Hi, I have a very young betta fish and he is sick. Here's the information about him:
Housing
1 Gallon Tank
I don't know the temperature but I have the light on during the day, and an automatic heater at night that's supposed to keep it at mid-70s
There is an underground filter
I don't have an air stone but the filter pumps air through the tank
He has two snail buddies, and a small fern-like plant
Food
I feed him tropical betta flakes once a day
Maintenance
Usually, I don't perform frequent water changes but in the last week I've changed about 80% of the water twice because he was sick and I was worried something was wrong with the water.
Every time I change the water I add StressCoat+ to dechlorinate it and keep his stress levels down. It says to add double the dose to repair skin and scales and since he was looking bad I did that.
Water Parameters:
I haven't tested the water but I did two major water changes (I took him out and even cleaned the rocks and his house and plant and everything)
Symptoms and Treatment
I noticed the symptoms last week.
He doesn't have any history of being ill that I know of... except one instance I will mention below.
He is about 2-3 months old; I got him from Petsmart about the beginning of January. He has had zero loss of appetite despite being sick, probably because he's still growing.
Here's what's been happening.
After he had been in his tank for a few weeks, I'd tried to give him snail friends but he kept eating them. He must have discovered they didn't sit well with him because he finally stopped attacking them and he had two snail friends for a few more weeks before he got sick. He'd been eating fine and swimming and being happy. I always kept the little flap (where you put in the food) open but one day I closed it; didn't see any changes so I figured it was fine. Until one morning and I woke up and he was sitting on the bottom, pale white like a ghost and I was absolutely terrified. I opened the flap, fed him, and went to class; came back and he was red again and swimming around just fine. I made sure to keep the flap open after that but he seemed to be perfectly healthy.
Then. About 1-2 weeks later, I found him laying on the bottom of the tank more, swimming jerkily, and suddenly he began thrashing around the tank like he wanted to knock himself out -- it was absolutely terrible to watch. I immediately looked on this site to figure out what on earth could be wrong. I looked at him closely and it seemed he might have a very faint layer of gray filmy stuff on his back half, and there was a pale region under his dorsal fin that looked like a saddle.
First I gave him a nearly 100% water change (cleaned the rocks and everything) and he seemed to do a bit better, but the next morning he was doing poorly again and laying on the bottom. He didn't thrash around though. I figured it must be some kind of fungus so I got Fungus Cure fizzing tablets and salt from the store. I put a tiny bit of salt in, added the appropriate amount of medicine (I forgot to turn the filter off so I had to do it twice basically) and left his light on overnight so the tank would be warm. After four days he seemed to be doing a little better and would open his fins up when he ate; but he still looked sick and the instructions called for a second dose so I changed 25% of the water and added the second dose, as it said. Things went way downhill from there. He got worse and worse.
Three days in I was scared he was going to die because he was swimming weird, a cottony white spot had appeared on his back, and he started thrashing around the tank again. I turned on the filter for several hours then did another 100% water change to get rid of the medicine that was obviously not helping. He seems to like water changes and will swim with open fins for a couple hours before resuming laying on the bottom looking dead. I added salt to the water because the medicine had not been working...about a teaspoon per twelve hours, three times, like the forum had said to do for ick or columnaris(I think?) and put in the heater so that even at night the temperature wouldn't drop below like 75 fahrenheit.
But he continued to get worse and only swims to get a breath of air or food (for which he still has a large appetite) or if you accidentally bump the tank. He didn't even move when I showed him a mirror. He hides in his little hut and won't come out... and after looking at another post I worried I'd added too much salt. So, I just changed out about 25% of his water for fresh water (and added more StressCoat+) and he seemed to like that and swims around a bit more. But he still looks sick. Also sometimes he looks like he has stripes but I don't think that's good.
What do I do?!? I don't want him to die :-( I want to see him grow into an adult and I can see his fins growing and I don't want to lose that
When you look at the picture keep in mind he hasn't grown all his big long fancy fins yet which is why the bottom one looks all clamped up.. it just hasn't grown. But his tail fin is clamped. you can't see the white spot on his back (between his head and his dorsal fin) in the picture but it is there.
