Betta With Dropsy

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helloshepard

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
4
Location
Hawaii
Hello. This is my first non-greeting forum post so I apologize if I am doing it wrong.
I bought a female betta from the LFS 15 days ago. She was in a 29 gal with 8 zebra danios doing an fish-in cycle in a lightly planted tank. Within the last three days I noticed my betta has slowly been becoming more and more listless, not eating, and hanging out in one corner of the tank, except when she comes up for air. The zebras are fine.

Concerned the betta might be harassed by the danios, I moved her to a 1-gal container until I could set up the 10 gal QT (I currently do not have the space for it:banghead:) Once the betta was in the new container she seemed much happier for about 20 min, swimming and even ate a little, but now she is back at the bottom. She is pineconeing and is losing color (pictures and comparison attached-Monday vs Today).

What can I do to treat the dropsy? The internet seems to vary wildly from promoting euthanasia to aggressive treating to the fish version of hospice. Should I put her to sleep?

Symptoms:
-Pineconed body
-Listless, lack of appetite
-Loss of coloration

Setup:
-29g
-Tetra 30 gal filter w/ extra media and sponge
-8 zebra danios
-20% WC every other day (50% change 2x day for 1g)
-Lightly planted with Amazon sword, guppy grass, and 2 moss balls (the other 2 are in the 1g, which is why there's some substrate on the bottom)

Readings:
-0-.25 ammonia
-Temp in low 80s
 

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Update.

UPDATE:
Did an Epsom salt bath for 15 min, added 1/4 Tetra Lifeguard Tablet to the 1g, 1 ml hydrogen peroxide, and moved it to a higher shelf so she would not be disturbed by the cat.

Surprisingly, she looks slightly less pineconed and is moving around a little more than this afternoon. Before work I will do a WC and another salt bath.

If she is still alive when I get home from work I am going to get her a separate tank and TSS to jump start the cycle. Thank goodness it's the dollar/gal at Petco. The danios have been gravid (and possibly attempting to spawn) and much more active than normal and I'm reasonably certain that was a big contributing factor to this. Not going to be trying bettas in community tanks until I've established a lot more plants and hiding spots in the 29g--if I ever try again. :ermm:
 
Been many years since I had bettas, and I have tried to keep them in community tanks where the tankmates would be considered relatively docile. I failed every time.
Nothing like waking up in the morning only to find your beautiful bettas finless and laying on the bottom.
If you are going to try again with a bettas, suitable tankmates possibly neon tetras and cory cats.
Good luck.
 
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