Betta not doing so hot

[shalihe74]

Hey folks,

About a year ago I got my little Betta fish. Recently he hasn't been doing too well. Early this week I noticed he had some sort of tumor or something on one side - just a big swelling under his skin. Looking it up online, it said it could be a fluid-filled cyst or possibly fishie TB. Besides the tumor/cyst, the fish was acting normally - frisking around, coming to see me at meal times, etc.

Even though I clean the tank regularly and do PWCs frequently, I thought maybe there was something in there that was causing the growth, so I set up another tank. I put in one of small filters (I have one of those aquariums with a filter and a 'biowheel' - I put in the biowheel) from his usual tank to get the good bacteria started, and let the tank sit overnight to get to the right temperature and such.

In the morning, I moved my little man into the new tank. After a little bit, he was a happy little dude - making bubble nests everywhere. And, happily, the tumor seemed to go away. I'm not sure if it burst (eek!) or receeded, but I'm leaning towards receeding since it seemed to be a gradual reduction (i.e. a few hours later it was smaller and then a few hours after that it was gone). Yay! Now the area where it was looks unhealthy - the scales are discolored (yellow/clear where my fishie is purple), but that makes sense to me.

This was.... two days ago. Now my little man has become listless. At the moment he is sitting at the bottom of the tank, looking fairly pathetic. I tried feeding him last night and he took a bloodworm in his mouth, then decided against it (kinda like you might do with food if you're nauseated - ya try it and then realize it's not a good idea). At the moment, I have the water level in the tank lowered so he can get to the surface for air easier.

I'm running the chemical tests right now, so I can't give specific tank parameters yet except that ammonia is at 0. The tank is about ~80 degrees. I haven't changed his diet at all recently. When I set up the new tank, I made sure to rinse all the 'stuff' in de-chlor'd water.

Not sure what else to tell you - I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have. He's a cool little fishie, and I'd hate to lose him.

Thanks in advance, and apologies for the long post.

 

[shalihe74]

Here is a pic of the lil dude from today.

He seemed a little better last night, so I put some more water in (trying to raise it to the point where I can turn the filter back on). He's still hanging in there, but not his normal frisky self. I put a mirror to his tank and he didn't even try to defend his territory - just swam away and hid. Poor guy.

Thoughts? Do I just need to keep his tank really really clean (recommendations on how best to do this?), and slightly salty, and hope for the best until the side looks better?

 

[DragonFish71]

Try using Melfix and Pimafix. Both are natural and I've heard of good results. I wouldn't suggest salt, not with bettas. Also, only do half strength doses of the meds.

Example: 1 teaspoon per 10g for 7 days. To reduce stress of the fish (bettas and tetras are kind of wussy about meds) do half a teaspoon per 10g for 14 days.

 

[shalihe74]

Try using Melfix and Pimafix. Both are natural and I've heard of good results. I wouldn't suggest salt, not with bettas. Also, only do half strength doses of the meds.

Example: 1 teaspoon per 10g for 7 days. To reduce stress of the fish (bettas and tetras are kind of wussy about meds) do half a teaspoon per 10g for 14 days.

Awesome, DragonFish. Just so I'm clear - I want to give both of those meds? Not one or the other? Better to give them all at one time (am/pm) or 1 in the morning and 1 at night. or does it not really matter?

Thanks so much!

 

[DragonFish71]

From what I read they can be used together. Here's the link:

Bacterial and Fungal Medications: PimaFix & MelaFix Treatments

 

[mfdrookie516]

not sure if that'll help (just because i have no idea what that is) but melafix and pimafix are great, i've used them for other reasons with excellent results. Just dose them together.

 

[DragonFish71]

If you click on the "more information" tab it tells you about the dosing and that they can be sued together. It just didn't keep that tab open when I linked it.

 

[dkpate]

+1 for Dragon and Rookie, but I would not use the salt for more than 10 days if you are going to at all. If you are going to use the Pima and Mela, I would skip the salt. Salt used for too long can damage the bettas kidneys. And like Dragon said, only use 1/2 doses. When I treated mine, I did a 50% pwc every day before redosing.
The spot on his side kind of looks like a wound. Does he like to squeeze himself places? I know mine do. Like Rookie said, the Pima and Mela should take care of that. One thing I am not sure of in the pic though, is the dip on the ridge of his back. Also, bettas only live for 2-5 years, and when you got him from the store he was about 6 months old.
How often do you usually change the water? What size of a tank is he in? You can keep the temp at 80*F from now on too, since the bettas like the warmer temps.

