Fry with ich

[LittleBettaFish]

The other day I accidentally unplugged the heater from my Betta persephone tank and being that night time temperatures are still quite cold here, I figured there must have been quite a large fluctuation in the temperature of the tank water.

My fry seem to have contracted quite a bad case of ich (mum and dad had no spots on them but have been moved to a separate tank and are being closely supervised) and it seems to be progressively getting worse.

They are all eating and acting normally, and are currently on a full dose of Waterlife Protozin with the temperature set at 82 degrees. Tank is covered with a towel as I know the medication is sensitive to light.

I have only dealt with ich once in the past and that seemed to clear up pretty quickly once I started medicating. Now however, I am seeing no change at all.

I just want to know if this is one of those 'gets worse before it gets better' things or if I should finish this course of antibiotics and either try and use salt or switch to another product.

Also how much salt should I use on fry that range from 1/2-1.5cm in size? I cannot afford to lose these fry as this species is hard to get in Australia and my parent fish seem to have no interest in spawning in their current tank. So I want to be very careful with what treatment I choose.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are on day 4 of treatment, so I have to just dose once more on day 6 and then treatment is supposedly over.

[prodrumernate]

considering they are fry.i would assume just like any baby they are very sensitive to any disease.and havent built up their immune system yet...with that said it may take a little more time.,

im a little worried about the medication and even using salt..i think the salt would be fine but not sure about the medication since im sure its made for adults considering most of the fish we buy at stores are adult.unless the package states other wise i would use it on the fry as recommended on the labeling.

once the treatment cycle is done.maybe move onto a little salt.i know some say like 1/2 teaspoon or so per gallon of salt.but with them being fry.i would try like 1/4 teaspoon...

even though the mom and dad show no symptoms.i wouldnt rule them out just yet.it could take them a little longer to show.though considering its been several days i dont think they do..

im just throwing in my own personal opinion especially i see no1 else at the time had replied..i would try contacting Sakura or OldFishLady

[babystarz]

Gah, I just saw one of the breeders I follow on Facebook commenting about how much salt to use to kill parasites, I've been trying to find it.

But it is safe to use and very effective and killing off parasites without hurting fry. Just have to track down the amount.

[babystarz]

Ok couldn't find it, but I did find an old thread here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=46395

Originally Posted by Oldfishlady

Treating anything on fry can be tricky especially in the really young Betta fry.
Get the water temp up slowly to 84-86F but watch the fry for distress, add 1tsp/gal aquarium salt, add small amount dissolved in tank water over an hour, watch for distress
Start making daily water changes and get the bottom of the tank really good to try and manually remove the parasite
If only a few of the fry have ich on them I would remove that fry to a separate container and treat too.
How old are the fry and is the father still with them, sometimes the fry will not make it depending on their age.
I have never used any type of medication with any of my fry for parasites and I have had fairly good success in treating fry with temp, WC and salt with 50% surviving.
Good luck

[LittleBettaFish]

Thanks for that info.

I might try that method once I have finished the Protozin treatment. I was only reluctant to try salt as I have seen some people on here either losing bettas or treatment seeming to go on for ages with no improvement when salt was being used. Protozin has worked for me in the past and so I thought it best to go for that option first.

I was also careful not to boost the temperature up too much too fast as I usually keep this species in the low 70s, and I wasn't sure how the fry would take such an extreme temperature increase. However, they seem to be doing fine and have been gutsing down their MWs and BBS so hopefully they will recover.

Mum and dad are in quarantine. Nothing that touches their tank touches any of my other tanks. They are eating, squabbling and fully coloured up with no signs of spots or discomfort so I am just going to keep eyes on them. I think it was just because the fry were so young that such a big temperature fluctuation must have triggered it.

Here was one of my little fry pre-ich in the tank with its parents

[babystarz]

Oh yeah, fry can be kept at 80-82 degrees no problem, but it's good to stagger the temperature increases. And I agree with waiting to see if the Protozin works first, you don't want to be adding too many chemicals to the tank at once. I hope everything clears up ok!

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah these are just a different species of betta though and I generally keep them at cooler temperatures as they do not need it as high as splendens.

However, I just lifted all the moss up in their treatment tank and was relieved to see everyone appears to be still alive and well. Even the really tiny just born lot of fry.

Their dad is so fragile though. I nearly lost him after the first lot of fry were born due to some infection under his gill and now I can see he has some kind of chunk taken out of his chin. Mum is like a big fat porker who is healthy as a horse so I wanted to get some male fry grown up to adults so at least if dad dies I will have a replacement for him.

Beautiful fish and my holy grail, but it seems whenever I own them, something always goes wrong!

[Aus]

I'm sorry that I don't have anything actually useful to add. But you and the fish have my best wishes, must be stressful on you as well..

My fingers are firmly crossed for the littlies.

[LittleBettaFish]

Thanks Aus. There's around 20-30 of them so it would be quite a hefty loss if they were to die.

I already had a big fright yesterday when the cat knocked the lid of my unimaculata tank off and my biggest male and the female jumped out. Luckily they hadn't been out long and were fine but sometimes I swear these fish are sending me prematurely grey!

[prodrumernate]

have u tried the salt bath for the fry?i want to breed bettas,and now this has come helpful in case something was to happen i too would know what to do.