Hi I think my betta has fin rot, but im not sure. I just want advice on if i am correct I am treating him Basically I went home Sunday night and he was perfect, still swimming in his favourite spot ( one between the treasure chest and the heater) Next evening i went to feed him and he was hiding under his orange thingy ma bob. My first response was that he was stuck and died< good news was that he woke and went for air when i lifted the orange plant, bad news, as soon as i put it back he hid under it again. so i took a light and went to examine him. his whole front body is black and his back fins are limp, he cant even move that part. he is swimming with just his front fins. He comes up for air and dives straight back under the orange plant. I have tried feeding him and he ignores it totally. I went straight to the pet store and bought a multi medicine that said is good for fin rot and other parasites and stuff like that. I put the first treatment in last night. And once the 5day cycle is complete i need to repeat. I dont know if i Diagnosed him correctly, if i caught it too late or if he will make it. I have grown very fond of him and i find im very teary. I even cried when I first spotted this. He is in an 11 liter tank, have done a water test and everything is perfect. There are no other fish in the tank. He has a heater and a filter and a treasure chest and an orange plant thingy and some rocks for a mountainy feel. Before he got sick he only ate bloodworms and refused the pellets. He ate live mosqitoe larvae Any ideas or suggestions
Photos will help... Also, bloodworms aren't the best food out there to give fish, as it's full of bacteria (from where it's harvested). Even if it was "clean", there's very little nutritional value in it. If you want to feed live food, your best bet (BY FAR) will be freshly hatched brine shrimp. I'm yet to see a fish refuse BBS. If a fish is hungry enough, it will eat anything. So getting them on to proper flakes or pellets can be achieved with some "tough love", which in the end will be better for them as it will provide them with a more balanced nutritional meal
Thanks JAX - didnt wanna Starve Lazuli so I just kept feeding him the worms. But He isn't eating right now so if he gets Better then i will feed him the pellets. Unfortunately Im at work so I cant put up pictures... I will see if I can get some tonight
Hmm, is there visible damage on his fins? How often do you do water changes? How long have you had him for? If his body is black, but not his fins, then it doesn't sound like fin rot. If his fins have black edges, look a bit ragged and are receding, that's fin rot. The food may be an issue, I would certainly try feed him on something else if he pulls through this - the key is variety. A photo will be essential in diagnosing what it is, to make sure you treat it correctly. I hope that you manage to get him right!
I have had him a week and 3 days. I did a water change on Saturday and also a complete water change and washed the tank as the medicine said I should and also I was told to clean the tank. I bought water that was already cycled and everything yesterday before treatment. All water tests have come back with the correct levels so it can't be the water. He might be unhappy and I don't know how to fix that. The food will be corrected, tough love. His front Fins are completely black and they are the only fins working. his face and 3/4 of his body is black. his tail is not working and look freyed. I was going to do another change Today but saw that he was sick. I will post pictures when I go home
In a larger tank with a filter, I would say that cycled water does very little, it's the filter that must be cycled. But I assume in an 11L setup, you don't have a filter? I would still think that one should cycle the tank so that one grows beneficial bacteria in the gravel and on the surfaces and crevices of your ornaments etc. But I don't have experience with small tanks without filters, so maybe regular water changes is the only way one copes? I would think that regular water changes are stressful to the fish. Are you treating your tap water with anything like Seachem Prime to remove chlorine and chloramine? The chlorine in tap water kills the necessary bacteria for the nitrogen cycle, and so one shouldn't wash things in tap water - did you wash the tank in tap water? I'm very sorry, this sounds like a steep learning curve Please don't be put off or disillusioned if this all sounds like too much, even if you lose this fish, please keep reading and learning and stick it out in the hobby!
My tank has a filter, however it is not in use while my fish is going through treatment. The filter has been on and working before he was sick. I did use stuff to remove chlorine and chloramine before using the water. I did all my research about my baby before getting him. The only thing is that I haven't found anything about his current condition and that is why i'm here Also my mom got stuff to help with the beneficial bacteria as she began with new tank syndrome. Dont worry, learning is the best part however I may invent a fear of killing my next fish if I lose this one. I am also ready to take any suggestion to Help Lazuli, even if it seems like a duh thing to say. I can always check if i have done already. one idea may have a light bulp effect. so steep or no, just give it to me straight.
Ok cool, sorry if my previous post sounded a bit patronising, didn't wanna assume too much! Hundreds on the filter - I'm still nervous that there was some new tank syndrome. What beneficial bacteria did you use, was it Microbe-Lift or otherwise Seachem Stability? Did you dose only once, or over a number of days? What do you have in the filter? Why have you turned the filter off? Did the medication say that you should? If you can give the exact name of the medication that would help. What did you use to remove the chlorine and chloramine? (name of product) To give it to you straight, if 3/4 of his body was black this morning, it is possible that he may be dead by the time you get home. However, in my early days, I've had a fish that seemed to be on death's door last for a three or four days, but I haven't managed to successfully beat anything other than ich and the start of fin rot.
