This is because I was looking it up, and white/clear, stringy poop was a symptom, and she DEFINITELY had that the other day. I don't have ANY money for medication, so I'm thinking of euthanizing her. I know that sounds harsh, but I'd rather have her die quickly than let her sit for an undetermined amount of time in severe pain. Thoughts? Keep in mind I REALLY can't afford medication. Do you think it would be best to put her out of her misery?
I wouldn't put her down. Is she acting lethargic and unhappy? I don't know much about alternatives to killing parasites except meds, maybe OldFishLady could help.
She is just lying at the bottom, only coming up for air. She is usually such a spunky little thing. She isn't eating, her fins are clamped. Her entire being has changed. She constantly has stress stripes and her coloring has faded. BTW, her tank is at 78*.
Before you euthanize......try an Epsom salt treatment...Magnesium sulfate...its cheap and you can get it at most stores that have a pharmacy department or even a family member my have some
QT her in a small container that you can float in the heated tank (attached so it doesn't sink) use Epsom salt 1tsp/gal along with 100% daily water changes for 2 days- on day 3 you need to increase the Epsom salt to 2tsp/gal and do 100% water changes daily for 7 more days to total 10 day treatment
Pre-mix the Epsom salt in a 1gal jug of dechlorinated water to make water changes and dosage easier.
The Epsom salt will help her pass some of the internal parasites-fish nearly always have some in their gut and keep them at low level with normal bowel movement...also with females sometimes the white poop may be eggs she dropped and ate and this is normal.
If you have and fresh garlic-crush some and mix with her food on day 3 of treatment and if she start eating-feed her this twice daily in small amount for the next 6 weeks-then daily for life....
Thanks, OFL. I will pick up some Epsom salt at Walmart today when I go to get a different heater (the one I got sucks, so I'm returning it). I will buy some fresh garlic on the 6th when I have money.
One more question. When she's sitting at the bottom, her rear end is pointing upwards at an angle. Kind of like she may have SBD. If she has that, will the Epsom salt take it away?
Yes, the Epsom salt should also help that as well-you may need to go the 2tsp/gal on day 2 instead of day 3.....
If you have any tannins to add to the pre-mix jug of dechlorinated Epsom salt water all the better.....
I use 10-12 crushed naturally dried and fallen from the tree Oak leaf...its Free....but Indian almond leaf, blackwater extract or even decaf green tea bags will work too
Add to the pre-mxed water and let steep for an hour...the long they steep the more tannins are released the darker the water will become...the more the Betta likes it......shake well before use
I like to do 50% water changes a couple of times back to back over 5 min or so until it is 100% treatment water....you usually will see improvement within 24h in most cases sometimes longer......but a full 10 days is needed
There's no way I can get Oak leaves this time of year. I live in Minnesota and ALL of the leaves are gone, buried under snow. LOL I have De-caff green tea somewhere I'm sure.
Floating at an angle like that is usually not a very good sign, I've seen a lot of threads start out with a fish floating at an angle that end with dropsy. I have also noticed with a couple of rescues that they were at an extreme nose-up or nose-down level before dropsy set in.
Hopefully the Epsom salt will nip it in the bud and get things moving again. If the fish perks up after treatment but you still see the runny poop and decreased appetite, deworming meds are easy to find and they are very effective. They also don't seem to have any negative side-effects on fish, so please take that into consideration if the condition persists after the Epsom salt.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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