What is this disease?

[puppyrjjkm]

A male in my divided tank hadn't eaten for a month, then suddenly got dropsy along with some white fuzz on his fins. I had to euthanize him. Now another one of my males has it, but he was acting completely normal. He has dropsy with a bit of fuzz on his tail fin. 2 of my other males also has some of the fuzz but no dropsy. I did a 50% WC yesterday along with Aquarium Salt and put a 10 gal filter in one of the sections. No improvement today. Anyone know what this disease is? And how I can get rid of it?

[shinybetta]

Do you have pictures? The white fuzz is probably ich. Are they all in the same divided tank? Do you have seperate nets or cups for each tank? Do you have filters and Heaters?

[Colibri]

Could you please answer the questions given on this thread?

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233

[puppyrjjkm]

No pictures but it's definetly not ick, because it's not on the body and well I know it's not haha. 20 gallon long, 4 male bettas, one is symtom free, one dropsy and other 2 have a touch of fuzz. Around 76 degrees just added filter yesterday as said above. Feed just regular betta pellets. I've done divided tanks for a long time and never had a problem till now... did a 100% change/strip cleaning about 2 weeks ago. Tehn the 50% last night. The sickest is about 2 yrs old, others are year/year half. We've had fish for many years and never did water testing because we've never really had problems. I think that's all I can answer.

[dr2b]

Sounds like columnaris almost. My boyfriend's tank had a breakout of that recently... Did you recently change the temperature of the water? It can lay in the tank undetected or bothered for a while and when the optimum conditions are reached it can strike very quickly. His was in 12 hours. He turned his tank temp up to 80 and when he got home 12 hours later over half the tank was dead with fuzz on them. Temps 80 to 90 are perfect conditions for it... not to mention fish waste.

Here is a picture of it on a betta: http://www.flippersandfins.net/Images/Flex2.jpg

[puppyrjjkm]

So how do you get rid of it?

[Adastra]

You should isolate the afflicted fish, lower the temperature of the water to around 76 degrees, and begin treatment with a broad spectrum antibiotic intended for treating gram negative infections, such as API's Triple Sulfa, Mardel's Maracyn-II, or Seachem's Kanaplex. I strongly recommend reading through this article before purchasing or using antibiotics: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa084 this article will give you a better idea of how antibiotics work, the risks involved, and how to use them responsibly.

[puppyrjjkm]

Thank you. Unfortunately the guy with dropsy didn't make it. The other 2 with fuzz is just about gone. I did another 25% WC today with more AQ salt and they seem to be doing much better. Sad I lost him, but glad the others are healing up. Thanks everyone!