New CT very sick

[baylee767]

Went to my LPS and couldn't resist him. But, he looks like he might have a bacterial infection, he's bloated, and might possibly have popeye. Luckily even though he's heavily bloated he does not have SBD. He doesn't have clamped fins and he is fairly active for a Betta who was just in a cup, I get the feeling he'll be okay, but....

How should I treat him?

Housing
What size is your tank? 2 gallons
What temperature is your tank? around 78-ish
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
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? none yet
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? none yet but I'll be doing once a day
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? All of it when I do change it
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? aquasafe

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:7.8
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? mentioned above
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Never knew what he was like healthy
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
s your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)? Unknown, but he is pretty small as are his fins

I'm not sure if he has a bacterial infection though, and hes probably too stressed out currently for pics. Remind me, what are the signs of a bacterial infection? Thanks!

[baylee767]

... I disolved and added 2 tsp epsom salt to help with the bloating. But what are the signs of a bacterial infection and how do I treat it?

[baylee767]

I'm worried he might have a fungal infection because he appears to be a royal blue but his head is this wierd cloudy color

(Ugly pic, right now his tank is bare)

[baylee767]

bump

[baylee767]

Um, he's very lethargic. I think he has a really bad case of internal parasite )=> I saw a bunch of little tiny white stringy poops at the bottom of his tank and he's still super bloated. I've never successfully treated internal parasites, the last fish I had infected with it died. Please help )=

[Thunderloon]

The discoloration on his head looks normal. Sometimes the Piebald has color in it (I've got a crown with piebald pale head, he's fine)

Yours does look bloated, try mixing up a little water with epsom and wetting his food in it but don't feed him more than a cracked half or micro-pellet right now. If he's pooping he should be let to poop, he may be suffering from an internal infection of the guts but you don't want to stress him too much.

Keep him active if you can, use a mirror or call his name and wiggle-finger at him a lot.

If you want to try furans (jungle fungus clear) for gut bacteria go ahead and do so... furans are rather safe. Dissolve the tablet in a water bottle and only use 1/5th of it (2g is 1/5th of 10g), store bottle cool dark place (but not fridge cold). You can soak the little bit of food you give him in the furan water just like with epsom salts before you feed him. You'll want to cut one drop from the water bottle with about ten drops of untreated water to soak the food in.


DO be careful to measure out his food before you give it to him. Crowntail suffer from a pica-like condition in which they cannot feel full so keep eating. They will literally eat until they die from it. Its best to use a pill-sorter (SMTWTFS) multi-box to put his daily food in each compartment, that way you set that beside the tank and nobody double-feeds him. Tweezers or a small spoon to separate his food to daily amounts.

See if you can add aeration to the tank as well. This will involve a pump and an airstone. Cheapest way I've seen for that is a filter kit like penn-plax's small world filters (very betta safe). Just replace the filter cartridge with a rectangle of sponge and run it. Aeration of the water will keep anaerobic bacteria from growing in the tank, anaerobic are the harder ones to kill inside fish so setting up a moat of oxygenated water around your fish works great to protect them. Aerating the water will also let him sleep longer between surfacing for breaths.

[baylee767]

Thank you! I have a air stone, so I'll be setting that up. For a couple of days I'm going to try fasting him and see if it works. But wow, CTs can't feel full? Poor CTs /= I usually feed my fish 3-4 biogold pellets a day. Is that okay? Also, I've stuffed his tank with silk plants and put a heater and a cave in there (Impossible to get stuck as it's a small bowl about the size of a fist) So he should be less stressed. And I'll give him some excersize....

[baylee767]

Well, bad news. No, he didn't die, but I suspect he's gotten gill lukes. He was "yawning" a bunch last night, opening his mouth slowey and as wide as possible (My other Bettas usually just quickly jerk their mouths open) And today he twitchd his head a bit. I can't get a look at his gills as he has yet to flare them, but should I do a salt dip to help cure it? And if so, how much and what type of salt should I add? And for how long?

Also, his stomach is still big... I'm not sure if bloat and constipation are the same thing (13 lol) but there was a bunch of regular poop found today at the bottom of his tank. But, his stomach appears a bit smaller than yesterday, which is a good sign...

[baylee767]

Wow, 95 views and other than me (I talk a lot) 1 reply...

I've got some pics (taken about 5 minutes ago). One from the front, one from the side. You can help me diagnose anything I might have missed ^.^ He doesn't look that turquoise in real life... You might see why I want to just squeeze his belly until everything comes out >.<

[Harley]

Hmmm. Bacteria infections can cause a variety of symptoms but most of them don't correspond to your fishes symptoms except possibly the popeye (can be viral or bacterial). I would work on frequent water changes first off to fight this and secondly reduce the fishes stress. You could use salt, Aquarium salt only! which is available at your LPS. You don't want to use it for more than 10 days though but I would really recommend concentrating on the water changes. You can dim the lights where the aquarium is, don't tap on the tank and reduce any reflections there may be to help reduce stress. As mentioned, I would definitely try fasting him for a few days to work on the bloating, it may just be constipation.