My betta is looking very ill.

[Ferret_Friend]

In fact, I thought for sure when I woke up this morning he would be dead. This 29 gallon tank has been established for about 3 months. There are three java ferns in it, along with a ropefish who hides in his conch shell all the time. There's also a full grown silver dollar, a juvenile silver dollar, 2 albino cory cats, 3 small chinese algae eaters, 2 painted tetras and my betta (which puts me just about at the 1 inch per gallon rule). While I haven't checked the tank parameters in a while, when I used to check them regularly, they were borderline unacceptable, which for me is actually pretty good. This will likely be my first environmental death though. I lost one juvenile silver dollar (bought two just in case one died) because he kept getting stuck to the filter intake. I rescued him twice, but he did it once more while I was asleep that night, and was dead the next morning.

Anyhow, I don't think it's related, but two weeks ago we lost power for a day and a half due to a brutal rain and windstorm in the northeast. It was rather chilly. The first day I was able to keep the water temperature up to almost 80 degrees (what I normally keep my tanks at) by putting a gallon of hot water in every hour or so. Worked fine til I ran out of hot water. So, the tanks got down into the high 50's, which was a crazy drop. I thought for sure my fish would die. They got very inactive, but when the power finally came back on and the temperature got back up to normal the next evening, they were ridiculously active. I had never seen my fish so active.

Well, one week ago, about a week after that event, my betta was starting to look a little bloated. At first I thought it was just me, because he was still very active and very colorful, like always. Three days ago he looked a little pale. Even this did not worry me, because some days he wasn't as stressed, so he just wasn't as colorful sometimes. Then yesterday I found him laying on the bottom, very pale, breathing heavily, laying partially on his side, but still alive. I thought for sure he'd be dead by morning. I got up today, and while still ill, he was very much alive. Then I came home from work tonight, and he was hiding in the conch, but again, still alive. I fed my fish like I do every evening when I come home, and before any food even hit the surface, he came out of the shell because he saw me (he's a really cool fish. He likes it when I hand feed him). So, I tossed some food in, and after the others got done gobbling, he mustered the energy to swim upward. He got a couple of bites, then stopped trying, and he sank like a rock... like a freaking rock.

I don't expect that he is going to make it. Outside of a PWC, is there anything I can do to save this little guy? It's strange that as ill as he appears, he would still come for food, but he's all bloated, his scales are really prominent, and he's pale as can be.

Is this just too much exposure to less than perfect water conditions (if it tells you anything, the water in that tank is always crystal clear), or is there another cause for this condition. Surely I should be keeping up with PWC's better than I do. I have no doubt about that in the least. Even so, after three months, this is the first fish to show any signs of illness or abnormality at all. The other fish appear to be very active and not showing any signs of stress or anything unusual at all. Is this a particular disease you guys know about, or is it just from less than perfect water conditions?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Moved to the Unhealthy Fish forum.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi Ferret Friend...here are some things that got my attention. How are your water parameters? Do you have exact numbers? Just because the water is crystal clear doesn't mean the ammonia or nitrite are 0. You can have clean-appearing water with ammonia or nitrite present. Sometimes the water will be cloudy, but not always. Since your power went out for awhile, and the filter wasn't running, the water was not being filtered to cleanse it of the ammonia that the fish were producing. If a power outage happens again, it's ok not to feed the fish for a day or two. That way they won't fill the tank with waste that is not being filtered away. As the water passes through the filter, the beneficial bacteria in the filter media will process the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate. If this was not happening due to a power outage, the fish may have been exposed to some ammonia or nitrite levels. Hopefully now that the filter has had a chance to catch up, everything is fine, but it won't hurt to do some extra testing and some extra water changes if necessary.

Now about your betta - It's hard to tell if his condition is related to the power outage; however, some bettas are susceptible to bloat, and the cause is very hard to pinpoint. Out of all the bettas I had, only two died of bloat, but from other posts here, it can be fairly common in bettas. The cause may not always be environmental. Maybe the betta has another disease like kidney or organ failure, a virus, a tumor, or it could be genetic.

Regardless of the possible cause, there are things you can do. If he wants to eat, keep feeding him. I had a betta live for 10 days, eating and being active with a large swelling on his side. Toward the end he did lie on the gravel and breathe heavily. If the swelling is so large that the scales are sticking out, this condition is referred to as dropsy.

