A bunch of sick bettas

[laurie07]

SO they were in a 10 gallon tank. seperated of course. filtered, heated, etc. there are a few live plants that have begun to grow, a couple of neons... they eat 1 pellet in the morning, a couple flakes in the afternoon and 1 pellet at bedtime. I don't have the testing stuff. Two days ago I had a new betta and he died. Kind of swimming vertically looked like he was doing ballet. I pulled him out when he started acting weird. So another betta I have has been very lethargic and hiding a lot, so I put him in a seperate container. Then my other betta is swimming slightly sideways. Then the other (I bought another one after my new one died) is also on its side sometimes. I put him in new water last night and changed it today and he isn't floating on his side too much, just occasionally. I don't see any fuzz or spots although I am not 100% sure what all of that stuff looks like. The guy at the petstore gave me "BettaFix" w/ active ingredient 'melaluca'. (something like that anyway) But should I be using this? how long should I expect that they will start to act better if this is the right thing? I really have no idea what to do. They are all acting a little bit differently than eachother so I am kind of confused. Thanks for any and all help.

[laurie07]

Well, it looks like their is like glitter all over the little tanks they have been when I shined in the flashlight... does this mean something?

[MidnightAngel]

well....to state it from the beginning I'm no expert...

I had a female who swam odd, liked to stay on the bottom all the time and then would "struggle" to the surface for air. After watching her do this for a while, I removed her, kept her in the cup from the pet store, and kept giving her salt baths, after maybe 4, 5 days she perked up, I placed her back in with the rest of the females and she's been fine...
So if you want to try salt baths here's a link for it:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=25297
Everything I've heard on bettafix it seems to be alright, I put it in with my girls a week ago (they all have ripped fins) and it hasn't hurt them.

[vaygirl]

Was it a brand new tank? How many fish did you have in it? With a new tank it should be cycled first, either by a fishless method or with just one fish. Putting a bunch of new fish in at once can cause the ammonia in the tank to skyrocket, killing all the fish. When I first started my tank, I used Seachem's Stability and I never had any trouble. You can try that. It supposedly puts the right bacteria in your tank to take care of the ammonia your fish are putting out. But wait until you have your test kit so you can be sure of what's going on with the water quality.

Until then, I'd keep your guys in separate smaller tanks and (depending on the size) do water changes every couple of days.

You can try aquarium salt. There are a couple different threads around here on how to use it. I'd stop the bettafix. Some people use it just fine, in others it can harm the bettas. If they don't have any obvious signs of damage or illness, just keep them in clean, warm water (maybe with salt) and give them some time to recover before getting them back into a stable tank. Read up on cycling when you get your kit. I hope this helps.

I don't know about the glitter. Never heard of that.

[laurie07]

Thanks. I think i had something on my hands I changed all of the water as soon as I found it. Oofta. I feel like I am really messing up these babies. lol They are all getting salt baths now. I feel like I have learned a lot so far though! I can't wait to get my test. Right now I have a few little neons that are in the tank and they are all doing quite lovely (of course I disinfected everything before hand) I am scared to put a betta back in until its cycled though. I will do the salt baths and see if it helps before I do the other stuff. So I will also look up that other stuff if I don't have to wait three weeks to get them all in that would be awesome. They hate being in little bowls, they are bored.

[vaygirl]

Good luck! Everyone has done what you did at one time or another, don't feel bad. :)

[laurie07]

Hi everyone. The salt baths seem to be helping two of the fish but the third one gets worst when he gets one. What should I do? What does that mean?

[JamieTron]

If the salt baths are making one worse I would stop them for that fish for awhile. How often do you give the baths? Bettas cannot control their bidy water and ions concentrations in salt water; therefore, too much salt baths can do more bad than good. I would say once a day for like 2 days then give a days break.