[ABettaMale]

My brother has a halfmoon betta fish and in the past few days it hasn't been acting zippy and responsive like before. It hasn't been eating very much at all lately, and the spots have been becoming more and more frequent in the past day.

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gal.
What temperature is your tank? 78 degrees (static temperature heater)
Does your tank have a filter? Yes, whisper internal filter.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Nope.
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? A snail (visible in one of the pictures in the top left.

He was moved into the tank about a day ago from a 2.5 gallon tank, and everything in this tank was new, the gravel, the plants, although the figures were washed off with hot water and transferred from the old one.


Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? The pellets that are commonplace.
How often do you feed your betta fish? 4 pellets twice a day.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week in 2.5 gal, haven't changed yet after 1 day in new tank.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? All
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? The dechlorinator/cleanser.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
No.
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Spots appearing on him.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Hardly moves very much, hides all day, barely eats, comes up to top sometimes for air.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 2-3 days ago.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Put salt in this new tank, heating.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Nope.
How old is your fish (approximately)? 4-5 months.


Any help on how I can make sure he is alright would be very much appreciated, as well as if someone could answer these questions:
If it is ich or velvet, what are its chances of surviving? He is basically just resting on the bottom, I can see that he is breathing through his gills, he is also gulping with his mouth. His fins are contracted.
If it is not something extremely serious, what is the usual timetable for symptoms to become alleviated? And what is the best way to ensure that there is a proper concentration of bath salt in there, etc.
Pictures attached, and thank you all in advance!

 

[ao]

That looks like ich, I think you should put him in a small qt tank/ container that is easy to perform full water changes on. If he's ok with 100% water changes I would recommend one done everyday. the ich looks pretty bad, I think you woild definately need some kind of medicine, maracide worked pretty well for me last time. There is also rid ich plus which I have never used but apprently works well also. I dont have enough experience with bettas yet to give you enough advice, but definately keep up the salt (gradually increase up to 3tsp/ gallon if he can handle it) the heat (around 82? ny fish doesnt like it any higher than that), and definately daily water changes. I hope he gets well soon...

 

[ao]

Oh and about the seriousness of his condition, he looks pretty bad. Put him in completely clean water when you can so he is no longer in an environment that is infested with the free swimming ich larvae (babies? i dunno what they are called ), apparently parasites kill fish by infesting their gills and inhibiting their ability to breath and the fish dies through suffocation( I could be wrong).

 

[iceyrose]

Aww little buddy has ick ick* becarefull with the meds some are only suppose to be used at half dose for tetras & bettas. Jungle makes a med called ick2...whish is for tetra and small fish. The best idea I came up with is to do 100% water changes....and after a week putting em in the floaty cups then u can change the other water out more often with the fresh med water which would be heated. Turkey vasters seem to help clear out old water & #2's filter systems obsorb the meds so off that goes or if water movement is a must remove filter...had this issue with my little buddy.

 

[frazier71]

Raise the temp slowly to 86*f and add salt. If that doesn't work I personally like tetra brand ick fizz tablets.

 

[iceyrose]

Also some meds say to change out only 20% of the water that maid me nervious and I didn't want to over medicate him some I did 100% every other day after the first two days with water conditioner.. then when he was in the floaty cup only changed tank water every few days. Intuionion plays a huge roll when taking care of the betta....watching his eye help to tell you how he's reacting to the meds...I put 1\2. Of a 1\2 gallon of aquarium salt with meds which seemd to help some people don't reccoment putting the aquarium salt in with the ick meds. My little dude seems atlot better except his constipation.

 

[iceyrose]

I had neacco in a 2.5gallon tank. Also removing the stones and decarations and scolding them with hot water really help just leavem outta the tank for awhile....studying is super important so u know all the ins and outs of what u & ur betta are going thru.

 

[bettanova2]

I also think it is ich. The chances of surviving is quite high if you act promptly. My tetras had been infected by this disease before maybe the water is not changed more than a week or water temperature is colder than normal. Separate the betta to another container/aquarium.

You can try an anti-ich water medicine which is usually inexpensive. Just follow the instructions labelled on the bottle on how much drops needed for different size of aquarium for the treatment. Apply it once every 24 hours with new water until the dots of white spot disappear. My tetras had recovered on day 4, but one tetra died. Don't forget to clean out the aquarium where your betta is infected because some ich may still reside in the aquarium.
Hope your betta will recover soon! Good luck.

 

[Myates]

Scratchy icky ich!

Because ich is contagious, it is preferable to treat the whole tank when one fish is found to have it. Ick is temperature sensitive: raise temperature to 85 F.
You can choose whether to use salt or medicine at this point- he has it pretty bad, but it's up to you as either way is good and effective.
Add 1 tsp/gal Aquarium Salt 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Perform daily 100% water changes to remove fallen parasites before they can reproduce. Replace the water with the right amount of salt. Do not continue this treatment for more than 14 days.
If it fails or you do not want to use salt, treat with Jungle’s Parasite Clear, API Super Ick Cure, or Kordon Rid Ich Plus.

Good luck!

 

[ABettaMale]

Thanks all,
He just spread his fins out for the first time since he got sick, and he flared, too, so I guess that he is getting better.
However, he is still acting kind of like he is at a loss of strength, and there is a sort of black stripe layer developing on his fins (as in the tip of the fins are turning black, no external thing.) Should that be a concern? I put him in 85 degree water while changing all of the water in his current tank today, along with a bit of an increase in salt concentration for that tank, and I think it helped him out a bit.

 

[ao]

If the edges of his fins are tirning black and seem like theyre thinning out and falling off, then its probably Fin rot. Otherwise maybe its natural coloring? I've seen some bettas with natural black edges to their fins.

Take care of the ich first and maintain clean water until you are 20% sure the ich is gone. Then you can tackle the fin rot separately. I had first gotten my betta when he had fin rot and ich. I panicked and read up that that you can nuke fin rot surgically, I took him out of the water and applie some hydrogen peroxide to the edges of his tail. Boy was he mad at me. but the rot died and the tail started healing. Just a story i dont recommend you try it unless it is absolutely neccessary

 

[ABettaMale]

And in the past few hours he has gotten really bad and is now laying on his side with gills hardly moving. RIP.

 

[copperarabian]

poor thing It looks like a really bad case of ick, one of my first cichlids got a severe case of ich(no one else in the tank had it), I did a really intense treatment plan for 2 weeks but she didn't make it

 

[Myates]

I'm sorry to hear.. you can try placing him in new water to see if that helps. Have you done your 100% water change today? If so, when was it in relation to him laying on the bottom?

Left untreated, Ich is almost certainly fatal. Infected fish are weakened by the ever growing number of parasites feeding on them. He was very infested by the time you came here, it was probably too late by then.. I'm sorry.

 

[ABettaMale]

I'm sorry to hear.. you can try placing him in new water to see if that helps. Have you done your 100% water change today? If so, when was it in relation to him laying on the bottom?

Left untreated, Ich is almost certainly fatal. Infected fish are weakened by the ever growing number of parasites feeding on them. He was very infested by the time you came here, it was probably too late by then.. I'm sorry.

I did the 100% water change around ten hours ago. He was swimming around a bit after the water change, too. There are no white spots on him at all right now (which kind of made me accept it was done, since there were quite a few earlier today.) Holding out for a miracle.

 

[ao]

try changing his water again and help him up for air, if the parasites have left it probably does mean that he is dying. I would give it one more go and see if he can survive in some good clean warm water.