id sickness please.. possibly ich

[annnie]

hi,

my betta has sort of white spots on his fins.. 1 of his fins he tries to clamp unless he needs to use it and that fin has a whole bunch of white spots on the base of his fin and the other fin has less. Is this ich? hes had ich before but it was all over him and not so concentrated in 1 area. He has it nowhere else other than his fins.

im going to raise the temp and add salt for now. If anyone can clarify what it is ill treat according.

i honestly thing hes just jealous and looking for attention since i got a new fish

 

[Blueiz]

It is possible for ich to only appear in certain areas in the early stages of it. That means that you have caught it pretty early in most cases.

What you describe sounds like ich. Without a picture it would be hard to say for sure. You also say that you have gotten a new fish, but you didn't say if it went in the tank with the betta. If it did, then the probability of your betta having ich is greater.

It could be fungus too, however the raising the heat and adding salt will treat both. Just be sure to add at least 1 tsp per gallon, I myself reccomend adding at least 2 tsp of salt per gallon as this is the median between the 1 and 3 tsp reccomended.

 

[dkpate]

Remember when I was e-mailing you and telling you what was going on with my bettas? Same thing....
I tried salt and heat, QuICK Cure, Melafix, and Pimafix. Finally, on the last day of Pimafix, it kind of went away...I just ended all treatments, and now it's gone. I still don't know what it was....

 

[annnie]

It is possible for ich to only appear in certain areas in the early stages of it. That means that you have caught it pretty early in most cases.

What you describe sounds like ich. Without a picture it would be hard to say for sure. You also say that you have gotten a new fish, but you didn't say if it went in the tank with the betta. If it did, then the probability of your betta having ich is greater.

It could be fungus too, however the raising the heat and adding salt will treat both. Just be sure to add at least 1 tsp per gallon, I myself reccomend adding at least 2 tsp of salt per gallon as this is the median between the 1 and 3 tsp reccomended.

the new fish didnt go in his tank.. thats why i havent been giving him all the attention (too busy starring at the new guy in a diff tank.. not busy enough to notice something wrong tho!)

Dkpate: does it sound like what bubbles has?
i just looked on the pimafix bottle and it doesnt say anything about treating ich but i do have "rapid white spot remedy" shall i start with that or pimafix tomorrow?

 

[Blueiz]

I personally would wait and see if your current salt and heat method helps, if you have already added it, before adding anything else to the tank.

 

[annnie]

ok.. i'll treat him with medicine if he gets worse. Its morning in aus now and it looks like there is less. Thanks for the help!

 

[Blueiz]

One thing to remember about ich too is it can look worse before it looks better because raising the temperature will speed up its life cycle. Ich can only be killed in its free swimming stage and not while it is on the fish.

Glad it's looking better!

 

[dkpate]

I would guess it's not ich, because nothing is new in the tank.
Diablo got these white patches on his pec fins after I rearranged their tank. And like I said, I tried all of the treatments, although I didn't do the heat and salt for more than 6 days, because they were getting stressed out and nothing was happening, it seemed to be getting worse. Then I tried the Melafix, didn't work. So I finally tried the Pimafix and on day 7 of treatment is was gone.

 

[annnie]

pimafix is very awsome.. it always works within 24 hours for me. I've tried to look closely at bubble's fins but he just keeps facing me with his wrong side!.. i have a feeling it isnt ich either because it sort of looks like tiny white patches rather than "dusted with salt". I tried getting photos but hes being very mopey and staying at the back of the tank and occassionally coming to the front and attacking snails.. but he isnt is angry self haha.

bubbles being unco-operative

a quick interpretation of the spots on him

 

[dkpate]

EXACTLY what mine were like. Almost the EXACT same spot too! Except the other fin!
His tail fins look a little curled though, are they?

 

[annnie]

hes got it on the other fin aswell but not as bad. His tail is curled but i assumed it was because its regrowing from the tail rot? i might just start the pimafix tomorrow if that was the only thing that worked for you.

 

[dkpate]

I am thinking it was the only thing working. And then I just saw that it was gone, and I cleaned the water, and put the carbon back in the filter.
The fin curling can be from not having clean enough water. When the fins grow back, they are transparent for a while.
Diablo had a smaller patch on the other side too.