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Possible Velvet Please help!

764 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Pataflafla 
#1 · (Edited)
My betta fish yoshimori has been darting around, i thought it was fine, till today when I saw a few scales missing from his head, to get a better look I shined a flashlight on him and lo and behold I found something that looked like a gold dust.



Housing
What size is your tank? 1 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 74*
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? pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day, three pellets

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? every two to three days
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100 percent
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? stresscoat

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH: 7.4
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? goldish looking dust under the eye and on the belly, scales missing from the top of his fin.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He's been darting.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? About a week ago.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? not yet but very soon
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? Bought him a month ago from petco, he seems to be full grown.
 
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#2 ·
Ack, hope it's not.. but the darting and the coloring is definitely not a good sign. Here is what is recommended for velvet:

Velvet
•Symptoms: Can be found by shining a flashlight on your betta. If it looks like it is covered in fine gold of rust colored dust then it has velvet. Clamped Fins, no appetite, darting/rubbing, loss of color, lethargic
•Treatment: It is very contagious so you should treat the entire tank. Treat as you would treat Ick

Ick
•Symptoms: Betta has white dots (looks like he was sprinkled with salt) all over his body and head, even eyes. Lethargic, No appetite, Clamped Fins, Might dart and scratching against decor
•Treatment: You can treat Ick either conservatively or with medication. Ick is a parasite. Because ick is contagious, it is preferable to treat the whole tank when one fish is found to have it. Ick is temperature sensitive: Leave your betta in the community tank and raise temperature to 85 F. Then you can choose to treat with salt or medication. Conservative: Add 1 tsp/gal Aquarium Salt 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Perform daily 100% water changes to remove fallen parasites before they can reproduce. Replace the water with the right amount of salt. Do not continue this treatment for more than 14 days. If it fails or you do not want to use salt, treat with Jungle’s Parasite Clear, API Super Ick Cure, or Kordon Rid Ich Plus. If your betta lives in a jar/bowl, then it can be difficult to heat the water. There are heaters for smaller containers, but you can also float the quarantine container in a larger heated tank during treatment. Do a full water change every day and add an appropriate amount of medication to the water.

Very contagious, so make sure you thoroughly clean off anything that you use in all your tanks.

Also I have a couple recommendations that could help in the care of them..

It would be beneficial that their temp is roughly 78-80*F, even a few degrees makes a difference in their health and metabolism.

3 pellets a day is on the low end of their recommendation.. 4-6, sometimes 8 total a day for active/younger fish is ideal, as well as feeding 2+ times a day is better then a single feeding. It is better for their digestive system to eat multiple smaller meals a day then just the one, just like our systems. Feeding 2-3 in the morning, and 2-3 in the evenings would work out great for him.

Here is something I go by, advice given to me by Oldfishlady who is very knowledgeable when it comes to care and healing..
"You can have a too clean environment-you have both good and bad pathogens in the tank-by exposing the fish to all the different pathogens enable to fish to develop antibodies- that in turns helps build a strong immune response and limits stress due to too many water changes...its a balance of sorts.....healthy fish need be exposed to pathogens but at the same time maintaining water quality.....make sense......too clean and sterile like environment is not healthy......."

So I highly recommend only doing 1 50% and 1 100% water change per week, as that is the best amount for unfiltered tanks smaller then 5g.
 
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