[Jordan1712]

I brought my son a Betta 3 weeks ago. I started the tank using water from my fully cycled community tank. Within the last two days the Betta has now got clamped fins and really cloudy eyes. I started treatment 2 days ago and have done a 50% water change everyday. Is it too late for Tyson??

How many gallons is your tank? 6
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank? 78.8
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? Albino bristle nose

Food:
What food brand do you use? Tetra
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Flakes
Freeze-dried?
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? 4-5 discs morning and night

Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? Weekly
What percentage of water did you change? Just over 20%
What is the source of your water? Kitchen tap
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Vacuum
What additives do you use other than conditioner? What brand of conditioner? Api tap water conditioner

Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water before the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: -0.5
Nitrite: <1
Nitrate: 50
pH: 8
Hardness (GH): 150
Alkalinity (KH): 180

Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? 3 days ago
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? Fins are clamping
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Hiding more
Is your Betta still eating? Yes
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Yes - seachem prime water.
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? No
How long have you owned your Betta? 3 weeks
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? Didn’t appear to be.

 

[KatieMR]

Hi @Jordan1712! I'm sorry your fish is not doing well! Can you explain a little what do you mean when you say you are treating with "API Prime water"?

Unfortunately, the beneficial bacteria do not live in the water column, so using water from an established tank does not cycle a new tank. It does introduce ammonia and nitrites, however, both of which are toxic to fish. Did you add any filter media from the cycled tank, or just the water? Prolonged exposure to ammonia and nitrite can also lower immunity to other diseases, bacteria, etc. My guess is that your boy went through the ammonia spike portion of the nitrogen cycle and is showing the effects of ammonia exposure. It is a good sign that he is still eating though.

I'm not sure how to advise you about his cloudy eyes: that is a outside of my experience. I can tell you that your tank is not cycled. I recommend doing a 50% water change right away. Give the tank a couple of hours to settle and test the water parameters again. You want your ammonia and nitrite to be 0. If they are still higher than that after a couple of hours, do another 25% water change. Then follow the instructions in this guide to complete cycling the tank: CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial.

Hopefully someone more experienced will be along soon to advise you on what to do about his eyes, but getting his water clean is going to be the first step.

 

[Jordan1712]

Hi @Jordan1712! I'm sorry your fish is not doing well! Can you explain a little what do you mean when you say you are treating with "API Prime water"?

Unfortunately, the beneficial bacteria do not live in the water column, so using water from an established tank does not cycle a new tank. It does introduce ammonia and nitrites, however, both of which are toxic to fish. Did you add any filter media from the cycled tank, or just the water? Prolonged exposure to ammonia and nitrite can also lower immunity to other diseases, bacteria, etc. My guess is that your boy went through the ammonia spike portion of the nitrogen cycle and is showing the effects of ammonia exposure. It is a good sign that he is still eating though.

I'm not sure how to advise you about his cloudy eyes: that is a outside of my experience. I can tell you that your tank is not cycled. I recommend doing a 50% water change right away. Give the tank a couple of hours to settle and test the water parameters again. You want your ammonia and nitrite to be 0. If they are still higher than that after a couple of hours, do another 25% water change. Then follow the instructions in this guide to complete cycling the tank: CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial.

Hopefully someone more experienced will be along soon to advise you on what to do about his eyes, but getting his water clean is going to be the first step.

Apologies I am not treating with API prime water I am now treating with seacham prime. The filer media was new. I have done a 50% water change yesterday. Should I be doing a water change everyday.

 

[KatieMR]

I would follow the water change instructions from the cycling tutorial: which means changing the water whenever the ammonia OR nitrite levels approach .5 ppm, even if you are adding prime every day. According to the water parameters listed above, your nitrite is about twice that, so I would definitely do a water change today, and you may need to do a second one tonight to bring it down to the correct levels. Fish-in cycles require frequent water changes. If this were my tank I would try to be prepared to do a water change every day for a while. You may not have to, but then again you might.

 

[Jordan1712]

Thanks for everyone’s advice so far. The nitrite seems fine it’s the nitrate. Be brutal though. Do we think it is too late for Tyson??

 

[KatieMR]

When you say the nitrite seems fine, what numbers are you showing when you test the water? What numbers are you seeing for the nitrates?

I don't know the answer to that. If they are still eating, there is often a chance that they will pull through; even if he does not recover his sight there are lots of accounts of bettas blind bettas living pretty normal lives. But we do need to focus on getting his parameters down to 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and below 20 nitrates and maintaining them at those levels.

 

[BettaloverSara]

Are those the water parameters that you got today before the water change? If they are I would do at least 2 25% water changes 4 hrs apart. If it were my tank I would do a third just to make sure it is really clean. His fins appear to have fin melt. You could try some aquarium salt to start off with but you may need some medication for the cloudy eye. Do you have access to kanaplex where you live?

 

[Jordan1712]

Are those the water parameters that you got today before the water change? If they are I would do at least 2 25% water changes 4 hrs apart. If it were my tank I would do a third just to make sure it is really clean. His fins appear to have fin melt. You could try some aquarium salt to start off with but you may need some medication for the cloudy eye. Do you have access to kanaplex where you live?

I have some kosher salt arriving today. Would Melanie be the same? The reading were before a water change. I am going to do another one this morning before work then one this evening. Do I put the seachem in every time or just once a day?

 

[BettaloverSara]

Every time you add new water and then one dose daily until the tank is cycled. I do not know what melanie is? A medication?

 

[Jordan1712]

Every time you add new water and then one dose daily until the tank is cycled. I do not know what melanie is? A medication?

It is for bacterial infections however it contains tea tree oil which is apparently bad for bettas.

 

[RussellTheShihTzu]

Do you mean Melafix or Bettafix. Both are much-maligned mild medication Melafix Dangers; Betta, Labyrinth Fish, Pencil Fish.

While both does have tea tree oil, the oil has been refined to be water soluble so there is no danger to labyrinth fish.

If you have it you can use it but it is so mild that it can be like treating a migraine with baby aspirin.

 

[Jordan1712]

Do you mean Melafix or Bettafix. Both are much-maligned mild medication Melafix Dangers; Betta, Labyrinth Fish, Pencil Fish.

While both does have tea tree oil, the oil has been refined to be water soluble so there is no danger to labyrinth fish.

If you have it you can use it but it is so mild that it can be like treating a migraine with baby aspirin.

Thanks. I will try a little melfix and some kosher salt. I have just done a 50% water change and these were the readings prior

NO3 - 50
NO2 - 0
GH - 75
KP - 120
PH - 7.2
Ammonia - <0.5

 

[Jefeaquatics]

I prefer Maracyn from fritz aquatics. Just my opinion though. Sorry to hear that your bettas not doing well. I don't use API stress coat often but I have heard that it works well. Anyone got some knowledge if stress coat helps with fin rot?

 

[rockin3]

I was able to get my fish to recover from the same symptoms with API Erythromycin. However he did end up blind and I taught him to use a feeder ring to find his food. He lived at least a year longer.

 

[EDRVT]

Update?