 

[An t-iasg]

I would suggest against using the Melafix and Pimafix for bettas. They are great meds for other fish, but they seem to irritate the labyrinth organ in bettas. I watched my betta fall like a rock to the bottom of the tank when I used Melafix.

I had a few bettas that got large tumors toward the end of their life - they did act and eat normally for a few weeks with the growth, but eventually it killed them. I never had a betta with a tumor that vanished, though. You could try Maracyn (an antibiotic) to try to treat the wound that the tumor left. If you have any salt left in the water, do a few water changes - don't mix the Maracyn and the salt. Take the biowheel out of the tank and put it in a baggie with tank water. Add some fish food to the bag and put it in the refrigerator while you're treating with antibiotics. Add a little fish food every day to the bag and it will help feed the good bacteria. I left a filter sponge in the frig for about a week this way. At the end of the week, the ammonia level of the bag water was 0, meaning the good bacteria was sill functioning.

I remember that my bettas also couldn't eat toward the end - they acted as if the food was too big for them to put in their mouth. I used a little paring knife to cut the pellets in half. You could also try to feed the smaller pieces of bloodworms. Make sure the foods you feed the betta are well-softened - soak the pellets in a cup of tank water for a few minutes, and soak the bloodworms for 20 seconds or so, but don't soak the foods so much that they don't float anymore. Bettas will rarely go after sinking food. Good luck and I hope this helps your betta!

 

[shalihe74]

Thanks, all, for the help!

After reading DragonFish's response (and before An t-iasg's), I ran out and got the Pima- and Melafix and added it to the tank. Read An t'iasg's post and ran back to the tank to make sure my lil man could still swim. He could, so... I assume that means he's tolerating the medicine.

It seems to be helping (and it smells great!). I'm not sure how to describe it - the area that was sort of grey and sickly now just looks ashy, like it has dried out or something, which seems good. I know that doesn't sound great, but it really seems like an improvement. And my lil punk came to meet me at the top of the tank today, going 'Breakfast?!', so that's a good sign as well.

Dkpate - I agree, it looks like a wound. I've never seen him squeezing himself into anything (he spends most of his time fighting his reflection or sleeping on a leaf and then freaking out when I wake him up to make sure he's not dead), but it could very well be that he somehow got a little scratch and it got infected and then swelled up.

He's in a 5g tank, and I try to do PWCs every week. Sometimes it goes a little longer, but usually I'm very good about once a week. Naturally, since he got sick, I've been doing them a lot more often than that!

Thanks again for the assistance. I'll keep y'all posted on how he continues to (hopefully) improve. He's still (I assume) a young fsshy (1.5ish years, if he was 6mos when I got him), so he's hopefully got a long life ahead of him if I can get him through this.

 

[DragonFish71]

Glad to hear he's improving. Keep his water clean, especially while medicating and he should be ok.

An t-iasg's post is part of why I always suggest treatments at half doses for certain types of fish like bettas and tetras. They don't handle meds well at all. Funny thing is, I actually started doing that because I had read about some of the scaleless fishes being affected by ich meds. So I thought "hmmm could that be why I lost that fish?" I also found by research that high strength meds can harm the beneficial bacterias. So since then, when I have to treat my own tanks (knock on wood I haven't had to in almost a year) I do half doses of any type of med.

 

[shalihe74]

Quick update: my dude continues to be improving. Have been doing 50% WCs and medicating, and the injury is... looking better. At least it is looking cleaner.

The dead/loose scales that were causing grey spot in the earlier picture have fallen off, revealing quite a hole in his meaty bits. I've had a lot of experience with abcessed wounds on cats (being the de facto vet in the family, somehow I always end up being the "lucky" one who gets to clean out the icky.), and his side looks exactly like an abcess that has been opened & drained.

So, I suspect dkpate is correct that there was a surficial wound that got infected. Hopefully hopefully hopefully it isn't fishy TB. Fingers crossed.

 

[dkpate]

I will keep my fingers crossed with you!
Glad it's looking a little better. Do you ever notice him hanging out by the heater on the suction cups? I wonder if it was a burn.

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm glad your betta is doing better! I know the feeling when your favorite little fishy is sick. Keep up with what you're doing and when the treatment is finished, do extra water changes for a while - say twice a week for two weeks - to make sure the water is pristine to help the wound heal and also some extra insurance to help the labyrinth recover in case it got a bit irritated.

 

[mattrox]

I know that cross forum posting is frowned upon, I hope I am forgiven....

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I think people may find it useful and money saving too.