Betta's and possible problems

[Kari]

I have seven betta's. Four are males, three are females. My females are in my tropical tank, 10 gallon. I just took out the glass deco beads that I'd been using in the bottom of the tank, and added regular aquarium gravel. I rinsed the gravel well, and soaked the gravel in water treated with Aqua Safe for about 24 hours before I added it to the tank. I use aquarium salt, about 2 tbsp. for the 10 gallon. I've also been using Jungle's Parasite Clear, following the directions for anchor worms (once a week for three weeks), and the last time it was added was on Wednesday. The tank parameters, just taken this morning, are as follows:

Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 0
Total Hardness: 250
Total Alkalinity/Buffering Capacity: 240
pH: 8.4

The water params are pretty much the same as they have been, and the thermometer was reading 84 degrees, so I turned it down a notch. I've noticed that a couple of my females seem to be a little bloated around their belly, and I also noticed labored breathing. The red female used to hang out in once particular place, and now she's hanging out in another. She's also one of them that seems to be having some stress. I'm a little worried, the rest of the fish in the tank seem fine though.

Also, with the male betta's, they're in large bowls, except for the one that's in a one gallon tank. Two of them appear to have black spot disease, I've been treating one of them with tetracycline. The one I've been treating, black spot disease is the only thing I've seen on him, nothing else. The other three appear to have some sort of white 'stuff' on the fins. It's not ich. I was thinking it might be some type of parasite, and have been treating them with Maracide. However, whatever it is doesn't appear to be getting any better. In fact, it appears to be getting worse. Now I'm wondering if it isn't some sort of fungus. On the one who's showing the most signs of it, the tips of his ventral fins are covered in some white, cottony looking stuff. When I first noticed it about a week or so ago, it was just a tiny white strand that hung from the ventral fins, so apparently it's progressing, reguardless of the Maracide treatment.

I do complete water changes in the bowls and one gallon tank about every other day. I add a quarter tsp. of aquarium salt to the half to three-quarter gallon bowls, and half a tsp. to the gallon bowl and tank when I do water changes. I also have them set up on a heating pad, and have the four containers pushed against each other, with towels wrapped around the outside of them, to hold the heat in more. The males are still active and lively, they still eat well. I'm not sure what else to do.

I really love my betta's, so any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi Kari,
What else is in the tropical tank? It's not necessary to use 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt per 10 gallons unless you have mollies. (I don't think I remember you talking about mollies.) There are many threads here about how much salt, or even if you should, put aquarium salt in freshwater tanks. I was using 1/4 teaspoon per gallon in my betta tanks. I have since cut back to barely 1/8 teaspoon per gallon. My personal opinion is that only mollies and other livebearers like platies need aquarium salt. I have gradually been reducing the amount of salt that I have been adding to my betta tanks until I can eliminate it. This is also my personal opinion I wouldn't mix mollies with bettas, simply due to the fact that their salt requirements are different.

Can you post a pic of the female bettas? I don't have any females, so I don't get a chance to look at them often. I do see some at the hatchery, and sometimes they do look fat to me. Maybe they are holding eggs? I don't really know. I would know what the bloat from dropsy looks like, so I would check your pic to see if they had dropsy. If your pic looks like the ones I see at the hatchery, I would say they are fine.

Also, since you changed the substrate in this tank, watch for a small mini-cycle. You may not see one if you didn't do anything to the filter, but do a few ammonia tests to make sure.

It's a good idea to give your male and female bettas some peas. This can help prevent bloat and constipation. I feed peas once a week, usually on Saturday, and then Sunday is a "fast" day. They get no food on Sunday. One day a week without food is good for their digestive system. To feed peas, I use frozen peas. They don't fall apart like mush in the tank like canned peas may do. I boil the peas in tap water, in a glass fish-only measuring cup, for 4 1/2 minutes on high. When it's done, I pour the hot tap water off and pour in some cold bottled water from the frig. I let that sit to cool, and then I pull the skin off the pea and discard it. I use a little paring knife to cut the pea into small pieces that are about the same size as their pellet food. I feed 3-4 pea pieces to each betta. One pea feeds two or three bettas. But most of the time, I boil one pea for each betta because by the time you get done pulling the skin off and cutting it up, it's a bit too squished to salvage any for the next betta. So I just start with a new pea!

