Mysterious Illness Kills 3 Females

[GienahClarette]

Housing
What size is your tank? 20 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 80 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Yes, there are a total of 6 females now.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Atson Betta Pro
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2x a day, a few pellets each.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice Weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 40-50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Primer, aquarium salt, and stress coat, sometimes liquid fertilizer for the plants.

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity: All Good

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? There's a giant hole/fungis where her head should be.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? She's completely listless, and won't even eat. Her name means 'pleasantly plump' in German, and she loves food.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? She completely disappeared from feeding times several days ago. I just now found her and scooped her out of the sorority.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I've added more salt and IAL. I don't have any bleach on me at the moment, but I'm going to bleach all of the water buckets.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No. Sometimes she'd lose a scale from a scuffle. But, didn't seem to mind.
How old is your fish (approximately)?6 months





Slowly, girls have been disappearing from my sorority. Lipstick was the first to go. One day she just stopped showing up for food, then I found her body at the bottom of the tank almost a week later. Then the same thing happened to Bounce. But, I caught bounce and put her in a spare water bucket to monitor her, administer an anti fungal, and try to heal her. Bounce died with similar looking sores on her sides, not the dorsal area.

I eventually put down Bounce after she lost the ability to stay upright and couldn't get up for air.

Mollig stopped appearing for food a few days ago, and I just found her after trying to clean up some algae in the tank. She can still swim for the moment, but is growing weaker. I tried to brush off some of the weird white stuff from her, and a chunk of flesh came off. What in the world is this, and will bleach be enough to kill it before it destroys my tank?

[xjenuhfur]

I'm no expert, but this is what it sounds like.
From http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=73332

True Fungal Infections
•Symptoms: White cottony like patches on its body or head, Lethargic, Not eating, Clamped Fins, Pale Colors
•Treatment: Conservative: Lower temperature below 76* F and treat with Aq.Salt at 1 tsp/gal. Increase water changes to 100% daily. Replace accurate amount of salt following water changes. Never continue salt treatments for more than 10 days. Medication: If Conservative treatment is ineffective after 10 days or you see the fungus spread rapidly during the course of conservative treatment, move to medication. Add “Fungus Eliminator” by Jungle, API Erythromycin, API Fungus Cure, API Triple Sulfa, OR Mardel’s Maracyn II. Change water every day and add a new dose of the same medication. Continue until all fungus has disappeared.

[GienahClarette]

I'll do my best with that treatment plan. But, the white patches never disappeared on Bounce. I've also got some IAL water going in to make her more comfortable.

[Silverfang]

... I have no idea! For uh, fuzz, usually want to keep the temp a bit lower, say 75ish. I've pointed Sakura this way, she knows most treatments.

[GienahClarette]

Ok. I'll lower the temperature. Thank you for the advice!

[LittleBettaFish]

I would think that was bacterial rather than fungal. Looks like it could possibly be a columnaris infection. This would explain how come so many females died in such a short period of time, as columnaris can be fatal in as little as 48 hours.

That definitely looks like it needs to be dealt with using some kind of anti-bacterial, but I am not familiar with what medications you have available over there to treat it.

[Sakura8]

Hi Gienah and WOW. Your poor girls. I'm so sorry you're going through this. :( I second LittleBettaFish in that this is most likely bacterial in nature and probably columnaris.

Your best bet for treatment is a combination of Seachem Kanaplex and API Furan-2, as this creates a very powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic. Unfortunately, Seachem Kanaplex is very difficult to find in most stores and almost always has to be ordered online. www.kensfish.com has it, I know that.

If you don't want to or can't order Kanaplex online (totally understandable if you can't), then get API Furan-2 and use just that along with 3 tsps of aquarium salt per gallon, API Stress Coat if possible, and lower temperatures. Columnaris loves warmer temps so if you can lower the temp to 76 or so, that would be good. Also use the IAL that you have, that will help too.

I hope this helps you and good luck. Please keep us updated.

Almost forgot. If you're treating your sick girl in a hospital tank, that's great. You can add IAL to your sorority 20g to help them fight off the bacteria. Once everything is done and your girls are better, you probably will want to strip the tank and clean everything with a dilute bleach solution. Rinse it until you no longer smell any bleach and then when you fill it up again, use extra dechlorinator.

[GienahClarette]

I've bought the medications you recommended. Hopefully they'll get here soon.

[GienahClarette]

Mollig passed away sometime last night. I just found her. At least I was able to take her out of the sorority so she could pass in a more peaceful setting. I'm still going to treat the entire sorority, so hopefully this won't happen again.

How would you suggest that I treat a 20 gallon with live plants?

[Geomancer]

Looks like you're getting all the advice you need to help your fish out.

I just wanted to ask, are you using salt all the time (even before troubles started showing)?

I ask because these are not saltwater or brackish fish, so the use of salt is only recommended short term for fighting infections and not long term.

Hope they pull through!