Treating ick that won't go away!

[Greg_01]

Can someone help me out please? I have a small bowl that is the home to my betta fish. He recently got a small white spot on the top of his head which i am assuming is ick. I changed the water in his bowl every few weeks yet he still got it. Not i have him in another bowl, i have been adding one very small nugget of Ick Clear to his bowl once a day. The pet store told me i should be changing his water every day So i have been doing that as well so basically i have been changing his water at night, putting in a nugget before bed. and changing the water the next night again. But the spot isn't going away and he isn't eating either the pellets or the blood worms? The Pet store said this ick clear was the best we could get to cure it and thats what they use. Any advice on how i can help this little guy it worries me especially since he isn't eating either. he hasn't eaten for 4 days now. is he dying is that why he isn't eating? Any help please?? A little about his normal bowl it is the size of a regular gold fish bowl, has rocks and a plastic tree in it with a LED light on top. Could this led light have caused the white spot? We were thinking about getting him a 2 gallon tank but is that over kill? I keep reading betta's like smaller tanks?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You probably want to post this over in the Freshwater sick fish area. This is the saltwater area and freshwater and saltwater ich are two different beasts! Welcome to AquariumAdvice, and hope things work out!

 

[melosu58]

Moved to FW forums. I hope all works out also.

 

[glassbird]

Your description has me puzzled...one little spot? Thats it? I recently had my first experience with ick and it was NO fun. But my fish all had MANY little white dots, each. Looked a bit like coarse salt. I wonder if you have something else going on...fungus, maybe? Can you post a picture?

There are other ways to treat ich. I am not familiar with bettas, so I won't venture any opinions there. But first, you need to be sure it IS ich... otherwise you are wasting your time!

I doubt bettas LIKE small bowls...they can survive in them when they have to, unlike most other fish (they are the worst possible habitat for goldfish, for example). But the ones I have seen in large tanks look almost gleefull... once they get used to the space, anyway!

CT

 

[Greg_01]

Well its been a few days now and the little white spot still remains. He still hasn't eaten for the past few days either neither pellets or blood worms. I have been changing his water everyday and putting ick treatment in the water as well yet it still remains. Could it be a fungus? My camera won't pick up the white spot (Its not good enough) Should i try a anti fungus ??

 

[SWerner13]

A pic would help best but as mentioned above ich looks like a grain of salt on the fish.

Also even if it is ich that medicine will do very little in an unheated tank. Ich has a particular life cycle that it follows. This is cycle is sped up when the heat is raised. There is only one very short part of the cycle where the ich might be vulnerable to the medicine. If you increase the temperature high enough and keep the water clean ich will just fizzle out in as little as a day or two.

Your best bet for the pro-longed life and happiness of your fish is to upgrade his home. Nothing crazy, but something with a filter and a heater would be very good. Also until you can better id the disease I wouldn't recommend you buy any other medicine.

To get a better pic (and I don't know what kind of camera you have), Put multiple lamps around the tank and flood it with light. A light coming in the top and through the sides. Then put your camera on a sports mode. This will increase the shutter speed aka allow it to freeze movement better.