Freshie In Disguise
Aquarium Advice Activist
Short version: I followed the advice of people online, and now my favorite fish, who has suffered from chronic fin rot for quite a while now, is almost dead. I want to know whether to euthanize him or keep trying to fix him, as he is now in very bad shape after suffering some sort of reaction to melafix. He will not even eat his favorite foods.
Well... Here is Juno's story so far.
He is a blue veil-tailed betta with entirely pink dalmation fins. Very pretty boy. One peculiar thing about him is that the rear end of his body is extremely strange. It hardly tapers into a tail at all. It's basicly square-shaped at the end rather than getting slimmer as it goes. From a distance you don't notice it, but if you really look at him, it's wierd. I was initially keeping him in a heavily planted 5g with an undergravel filter, but really wanted to add him to my 20gL, as that is what I set it up for in the first place. I put him in after the tank was well-cycled and he did well in there for about a month. Then, he began developing slightly twisty fins. I had never had an ill fish up until that point, so I had NO idea what it was. I posted here and was told it was the beginnings of fin rot and to use a mild salt treatment and keep the water super clean. I took Juno out of the 20g to perform the salt treatment, as I had several snails in the 20g aside from many sensitive plants and I did not want to salt them to death. I put him in a 1g hex and started the salt treatment for probably 2 weeks, which made the fin rot stop progressing, but didn't reduce it at all. I posted about it, and was told that keeping Juno in the 1g was cruel and that I had stressed him out by taking him out of the big tank, etc. I voiced my concerns about the other inhabitants of the tank, and I was told to just keep the water really clean, without the salt. I put Juno back into the 20g and began performing 50% PWCs twice daily, morning and evening. I even added a second (brand new) filter to the aquarium. Juno's fin rot got worse, and it was abundantly clear to me that the advice I was given was NOT working out to be in Juno's best interest. About 3 weeks later, my internet became extremely finicky and it was difficult for me to get online to ask for advice. I had already moved Juno back into his 1g and resumed the salt treatment, but his time in the 20g had taken a terrible toll on him. I made one post at night which I didn't get any response to, so I piggybacked on someone else's thread and tried treating him with melafix. I used it at half the recommended strength (because there was already some salt in the water) and Juno had some sort of reaction to it. I do not know exactly what happened, or if it was supposed to happen, but he tried to tell me. Five minutes after dosing his water, he jumped out of the 1g and into the rescue pan (shallow pan of water I had the hex sitting in) and I put him back in. I made dinner and came back, and he looked totally zombified. He was very bouyant and just sitting in the same position, staring into space, nomatter what I did, including poking him with the net. He was uninterested in food, which is an enourmous red flag for him. I gave it a while, and soon he sort of started floating cock-eyed... He was well beneath the water's surface, but towards the top, floating diagonally. He had no sense of up or down, and didn't attempt to change his position at all when I touched him with the net. I began slowly drip-acclimating him to completely fresh water, which is what he is in now. He is not as bad as he was, but he is still zombified and just completely out of it. He looks like those fish you see at walmart that just don't seem to have any sense of what is going on around them. It has been 24 hours since he got back into completely fresh water. He hasn't eaten a bite in two days, so I've stopped trying to feed him; just keeping his water totally clean. I replaced his substrate with some smooth gravel from a very healthy tank, as well as a small apogneton, and I scrubbed his betta leaf. He does not look good at all, and I just don't know whether to keep going or to put him out of it. He is a very special fish to me and I hate to let him go, but if he has brain damage or something (he is unable to eat, anyway) I'm not sure what the point is to letting him starve to death, if he is going to go that way.
Funny thing: I treated my other betta, Julius, with the same medication from the same bottle at the regular dosage (twice what Juno got), and he looks fantastic today.
I can upload pictures if it would help. He looks better at this moment than he did a while ago, but he seems to go in and out of it. I'm not worried about the fin rot at all right now... I'm worried about his brain.
Well... Here is Juno's story so far.
He is a blue veil-tailed betta with entirely pink dalmation fins. Very pretty boy. One peculiar thing about him is that the rear end of his body is extremely strange. It hardly tapers into a tail at all. It's basicly square-shaped at the end rather than getting slimmer as it goes. From a distance you don't notice it, but if you really look at him, it's wierd. I was initially keeping him in a heavily planted 5g with an undergravel filter, but really wanted to add him to my 20gL, as that is what I set it up for in the first place. I put him in after the tank was well-cycled and he did well in there for about a month. Then, he began developing slightly twisty fins. I had never had an ill fish up until that point, so I had NO idea what it was. I posted here and was told it was the beginnings of fin rot and to use a mild salt treatment and keep the water super clean. I took Juno out of the 20g to perform the salt treatment, as I had several snails in the 20g aside from many sensitive plants and I did not want to salt them to death. I put him in a 1g hex and started the salt treatment for probably 2 weeks, which made the fin rot stop progressing, but didn't reduce it at all. I posted about it, and was told that keeping Juno in the 1g was cruel and that I had stressed him out by taking him out of the big tank, etc. I voiced my concerns about the other inhabitants of the tank, and I was told to just keep the water really clean, without the salt. I put Juno back into the 20g and began performing 50% PWCs twice daily, morning and evening. I even added a second (brand new) filter to the aquarium. Juno's fin rot got worse, and it was abundantly clear to me that the advice I was given was NOT working out to be in Juno's best interest. About 3 weeks later, my internet became extremely finicky and it was difficult for me to get online to ask for advice. I had already moved Juno back into his 1g and resumed the salt treatment, but his time in the 20g had taken a terrible toll on him. I made one post at night which I didn't get any response to, so I piggybacked on someone else's thread and tried treating him with melafix. I used it at half the recommended strength (because there was already some salt in the water) and Juno had some sort of reaction to it. I do not know exactly what happened, or if it was supposed to happen, but he tried to tell me. Five minutes after dosing his water, he jumped out of the 1g and into the rescue pan (shallow pan of water I had the hex sitting in) and I put him back in. I made dinner and came back, and he looked totally zombified. He was very bouyant and just sitting in the same position, staring into space, nomatter what I did, including poking him with the net. He was uninterested in food, which is an enourmous red flag for him. I gave it a while, and soon he sort of started floating cock-eyed... He was well beneath the water's surface, but towards the top, floating diagonally. He had no sense of up or down, and didn't attempt to change his position at all when I touched him with the net. I began slowly drip-acclimating him to completely fresh water, which is what he is in now. He is not as bad as he was, but he is still zombified and just completely out of it. He looks like those fish you see at walmart that just don't seem to have any sense of what is going on around them. It has been 24 hours since he got back into completely fresh water. He hasn't eaten a bite in two days, so I've stopped trying to feed him; just keeping his water totally clean. I replaced his substrate with some smooth gravel from a very healthy tank, as well as a small apogneton, and I scrubbed his betta leaf. He does not look good at all, and I just don't know whether to keep going or to put him out of it. He is a very special fish to me and I hate to let him go, but if he has brain damage or something (he is unable to eat, anyway) I'm not sure what the point is to letting him starve to death, if he is going to go that way.
Funny thing: I treated my other betta, Julius, with the same medication from the same bottle at the regular dosage (twice what Juno got), and he looks fantastic today.
I can upload pictures if it would help. He looks better at this moment than he did a while ago, but he seems to go in and out of it. I'm not worried about the fin rot at all right now... I'm worried about his brain.