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Housing
1 Gallon Tank
I don't know the temperature but I have the light on during the day, and an automatic heater at night that's supposed to keep it at mid-70s
There is an underground filter
I don't have an air stone but the filter pumps air through the tank
He has two snail buddies, and a small fern-like plant
Food
I feed him tropical betta flakes once a day
Maintenance
Usually, I don't perform frequent water changes but in the last week I've changed about 80% of the water twice because he was sick and I was worried something was wrong with the water.
Every time I change the water I add StressCoat+ to dechlorinate it and keep his stress levels down. It says to add double the dose to repair skin and scales and since he was looking bad I did that.
Water Parameters:
I haven't tested the water but I did two major water changes (I took him out and even cleaned the rocks and his house and plant and everything)
Symptoms and Treatment
I noticed the symptoms last week.
He doesn't have any history of being ill that I know of... except one instance I will mention below.
He is about 2-3 months old; I got him from Petsmart about the beginning of January. He has had zero loss of appetite despite being sick, probably because he's still growing.
Here's what's been happening.
After he had been in his tank for a few weeks, I'd tried to give him snail friends but he kept eating them. He must have discovered they didn't sit well with him because he finally stopped attacking them and he had two snail friends for a few more weeks before he got sick. He'd been eating fine and swimming and being happy. I always kept the little flap (where you put in the food) open but one day I closed it; didn't see any changes so I figured it was fine. Until one morning and I woke up and he was sitting on the bottom, pale white like a ghost and I was absolutely terrified. I opened the flap, fed him, and went to class; came back and he was red again and swimming around just fine. I made sure to keep the flap open after that but he seemed to be perfectly healthy.
Then. About 1-2 weeks later, I found him laying on the bottom of the tank more, swimming jerkily, and suddenly he began thrashing around the tank like he wanted to knock himself out -- it was absolutely terrible to watch. I immediately looked on this site to figure out what on earth could be wrong. I looked at him closely and it seemed he might have a very faint layer of gray filmy stuff on his back half, and there was a pale region under his dorsal fin that looked like a saddle.
First I gave him a nearly 100% water change (cleaned the rocks and everything) and he seemed to do a bit better, but the next morning he was doing poorly again and laying on the bottom. He didn't thrash around though. I figured it must be some kind of fungus so I got Fungus Cure fizzing tablets and salt from the store. I put a tiny bit of salt in, added the appropriate amount of medicine (I forgot to turn the filter off so I had to do it twice basically) and left his light on overnight so the tank would be warm. After four days he seemed to be doing a little better and would open his fins up when he ate; but he still looked sick and the instructions called for a second dose so I changed 25% of the water and added the second dose, as it said. Things went way downhill from there. He got worse and worse.
Three days in I was scared he was going to die because he was swimming weird, a cottony white spot had appeared on his back, and he started thrashing around the tank again. I turned on the filter for several hours then did another 100% water change to get rid of the medicine that was obviously not helping. He seems to like water changes and will swim with open fins for a couple hours before resuming laying on the bottom looking dead. I added salt to the water because the medicine had not been working...about a teaspoon per twelve hours, three times, like the forum had said to do for ick or columnaris(I think?) and put in the heater so that even at night the temperature wouldn't drop below like 75 fahrenheit.
But he continued to get worse and only swims to get a breath of air or food (for which he still has a large appetite) or if you accidentally bump the tank. He didn't even move when I showed him a mirror. He hides in his little hut and won't come out... and after looking at another post I worried I'd added too much salt. So, I just changed out about 25% of his water for fresh water (and added more StressCoat+) and he seemed to like that and swims around a bit more. But he still looks sick. Also sometimes he looks like he has stripes but I don't think that's good.
What do I do?!? I don't want him to die :-( I want to see him grow into an adult and I can see his fins growing and I don't want to lose that
When you look at the picture keep in mind he hasn't grown all his big long fancy fins yet which is why the bottom one looks all clamped up.. it just hasn't grown. But his tail fin is clamped. you can't see the white spot on his back (between his head and his dorsal fin) in the picture but it is there.