For the white fuzzy stuff on the male bettas, I would try Jungle Fungus Eliminator. It's a yellow powder that is easy to measure out for bowls. I would also gradually decrease the amount of salt that you put in the bowls. The Jungle Fungus product has some salt in it. Water changes every day like you're doing is important for small uncycled bowls, but all those water changes can be stressful on the fish. I know you're doing the best you can for the bettas, but a bowl is not the ideal environment for them, and they may always have some health problems in a bowl.

 

[Kari]

Hi An t-iasg
Thanks for the reply! And actually, the female bettas ARE in a tank with mollies AND platies. I have 5 mollies in there, and 6 platies, with the three female bettas. Eventually I hope to get a bigger tank, and seperate the bettas from the rest.

I'm not really liking the male bettas being in bowls either, but it'll have to do for the moment, until I can afford to get them tanks. I'd heard salt was a good thing to add, because it supposedly helped fight off/prevent any infections, bacteria, etc...is that not accurate? Also, I don't know if I didn't type it right, or if you misread, but I'm only using 2 tbsp. per TEN gallons, not 2 tbsp. per gallon. The reason I started adding the salt to begin with, in the tank and in the bowls, was because I'd read that it aided and sped up the healing process when you have sick fishes.

I would LOVE to post pics of ALL my fishes! Unfortunately, I don't have a digital camera that takes decent enough pics, especially not through glass! Most of the time even regular photos turn out crappy, IF they turn out at all.

I'm going to try your suggestions on the peas and on the fungus eliminator, I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again

 

[An t-iasg]

Oh my...good catch on the "2 tablespoons per gallon" I know that you meant per "10 gallons" and my fingers misbehaved! I will edit my original post so I don't confuse anyone. The mollies and platies should be fine with 2 tablespoons of salt per 10 gallons. How are they doing? I have never had female bettas -- I would not recommend this amount of salt for them, but if yours acclimated to it ok, then I wouldn't worry about it. But if you want to separate them, that would be fine, when you can. I do remember that you want to get tanks for the male bettas. I don't mean to "harp" on that point -- I know you'll get them tanks when you are able to. But in the meantime, you may have a little more trouble with illnesses than you'd have in a cycled tank.

Salt will help with parasites like ich, but I don't think it will help with other diseases enough to keep it at those higher levels. For example, for use with ich, I would increase the amount gradually, and when the bout with ich was over, I would decrease it gradually. Since the tropical tank seems ok with the salt (right?), I would not adjust that tank, but for the bettas in the bowls, I would do some water changes with slightly less salt each time until you've reduced the amount. My betta tanks have 1/8 teaspoon or less per gallon. I would recommend no more than 1/4 teaspoon per gallon, if you choose to use salt in the betta bowls. Another reason that I'm reducing my salt amount is that I have live plants in the tanks now, and they don't like salt.

Try the peas and the Jungle Fungus Eliminator and post the results! I really was impressed with the fungus eliminator when I used it.

 

[Kari]

One other concern I forgot to add in this post...

My white male betta, Falcore, has developed some red spots on his head. There aren't any open sores, but it looks like hemorraging underneath the skin/scales. With the other coloring on him (he's white, but has other colors ranging from light lavender, to deep purple and maroon) I think it MIGHT be some more of his coloring coming out, but it looks more like bleeding under the skin. What do you think about that?

 

[An t-iasg]

Is this one of the bettas that you are going to use the Jungle Fungus Eliminator on? This med also has an antibiotic in it to guard against bacterial infections. Try it with this betta. If the red is part of his coloring, you should be able to tell that fairly quickly.

 

[Kari]

He's the one with the white, cottony looking stuff on the tips of his ventral fins, so he'll definately get a dose when I get some