Pine coning, underweight.... Update on Knock-Knocj

[LittleBettas]

REALLY BAD NEWS


Knock-knock, the ITTY-bitty betta I rescued from Walmart yesterday has started pineconing
I am treating him ith wMaracyn II but I honeslty do not think he's going to make it
He pooped this morning (it was brown, but REALLY thin and stringy)
I JUST got him to eat something
I tried getting him to eat a bit of crushed pellet this morning and he ignored it, I soaked a pellet in garlic, again he ignored it, I offered a frozen bloodworm and he ignored it
I finally took him out of the tank (he was floating in the sorority for warmth) and spent about 15 mins wiggling a bloodworm in front of him... he was ignoring it then snapped it (I have a picture with it in his mouth... not ure if you can see it)... he spit it out though... I tried again, and this time he kept it down...
Im totally lost on what else to do for him
He sits in the same spot, only swimming up for air then he sink right back down


I tried to get a picture of the pineconing, but sucky camera (BFs phone):






Food in his mouth (this is right before he spit it out)






Food in his mouth (you can see my other attempts before I started wiggling the BW... water is clean now and medicated)






Trying to hide from me (right after he FINALLY ate)





And you can see his poop in this picture :-/






I have labeled specific stuff for him since I don't know what is wrong with him... if he passes, the stuff will be tossed just in case...

Does anyone know what else I can do?
Any suspisions on what could be wrong????

[callistra]

I'm sorry :( Good luck. If he's pine coning I would add epsoms... I use 1/2 tsp per gallon but others in this forum start at 1 tsp so use your best gut feeling I guess. Fully dissolve before adding. That will help with the pine coning and buy time for meds to work and also help if he has any ammonia poisoning.

Maracyn 2 does have a chance to fix this. Kanaplex as well but if you can't feed it I might just stay with Maracyn 2 at this point as I've recently discovered feeding is highly more effective than the bath alone. Maracyn Plus seems to have some effectiveness on this as well if he's still hanging around but isn't improving after his first round of Maracyn 2.

If his poo is stringy and he's this emaciated I have to wonder if maybe internal parasites are involved.. but no anti parasite medication is absorbed through the gills. It all depends on whatever water they swallow or what you can get to feed, so again for now I think you're on the best treatment..

[LittleBettas]

Its okay, its really looking like he wont make it, he's been laying on his side on the bottom of the cup most of the morning, he lifted up a little bit when I came into the room, then just layed back down :-/

Im going to go ahead and start him on the espom salt along with the Maracyn 2... I have Kanaplex on order, but it wont get here till after the 30th.... there are no local petstores so I have to order all of my meds online, the Maracyn 2 just got here so Im lucky to have that.... hopefully this works....

[Sena Hansler]

Good luck with him and you know, at least you gave him a good home and a fighting chance anyways.

[callistra]

Let us know how he does.. Maracyn 2 may very well work. Just depends on if this drug can be effective on the source of the infection, and how fast it fights it off.

[LittleBettas]

Originally Posted by Sena Hansler

Good luck with him and you know, at least you gave him a good home and a fighting chance anyways.

Thank you Sena, thats what my BF said, better he pass away in clean, warm water with good food avaliable and someone who cares then sitting in the back on a betta shelf in the dark and cold

[LittleBettas]

Originally Posted by callistra

Let us know how he does.. Maracyn 2 may very well work. Just depends on if this drug can be effective on the source of the infection, and how fast it fights it off.

I have my fingers crossed for the little guy, he is just SO tiny

[Sena Hansler]

good luck :(

[mardi]

I hope the treatments work for him.

And although it's been said; you've given him warmth and the pleasure of being in the presence of someone who cares about his well being. he's certainly a lucky fish, no matter what happens.

[LittleBettas]

Thank you... he is def, not getting any better, now when I go check on him, he's not even bothering to look up at me... I had to remove his cup to get him to swim