Signs of internal worms?

[LittleBettaFish]

I have a betta I picked up from the 'damaged fin' shelf at my LFS. His tail had disintegrated to less than a quarter of its original size, and he was very lethargic and unresponsive. After a few weeks at my place his tail was growing back well, and he seemed healthy and on the road to recovery.

Recently however, I noticed he was dropping condition and looking at him from above it was obvious he was getting emaciated in spite of being fed daily. At this point his fins had started to develop tears and were looking even worse than when I purchased him. At the moment he is in a 1 gallon hospital tank with medicine to take care of any possible internal parasites, and I have purchased a high-quality pellet food in case it was a nutrient deficiency causing this.

His tank is 3.5 gallons in size, and cleaned every second day as it's not cycled and I want to ensure there's no build-up of ammonia/nitrite. His diet is frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, live mosquito wrigglers and whatever other insects I can find in the chook yard. I did have some Ketapang leaves in his tank, but he used to shed his slime coat while they were in there so I removed them.

What I want to know, is what symptoms are present in cases of internal infestations, and if this isn't it, what could be possible other causes for the fin rot and rapid weight loss.

[turtle10]

I am not sure about the sickness, but are you sure the leaves made him lose his coat? Sometimes the leaves develop a slimy looking coat on them that could look like a betta lost it. Those leaves are good for bettas.

[LittleBettaFish]

No, he had visible slime coat trailing from his pectorals and caudal fin. I use Indian Almond Leaves in my other betta tanks and it never seemed to happen to them. It was odd. Even though it stopped after a while, every water change it came back, I wasn't sure if he was just sensitive to minor pH swings or he had some kind of allergic reaction if that's possible.

[turtle10]

Aw poor thing :(

He may just be extra sensitive to ph changes, since I think the leaves and certain driftwoods make the water more acidic.

[redbettagirl]

In the case of internal parasites, the symptoms include emaciation despite being fed and (sometimes) long stringy white poop. I hope your medication works.

Another disease that causes emaciation and can (but doesn't usually) cause tail rot symptoms
is fish tuberculosis. There is no cure, and it is fatal. This can (but doesn't always) cause body deformities, raised scales, gray patches, or lesions on the body.

[LittleBettaFish]

Thought I would post a good update to this thread, and provide some useful information for other Australians . Since I've dewormed Aether, his colouring has noticeably improved, he has lost his emaciated appearance, there is clear regrowth filling in his tail, and today I came home to find he'd started work on his first bubblenest in quite a while.

I used Avitrol Plus (ordered online), which is a bird dewormer, but also contains Levamisole which is also apparently useful for getting rid of internal worms in fish. I read on another forum that the tablet form is better since the drops use a glucose base, but he never showed any signs of distress at being left in the solution for 24 hours.