Sick female in a sorority

[bettacrazymichelle]

Hi folks. I've been searching around, but haven't found something quite like what's wrong with my girl for a sorority lady.

She's been acting really listless, hiding on the bottom for a couple days now. She just rushes up to get air and goes back down. Not interesting in eating. She swims...weirdly. Not sure how to describe it, but it looks really strange. I'll find her just lying vertically in the grasses. Her back looks like it is bent a bit. She's dropping weight.

I don't have an isolation tank anymore (had to return it to Petco, but going to get another one today), so right now I just have her back in her changing cup. The other ladies all seem fine, super active, excited about feedings, etc.

They're in a 10g tank, mix of silk & real plants with driftwood that's coloring the water (which has a film on it, but I read that that goes away and isn't harmful). I feed Hikari Gold pellets and I've been them freeze dried brine shrimp ONCE as a treat (but man that stuff is messy so I think I'm just going to chalk it up to a loss). It is heated to around 78 degrees, has a tetra whisper filter.. hrm. What else. I do 50% water changes weekly. I vacuumed the gravel last week, shortly before this all happened.

I honestly haven't dealt much with sick fish. My mom wasn't emotionally invested so she would just let the fish go. She's gone now, so I can't call her for advice. I know as a somewhat newb, I probably shouldn't have taken on a sorority, but I get SUCH enjoyment from it and did a lot of research before hand.

I don't want to do a full water change since the cycle is still pretty new and I don't want to hurt it. As I said, I took her out, but I'm concerned about my other ladies getting sick. I have 4 other ladies in the sorority, no other tank mates.

[Oldfishlady]

Good that you QT'd her.....if you are using the small temporary cup/lid a lot of Bettas are sold in...these are great for QT's and you can float them in the heated tank to maintain temp-(attached so it doesn't sink)

I would make an extra 50% water only on the 10gal-you are correct-you don't want or need to make a complete water change on that tank....this may be an isolated issue with the one girl....

I would go ahead and start a 10-14 day Epsom salt treatment(Not aquarium salt) on her in the QT...

Premix a 1gal jug of dechlorinated water-add the Epsom salt 3tsp/gal and a tannin source if you have some-either IAL or Oak leaf and let this steep for 30min to start the tannin release and the salt dissolve....use this water for 25% water changes every 15min for 1 hour today-

Tomorrow start 50% daily for 3 days-then on day 4 make 100%-repeat this schedule for 10-14 days-then start making the water changes using just dechlorinated water on that schedule.

Be sure and wash your hands well before and after working with her and the water

Nutrition-hold food today and then offer small frequent meals of a good quality varied diet....

Keep us posted...

[bettacrazymichelle]

Came home from running some errands and she was already gone. I took her out into the natural light and I didn't see anything wrong. Maybe a little bit of fuzziness on her fins, but I could be seeing things too. No golden speckles, no dropsy scaling, no cottony white spots.. Her spine is straight.

Sad that she's gone. She was so pretty and was really easy going.

Now I have two questions, should I get a 5th lady for my sorority? The remaining ladies all get along really well and I'd to mess with their pecking order.

Should I try to do any sort of preventative? I did get some Stress Zyme to help the bacteria cycle a bit. I'm going to be doing a 50% water change in there today and some poo clean up on the plants (it is REALLY dense so the poo doesn't make it to the bottom that much). The rest of the girls are acting just fine. Super excited to eat, swimming around like crazy.