jittering around. I put him in a warm tank with some methylene blue and stress coat to get him calmed down after a long trip (from THailand to Colorado to here is a long way). Then, I acclimated him into his tank in which he was finally home. No. I was wrong. This fish went psycho. He jittered everywhere. He got stuck in plants, rubbing himself against them and bent himself in all sorts of weird directions. Here's the weird thing that he's been doing since I got him. He quits moving and breathing occasionally. Hence why I put him in the methylene blue at the beginning. I wasn't sure if it was shock from being opened from the package or what. I was hoping he'd be okay, but am I rushing the process? I was worried that he'd have Ich, since he was scratching himself on the plants. I shined a light on him. He does have white spots, but I haven't had him long enough to be able to tell it those are his markings or not.

I have maracyn two on hand. I have Ich-Rid on hand. I have AQ Salt on Hand. He is in Methylene Blue at the moment, in a QT with nothing but a heater. He is curled up by the heater. I am so worried about him, and VERY angry that my fish came so sick.



There isn't much info to fill since I haven't even had hi for a whole day. He wasn't even in his tank for ten whole minutes before he started acting crazy.

Housing
What size is your tank? 5.5g
What temperature is your tank? 80*F
Does your tank have a filter? Y
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? N
Is your tank heated? Y
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? N/A

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets (hasn't eaten yet)
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2x daily

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 50% weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? conditioner

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? N/a
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Jittery. Itchy against plants. Quits breathing/moving occasionally
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Not even five minutes after opening him out of the box
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Methylene Blue
Does your fish have any history of being ill? N/A
How old is your fish (approximately)? 3.5 months

[callistra]

Can you share photos and a video? How did you acclimate him to the new water?

Ick looks like a sprinkling of salt. No natural coloring looks like ick.

[Hadoken Kitty]

I poured his gross yellow water (from his shipment bag) into an empty cup which I floated in the temp tank. I slowly put spoonfulls of water into the cup over fifteen minutes time. Then, I tilted the cup and used the spoon to nudge him gently towards jumping out of the cup and into the bowl, since I didn't want to use a net, nor did I want to put any of that NASTY rancid yellow water in his clean tank. I will take a video now. I took pics of him earlier. I will try to get them up ASAP.

[callistra]

Sounds like he went from some very soft IAL water to your city tap and that might be causing a lot of internal issues right now. 15min isn't enough acclimation time. I would have done at least an hour.

If you can find some IAL to redose his water it may help a lot. If not Tetra makes a blackwater extract.. I have no experience with it but it will soften his water.

[Hadoken Kitty]

Oh no....well...he's moving around again now that he's in the methylene blue.... I'm thinking about leaving him in it over night just to sort of try and get him feeling better. God I suck.

Anyways. Here are the pics you requested.

[MSG]

For something that's traveled as far as Thailand, I would have drip acclimated the fish, very slowly.

This is one reason I always tell people to be careful with ordering fish from different countries.

The minerals in the water are SO different, you cannot acclimate them like you would a fish you would bring home from your local pet store.

Even an hour I believe would be too quick. I would have waited for the 2nd day before I would use any type of medication. Just in case the fish was already stressed out from the shipping.

The symptoms you're describing are SHOCK. I wouldn't blame the breeder you ordered it from.

No more changes & leave a dim light for your fish. Hope you have your filter covered with some mesh/prefilter sponge.

[Hadoken Kitty]

Very much my fault. I hope he'll be okay....

In a future situation, what would you suggest then, time-wise?

[MSG]

There's dozens of active forum members that frequently order fish from the Thai breeders. I'm sure they can give you more insight on their acclimation techniques.

• Luckily for you, bettas are extremely tough fish, just don't stress it out any further with any medication/water changes, loud thumping music, bright lights, flash photography, etc...

I would have tested the original water more with the liquid test kit to check the levels before dumping it down the drain or watering your houseplants.

• Offer your new prettyboy 1 pellet to see if they eat. If they accept the food, you should be able to go to bed in peace that he'll be alive in the morning.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

The yellow was IAL. If you don't have any on hand, do you have access to Oak Leaves (OL)? They should be dried (dead) leaves that have fallen from an oak tree, and pesticide free. They contain tannins, and will turn your water a yellowish color.

If you can find some, do a forum search and look for OFL's recommendations on using them. If you can't find some, I've seen posts that mention using other tannin sources such as decaffeinated green tea. Again, a forum search can help you find these posts.

[callistra]

Don't beat yourself up. We all have to learn sometimes.

Well good news is he's not clamped :) He actually looks good in that top photo you gave. Just give him some time and he may really benefit from being kept in tannins pretty much permanently. It depends on how the betta was bred how well he'll adjust without it, acclimation properly done or not.. if he was bred and lived in IAL his whole life he may need it now. And I agree with everything else that has been said.