Sick Female... HELP!!!

[tanr255]

Hey guys! I've had a female betta (Leda) for close to 2 months now. She's in a 1.5 gallon tank with a filter and heater. She was in good health when we purchased her. Shortly after we got her, she got very bloated and was, obviously, floating. We fasted her and gave her peas, and ran a couple rounds of erythromycin to no avail. (Meanwhile, we have been monitoring and maintaining her ammonia level.) We fed her occasionally (once every few days). She still wasn't getting any better, so, as a last resort, the last few days, we gave her epsom salt baths for 15 minutes. She would show some temporary relief (not floating for a few minutes), but then it was back to her "normal" floating. Occasionally during this whole ordeal, we would see stringy white poop. Just this morning, after a pea and an epsom salt bath last night, she wasn't floating. This sounds great, but now it looks like her back end is sinking and she's clumsy.

The final (and likely a very important) piece of information is that we had this exact same situation (minus the epsom salt) with our last female, and we ended up losing her. She went from floating, to sinking/clumsy, and we lost her shortly thereafter. Our current fish is in the same tank, but we did boil and scrub down (no soap) all of the pieces.

I really like the little gal, so if you have any advice on how to treat her, please help!!!! If something similar has been posted, I apologize, please refer!

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to FishForum. Stringy, white poop usually indicates internal parasites.

[tanr255]

Ok... we just started her on Jungle Labs Anti-Parasite Medicated Fish Food today. Hopefully that does the trick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[crowntail lover]

Thats exactly how my girl Myrtle went.. She would get bloated no matter what I did.. fasted her.. never helped.. then went limp..and she died the morning...

[tanr255]

We tried everything for the girl that we lost and nothing helped. She went from floating for a long time, then sinking all of a sudden, then she died pretty quickly after that. It's so frustrating! I'm just hoping that the Anti-Parasite food will help, and we've got her on an anti-biotic as well. I don't think we have much time, though.

[BakaMandy]

My female had internal parasites with white stringy poop, and I used Maracyn-two to treat her.

I've used Jungle Labs Anti-Parasite Medicated Fish Food with other fish and it made them more ill. :S Although, usually with internal parasites, fish have a tendency to lose their appetite.

If you're really going to try that kind of food, remember to pre soak it, because it can damage their digestive system. Pellets can expand x2 to x3 their size when they absorb water, and a betta fish's stomach is roughly the size of their eye. So when the pellets expand in their stomach, it may cause bloating, constipation and SBD if you overfeed them. 2-3 twice a day is generally good enough.

[tanr255]

We'll make sure to soak the pellets before feeding. She's got to be tired of floating, so anything to prevent that! We're using tetracycline as the antibiotic. It's also a gram negative antibiotic, so we're thinking this should work just as well. Hopefully we're doing the right stuff... I'm trying as hard as I can!

[vaygirl]

All I can offer is a good luck! Poor girl.

[tanr255]

Update: We ran Maracyn-Two along with the Jungle Parasite food. She wouldn't eat the food again when we tried the second week/round, so we switched her to the Jungle Parasite tablets (fizzy-tabs) yesterday. Now, instead of floating, she sits vertical in the water, with her head at the surface and her body hanging below. She is still pretty mobile and responsive, but tends to hide behind her heater or filter. I'm not sure what the vertical tendency means... any ideas?? Are we doing the right thing with parasite meds? I'm really at a loss if this doesn't work. Thanks for the help!!