Sick crowntail

[ErinMcG]

Hi everyone,
I need help please. My betta has a cottony fungus and I am struggling with it. I will have to test water parameters when I get back, as I have to leave now, but I thought I would get started with this.

Basics: 5 gallon tank, sponge filter, heater, weekly 30-50% water changes. Betta is currently only inhabitant.

First, it began with a thread I called Crowntail fins ok? So if you need more back story than I can type here quickly, you could check there.

1. Months ago, I noticed my Crowntail's fins looking a bit kinked, but he seemed otherwise happy and healthy. I gave his tank a good clean and started adding aquarium salt as a regular thing. There was a bit of an algae problem, so I really scrubbed at the algae and tried to get it all out. I had a gravel vac at the office (where the tank was), but it was terrible, so I mostly just stirred gravel and scooped out water.

2. I moved the tank to my house when I was off for the month of July. I drained it almost completely, but left enough water to cover the gravel. The filter went in a bucket of tank water to keep it protected. Was all set back up within an hour. I did filled the tank several times (with dechlorinated water) to try to get the gravel cleaner. It felt like it had a lot of crud in it. Didn't add as much salt because I added some rams horns and some java ferns.

3. Noticed a bit of white cottony fuzz on one piece of his tail fins. Set up his old 3 gallon bowl with a couple gallons of water and a heater. Moved him in with both salt and betta revive. Kept him there for three full days, doing daily water changes. Tore down his tank, kept filter in tank water, kept gravel in tank water, but stirred and stirred and scooped and scooped until finally the gravel stopped looking cruddy. Scrubbed any sign of algae out of the tank. The snails were gone, by the way. My thought when they died was that the salt killed them, even though I had read that they could be ok with small amounts.

4. After three full days in the hospital tank with revive, I moved him back to his own tank. Got a good look at him under the light and the fuzz was all gone.

5. Two days later (just now), I turned on his light and it's back and much worse. It is now affecting several of his tail strips.

Through all of this, his water parameters have looked good. There are traces of ammonia, but this is true of all my tanks right no because there are traces of ammonia in the city water. The LFS says it should be fine and nobody else seems to be sick. Someone did suggest that I swap out his water for bottled water, but I am not sure I can afford 5 gallons of bottled water a shot, especially if I have to do extra water changes for a bit to beat this. The ammonia issue with the city water has been going on for months.

I should clarify... By looking good, I mean that his nitrates are at about 5, his nitrites are 0 and the ammonia is 0.1. His tank temp is steady at 78.

I always match the temp of his water when I do water changes. I use Prime with every change. And when I moved him from his tank to the hospital one, I used drip acclimation.

Hospital tank is prepping now. I have to run, but will be back in a couple of hours. I will start moving him then.

Any ideas?

 

[ErinMcG]

These pictures show the cottony growth on him. Is it fungus? Or am I treating for the wrong thing?

 

[ErinMcG]

Ok. Checked the water parameters.
Ammonia is between 0 and 0.1, so we will call it 0.1.
Nitrites are 0.
Nitrates are 5.

So, as normal for my tanks.

I am stumped.

 

[shellieca]

OK if I understand correctly your are not doing a vac when doing your current water changes. I think that may be part of the problem. Here's my suggestion to start, if you haven't already get your syphon/vac at home so you can properly vacuum the gravel. In the mean time I would take out your Betta, get a strainer that's big enough to hold the gravel & dump the gravel into the strainer & then rinse until you see no more crud running out the stainer. MOST ailments will heal up with clean, warm water. Even though you're not showing high levels of ammo & nitrites it's possible it's still a water issue, IMO. If you are doing salt treatments it is advised not to go longer than 10 days with a Betta. Once you have his tank better cleaned you should see some improvement within a day or two & you should do a 50% water change every 2-3 days for a couple of weeks. If you don't see improvement then there's something more serious to address.

 

[ErinMcG]

Right, in my rush to get this out before I had to leave this morning, I missed a couple of things.

When I moved the tank home for the summer, I had access to my good gravel vac. He has been getting a thorough vac weekly. Also, when I moved him to the hospital tank the first time, I tore down his tank, removed all the gravel, rinsed it in tank water repeatedly, then reassembled his tank. One his tank was back together, I filled it and drained it three times using dechlorinated water and the gravel vac.

 

[ErinMcG]

OK if I understand correctly your are not doing a vac when doing your current water changes. SNIP. If you are doing salt treatments it is advised not to go longer than 10 days with a Betta. .

I definitely agree, not doing a vac very likely started the problem. I picked up a new vac to have at the office when I am ready to move Alfred back, so I won't repeat the issue. I even tossed out the bad one so it won't be cluttering up my office any more.

When you say salt treatment, do you mean the short 5-10 min intense salt bath or do you mean the low level of salt that many suggest keeping in a betta tank as a matter of course?

 

[shellieca]

I definitely agree, not doing a vac very likely started the problem. I picked up a new vac to have at the office when I am ready to move Alfred back, so I won't repeat the issue. I even tossed out the bad one so it won't be cluttering up my office any more.

When you say salt treatment, do you mean the short 5-10 min intense salt bath or do you mean the low level of salt that many suggest keeping in a betta tank as a matter of course?

Both. I've been told it's not necessary to use salt when doing water changes. I used to add salt when I did water changes because I thought I was supposed to but have since been told its not necessary unless I'm treating for something. One of my females got some kind of rot that started on her body & moved to her top fin, I moved her from the unfiltered 1g tank I had her in to a filtered, heated 10g & didn't add anything to the water except the Prime for water conditioner & she healed up really quick. That lesson made me get all of Bettas into at least 10g tanks because its easier to maintain good water & they REALLY like the room, I won't go less than a 5g ever again. I'd say you're on the right track. The white stuff looks like patches or like he was sprinkled with sugar? I'd watch for a couple of days now that you've got the water situated & see if he improves.

 

[ErinMcG]

The white looks like cotton. If you look at the pictures, just faintly you can see a kind of white sphere around his fins. It's like his fins have wee cotton balls on them. In the pictures, it is barely visible. Doesn't turn up in natural light, only under his aquarium light.

 

[shellieca]

The white looks like cotton. If you look at the pictures, just faintly you can see a kind of white sphere around his fins. It's like his fins have wee cotton balls on them. In the pictures, it is barely visible. Doesn't turn up in natural light, only under his aquarium light.

I was re-looking at the pics & it's hard to see. It appears to be kind of at the ends, on others Bettas I know when they regrow from fin rot the regrowth will sometimes start out as white so I was wondering if that might be what it is. Hopefully someone else will give their opinion. I'm leery of meds when I'm not 100% sure what I'm treating & from experience I've learned extra clean water usually does the trick, but obviously that's not always the case.

 

[ErinMcG]

Ok, here's a thought... In Alfred's tank I have a floating betta log thing. He loves it. Looking at it today, I realise that some of the finish has come off. Is there any chance there's something there that could be affecting his water quality in away I can't test for?

And with him out of the tank and in the bowl, should I be worried about the bb in his tank?

 

[ErinMcG]

Ok, here are the pictures again,with the weird cottony stuff circled to help make it easier to spot. In real life, it can't be seen without a light. But, shine a light in the tank and it looks like fluff. The first time I saw it, I thought he had actually gotten part of a cotton ball on him, but I couldn't work out how that was possible.