@RoGe ... you dont have to dose Microbe-Lift SBlend or Stability every day, specially Special Blend, as the bacteria will start colonising immediately. However, that's under normal circumstances, i.e. running filter. With technically no filter at the moment, I can not see any colonisation (oh where is Julius now...lol) in the biological media. @Storm ... I must say, I've not heard of medication that forced one to turn off your filter completely. As that will open a whole new can of worms so to speak. Usually it's either, remove all your chemical filtration (i.e. Purigen, carbon, etc) whilst tank is being treated (but leave biological & mechanical filtration going) OR dip/bath the fish in the medicine/solution in a container, before adding it back to the hospital tank. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but like I said, I haven't heard of it before. We all just speculating now...so I think once you get home and are able to provide us with photos, name of medicine, directions of how it should be used, etc...only then will you be able to receive concrete assistance.
I know we used some Seachem Stability but nt sure the other one, we dosed over a few days. The other 12 fish (3 betta in their own tank) are perfectly fine. Its just my boy. Moms over new tank syndrome and we all learnt from her mistakes. We have some type of cotton we got specifically for the tank and moms using charcoal as well, I didnt have that. Filter is off because the medication said we must turn it off for the first treatment cycle. I will have to check when i get home concerning the med and the stuff that removes chlorine. Used that same product for the chlorine on my other betta and he is fine. Well I noticed it yesterday night and he still alive now, he is currently hiding under a plant type thing and comes up for air every few minutes. I think I might be too late but until he has no fins or dies i will keep treatments. I may just save him
JAX - I agree. I will take a photo of the medicine, the instructions, and my baby as he is now, also for the sake of my babies beauty l give you a before sick photo
So here are the pictures. the first picture is him when he was healthy the next 2 are him sick, i took him out the tank to take the photos and put him in a shallow bowl after as he cant get to the surface to breathe anymore, now he is closer so he can breathe, but his water is green from the medicine he looks like he suffering really badly and like he wont recover I dont know if its humane to keep him alive like this, i dont know what to do He looks way worse, he doesnt even bother to swim anymore
Thanks for the pics.. I don't see where the instructions say the filter should be turned off, only that absorbing media like charcoal should be removed during the treatment (I googled the instructions, I can't read your photo) His fins still look pretty good, so I don't think it's fin rot. I'm not sure what it is, other than new tank syndrome - the filter not being fully cycled yet and things being washed in tap water. I've had a betta before with one of those air driven filters, I found that he didn't enjoy it either, it seemed to be the excessive surface movement from the bubbles breaking the surface of the water. Generally they like floating plants or something on the surface of the water, and minimal water surface movement. So you can still use that filter, but maybe put something above it near the water surface that might just break the momentum of the bubbles. And maybe raise one of your plastic plants so that the leaves sit just under the water surface...? I'm not sure what you should do now, to be honest.. Try a rooibos teabag and a tiny bit of aquarium salt in his jug?? The rooibos can't do any harm, but the salt you'd need to be careful with. I would also start the filter in his tank and dose some stability, and if he survives to the end of the first round of treatment, put him back in his tank.. But like I said, not actually sure.. What are you using to remove chlorine and chloramine? Also a seachem or tetra product?
Unfortunately my boy past on last night. He did seem unhappy once i put thee filter. He kept swimming up and down the back of the tank and I thought there was something like his reflection that may be making him unhappy. I will keep the plant idea in mind. I have another betta but he seems fine with the filter and the bubbles but i cant be sure as the filter was there when he arrived. Lazuli got his after about 4days The product to remove Chlorine is tetra. He was a very happy boy until I added that filter. What do I do about Crescendo now, is he fine with the filter or what?
I'm sorry to hear that he died, terrible feeling.. I really don't think that the filter would be the cause of the issue. I have seen that it can make them unhappy, but it definitely won't make them sick. I wouldn't change anything in the other betta's tank.
Sorry to hear about your fish... On a side note, be careful with your heater. There is a minimum water level line ie water shouldn't be below that level. What size are these heaters? They should be 25w or smaller for an 11l tank. Your temps will soar very quickly before the thermostat switches off otherwise.
my betta did the same when I didn't feed him the right food. he also went darker and was also just stuck on the bottom the whole time. I changed my food and did more frequent water changes and he looked tons beter few weeks down the line. sorry for you loss tho always sad losing a fish. ( lost my female a few days back. probably old or something tho )
betas likes natural sandy bottom [substrate] some driftwood moss and floating plants remember these fish comes from rice paddy's. most people will argue and say but they are tank bred and don't know any better but they have a natural instinct imprinted in their DNA. awesome fish just give them the right habitat.