Advice/Support for Milo the Mighty!

[smellsfishie]

Picked up this guy from petco today after seeing his pathetic condition. He is very skinny and floats vertical with head up, tail down. He had trouble getting to the top of the petco cup for air, so I lowered the water level to help him breathe easier. I am planning to keep him in the cup till he can regain strength.

I do not see anything like parasites or growths or anything. He is just very clamped up, skinny, and some trouble breathing/labored breathing. He has trouble swimming, sometimes lays on his side.

Trying to come up with a game plan for him and hopefully start him on something tonight. Not sure if he is too weak for meds? Any advice/suggestions would be great!


Housing
What size is your tank? N/A
What temperature is your tank? Not sure, prob in low 70's
Does your tank have a filter? No, he's in a cup
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? Betta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2x a day- but I just got him a few hrs ago. Tried to feed him but he did not eat.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? N/A but will be daily
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Will be 50-100% depending on how stable he is.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Stress coat, stress zyme

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

Ammonia: None have been tested yet- water will soon be changed and all parameters will be normal with the exception of high PH/Alkalinity.
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Not sure...
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not sure
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Don't know how long it has been happening
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not sure
How old is your fish (approximately)? No idea

[smellsfishie]

Here are some pics of him.

[Sakura8]

He's beautiful, he looks like he's made of gold with ruby fins. I am wondering if his swimbladder problems are related to being sooooooo skinny. If you happen to have bloodworms, you can try those too. I think it's important to try and get him to eat in the next day or so. If you can, try and soak some food in garlic juice.

As for treatment, I would say 3 tsps of epsom salt. If he has internal parasites, that ought to help him expell them and if he doesn't, it'll help his swimbladder anyway. Poor guy, I'm glad you picked him up. He needs you.

[smellsfishie]

ok, I will try that. I should do the epsom salt gradually though, right? Like, start off with 1tsp/gallon and then increase it slowly? I'm scared to shock him. He seems so frail.

I have bloodworms so i will try that tomorrow. I already fed all the fishies so the rest of the cube would go to waste. He seemed to perk up with a pellet near his nose but he didn't try to eat it.

Do you think a 100% water change is too much for him to handle?

[Tikibirds]

I am wondering if its ammonia related. One fish I got from petco had an ammonia reading in his cup over 4.0 and he looked the same way.

Actually the first few fish I had all looked like that after i put them into the tank. They had badly clamped fins and were floating vertically. I have the filter going but no one ever told me about a nitrogen cycle . I'm thinking ammonia or nitrate poisining..??

If he is still in his cup water, I would slowly change it out. Use a eye dropper, syringe or something like that to slowly suck out the water and put in clean water. I wouldnt risk a normal water change. I think it would be too much for him

Im also thinking sakura is right with the SBD thing..

[smellsfishie]

ok, I will start doing very small water change tonight through tomorrow. I was wondering about ammonia too since this petco admitted to changing the cup water 1x per week..... *rolls eyes* ............ And worms tomorrow. Should the small water changes have epsom salt or should I wait to add that until after he is used to my water?

Oh, and do you think I should use bottled water since my tap water has high PH and also has water softener (some type of salt)?

[Sakura8]

I agree totally with Tiki, if you can suck the water out slowly, that would be best. And also, if you are worried about shocking him, you can start out with 1 tsp of epsom and ramp it up gradually until he's at 3tsp.

[Sakura8]

If you have a 1 gallon jug (like the kind bottled water comes in), you can mix up the epsom salt in that. Then you'll have it measured out for even gradual water changes. It works great. I don't think you necessarily need to use bottled water, since he'll have to be switched over to regular conditioned tap water anyway. I have a high pH and a water softener too but I haven't seen negative effects yet in any of my bettas.

[smellsfishie]

ok, good to know. Thanks. OFL said it can be bad for long term (the water softener).... so it makes me nervous. I will get over it. When I move out LOL...

I have some water I sat out 2 days ago that I can use. I will have to empty a gallon jug of water so I can measure it and add the salt. Thanks!

[Sakura8]

Right, I remember reading that post of OFL's. Since it's not my house or my water softener, there's not much I can do so I just shove it out of my mind. I did mention to my dad that there were some studies that water softeners weren't good for health and he just said the water was too hard and he didn't want to be scrubbing calcium rings out of the sink again. *shrugs*

Okay, well, good luck with your guy. :) We can compare notes tomorrow.