Son's Betta

[dad2nc]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 Gal
What temperature is your tank? 77-78
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1 time a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? About 1 time a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Start Right with Allantoin

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

Ammonia: n/a
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: n/a
pH: n/a
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Color faded, whitish spot showing up on his back
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Become lethargic and hangs out under the light, will lay on his/her side alot
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Couple weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)?Got him just after last Christmas

We have noticed our son's Betta, Blueberries, has faded from the bright blue to almost black here recently. He has also started to develop a white spot on his back that I just noticed today cleaning the tank. He used to be very active, now he just lays on the surface, right under the light, sometimes he lays on his side, sometimes not. Our son feeds him every morning, not exactly sure how much he feeds the fish, but Im sure after looking at some of the other posts its too much. What's up with Blueberries? Thanks for any help in advance.

Just looked at him closer and it looks like the white spots are where he is losing fins both on his back and his tail.

[Adastra]

Are the white spots fuzzy? How big are the spots?

From what you've said about your heating/tank size/cleaning regimen, my initial impression is that the tank is not being changed often enough--usually I recommend changing a tank this small every other day. Fish constantly excrete ammonia through their gills--this is their form of urine. In nature, this ammonia would be broken down by specialized bacteria into less toxic compounds, consumed by plants, and diluted across much larger quantities of water. Since none of these elements are at work in your tank, you have to compensate by doing frequent 100% water changes--once a week in this size container is simply not enough, unfortunately, and this is evident in the failing health of your betta.

From your description, there are a few possibilities--if the white spots look like tiny grains of salt scattered across the fish, he likely has a protozoan parasite infestation called ich. If the spots are white, fuzzy tufts on the body, it may be an external bacterial infection, or saprolegnia. Saprolegnia is a fungus that only attacks very weak fish--infections of fungus are less severe than bacteria and usually affect the extremities like the edges of the fins. You should google pictures of these different diseases and see which conforms best to what you are seeing.

If you can take a picture of your fish, we can help you that way as well. Once we figure out what he's afflicted with, we can come up with possible solutions. The best thing for him in the meantime would be extra water changes.

[dad2nc]

Thanks will def. start changing the tank much more often. Ill see if I can get a good pict of Blueberries and post it up for you to take a look. I said white spots, but honestly the more I looked at the spots, they are more flesh toned then actually white, they are located where there used to be fins which seem to have disappeared.

[dad2nc]

Here's the best pict I can get of him currently. He's in a glass, I just cleaned his tank and am letting it run a lil before putting him back into it. The spot I' talking about is on his back near his dorsal fin.

[Adastra]

How terrible, he doesn't have a dorsal fin anymore? I'm guessing what we're seeing is an infected ulcer.. probably from severe ammonia burns that got infected. You have a few different options that you kind of have to use your judgment with. The most aggressive treatment would be a broad spectrum antibiotic, such as API's Triple Sulfa, or a combination of Mardel's Maracyn I and Maracyn II together. This does come with risks, though. It's important to understand how antibiotics work and how to administer them responsibly. If you're considering an antibiotic treatment, you should read this article first: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa084 and understand that the treatment may critically weaken the fish, depending on how far the bacteria has progressed.

Other options are salt baths and methylene blue baths--methylene blue is great for ammonia poisoning and the salt will help kill the bacteria on the surface of the fish. Salt baths must be done with either kosher salt or aquarium salt--normal table salt has been iodized and often has potassium added to it as well. Kosher salt and aquarium salt aren't iodized and have no added chemicals. Here are some basic instructions on how to perform a salt bath:

Salt Baths: In the early stages, many aquarists have had success with aquarium salt baths. This involves placing the fish in a 2% salt solution (14 tbsp of salt per 3 gal) for a short amount of time--this should be done multiple times a day for no more than a few minutes at a time. The duration of the bath should decrease greatly with each subsequent bath throughout the day, the first might be three minutes, the next one minute, the next 20 seconds, and the rest 10 seconds and under. Carefully monitor the fish for signs of stress and remove immediately if any signs of struggle are evident.

Either treatment demands CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN water--I would definitely change the water every other day because of his current condition.

[Ajones108]

If you do decide to dose him with Maracyn I and Maracyn II, the powders can be difficult to dose in smaller quantities. I have a method that works with this quite well.

I just need to find where I once explained it. So let me know if you decide to go the powder antibiotic route.

Adastra - Actually, I had messaged to you the way I dose powders...

[dad2nc]

Ok so we are bad fish parents, it sounds like the salt bath would be the better route to take along with the methylene blue, assuming I can get that at my local pet store? Would the salt bath be for one day or consecutive days and if it is multiple days, how many is recommended by looking at his condition?

As of right now he has 100% clean water and will keep a better grip on cleaning his tank.

[Adastra]

Methylene blue will be harder to find--a lot of people seem to underrate its usefulness, which I don't really understand. If you can find it, though, it's a great preventative that you can leave in the tank between salt baths that will help with the ammonia poisoning.

Salt baths are more popular when dealing with larger fish, like discus and goldfish, I haven't personally don't have much experience with dealing with infected ulcers so I'm not exactly sure on the procedure--I'd probably do it for about three days and see how he reacts.

Here are some tips I've found for removing the fish from the salt bath treatment:

The fish when placed in the main tank after a salt dip, tends to absorb a lot of water as the salt content will be high inside its cells…therefore there is a possibility of cell rupturing happening inside the fish's body…which may even lead to the death of the fish within a few minutes. This is definite if the fish is of a delicate species. Hence, once the salt bath is done, don't remove the fish from the bucket immediately. Instead, add water slowly to the bucket until the concentration of salt becomes negligible. Then, after a brief period of confinement, move the fish back to the main tank. Make sure it is adapted to the main tank temperature. This ensures that the fish will not be affected by sudden changes in water conditions.


--- http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...alt_Baths.html

[dad2nc]

Thanks for the help, I will take a look around and see if I can find the product. I know I can find the antibiotics that you mentioned though. Ill get back with ya if I cant find the methylene blue.

[dad2nc]

We found the methylene blue, gave him a salt bath yesterday and all new fresh water in his tank. Will do another salt bath today. Since we have a smaller tank would adding an amonia neutrilzer help our fish in the future, along with more frequent tank cleanings?