You can try feeding him some pea pieces. They may help clear the bloat. Get some frozen peas - canned ones are too mushy. Boil them in a glass cup in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes. Let cool and peel the outer skin away. Feed the inner part of the pea to the betta. You may have to use a little knife to cut the pea. If you give him small pieces the same size as his regular food, he should eat it. If he does eat some pea pieces, don't feed him any fish food for a day or two to let his digestive system rest.

You could also take him out of the tank and put him in a QT tank. Use epsom salt to draw the bloat away. Use 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water, and keep him in this salt bath for 3 or 4 days. When you do a water change, add some fresh epsom salt in for the volume of water you took out. Hopefully that will help.

 

[Ferret_Friend]

How are your water parameters? Do you have exact numbers? Just because the water is crystal clear doesn't mean the ammonia or nitrite are 0. You can have clean-appearing water with ammonia or nitrite present. Sometimes the water will be cloudy, but not always.

Water parameters are not optimal. Unfortunately, I have not even had the time to test them. When I first got into the hobby, my water was never clear and always smelled fishy... basically, really bad water. Now, my water is crystal clear and has no scent. Of course, my levels are probably still a bit high since I haven't done a PWC in a while, but I don't have exact numbers.

Maybe the betta has another disease like kidney or organ failure, a virus, a tumor, or it could be genetic.

I was thinking it might be something like that. I couldn't imagine that if one fish was ill from the power outage that more wouldn't be. I have some hardy fish (primarily because I'm not skilled enough nor have the time to keep sensitive ones), but I would expect more than one to be sick.

You can try feeding him some pea pieces. They may help clear the bloat. Get some frozen peas - canned ones are too mushy. Boil them in a glass cup in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes. Let cool and peel the outer skin away. Feed the inner part of the pea to the betta. You may have to use a little knife to cut the pea. If you give him small pieces the same size as his regular food, he should eat it. If he does eat some pea pieces, don't feed him any fish food for a day or two to let his digestive system rest.

Thought never occured to me to do this. I'll see if I have any frozen peas and give it a shot. He is still eating just fine, he just looks very ill. The fact that he's survived several days now with this condition is making me hope he can come out of it. I really like this fish. I don't want to lose him.

UPDATE:

I was at my LFS after work today picking up some tiger barbs so my rainbows have something to pick on, and I asked them about this. They had a chart of all sorts of diseases and ailments, and they did in fact say it was this dropsy thing you mentioned. According to them, it's some kind of fungal growth inside the fish. It must not be digestive, or the fish wouldn't eat, but it's causing the bloat. There is a treatment called Binox that they recommended. I've given it a shot, and hopefully it helps.

Once the betta starts getting better, I'll have to do some pwc's. I'm concerned about doing any right now because I don't want to stress it out any more than it already is. I'm going to play this one by ear. Thanks again for the advice though!

 

[An t-iasg]

How is the betta today? Is the medicine helping? If it works for dropsy then everyone will want to try it! I have cured bloat in a betta, but not full-blown dropsy. Dropsy is generally considered incurable. But that doesn't mean you can't try!

You can also add peas to your once-a-week feeding routine. I feed my bettas peas on Saturday and don't feed them on Sunday, to give the digestive system a rest. The school of thought is that fish probably don't eat every day in the wild, and a day of fasting in our tanks, since it attempts to mirror what goes on in nature, is good for their digestive system.

 

[Ferret_Friend]

Well, the good news is he's not dead yet. He's still quite sick. You can tell that he's miserable. Even so, he's not quite as pale as he was. A little color is coming back. He's also getting a bit more active, but nothing like before. He's still having trouble balancing himself and such though, so when he swims up to the surface for food or air, he's all crooked. He's still having some trouble breathing, but he's not gasping like he once was.

Hopefully this means he's getting better, but we'll have to wait a few days and see.

 

[Ferret_Friend]

Sadly, my poor betta didn't make it through last night. He was starting to get some color back, but I'm guessing that he should have really received treatment sooner. By the time I realized he was actually sick, he was too far gone. Now he's crab food. Poor little guy. I liked that betta.

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm very sorry You did the best you could. Dropsy is usually hard to reverse.