How would you treat this tank? I don't know what they have.

[siva]

It's a 14 gal with a few livebearers and a betta. Some months ago, this tank had ich, and I treated with salt and heat which worked great. Thought I should point that out, just in case this could be related. A while ago I started to notice my two red wags sitting on the substrate with their fins clamped. This is what they started doing a week or so before ich symptoms had started in the past, so I was watching for white spots, which never came. The fish haven't had any ammo or nitrite exposure and the nitrates never exceed 20..are usually kept more around 10. Eventually the red wags color started to look a bit patchy..didn't exactly look like anything I'd seen before but I thought maybe the bettas gills looked like they were dusted a bit..so was thinking possibly velvet. Still didn't seem right though. One of the red wags started spending it's days sitting at the top of the tank swimming in one spot against the filter flow. It's very strange. Though seemingly weak, this put her in a position where she had to work hard all day. I added one tablespoon of salt per day for three days, slowing raising the heat a few degrees as well. Now in the past, treating ich or velvet, the fish have started to show almost immediate improvement after adding salt..not the case here. One red wag is now upside down, the other laying and hiding. Now another fish is scratching herself on things and her fins looked clamped as well. Still others are still acting and looking fairly normal. I'm guessing maybe this is some sort of parasite? Is salt the best treatment? If I do a mela/pima combo, I can only do 1/5 dose because there's a betta in there. Any advice appreciated.

 

[Zagz]

Have you seen any of them poo lately? Is it normal or stringy and white? Are they eating?

It seems to be a parasite from what you are describing. I use Prazi Pro or Jungle's parasite clear. I have never tried them with betta's mind you, but have used the prazi pro with discus.

 

[siva]

Everyone seems to be eating and pooing normally.

Should I just pick up whatever I can find locally for parasites? I don't want to have to wait to order something if I don't have to and am not sure if I can get those specific products in town. Should I eliminate the salt from the tank before adding meds or treat with both? Today is just the fourth day on salt.

I haven't added anyone without QT'ing first so, whatever this is, it slipped by me

 

[Zagz]

I don't think the salt is going to hurt anything. I honestly can not see what else it would be other than something parasitic. It doesn't seem bacterial or fungal. See what you have locally, you can always do a quick google if you are not familiar with it.

 

[siva]

That was my hunch. There is just so little visible symptoms of anything even though there has been strange behavior, atleast in those two red wags, for a while. Also the red wag who was swimming upside down died, and when I removed her she was very stiff. This seemed odd to me. When I've removed dead fish before they've always been rather limp.