Hello,
I have a sick betta. His name is Prince. He lives in a 10 gal heated and filtered tank. I keep his temp between 80 - 82 degrees. The filter is a Tetra Whisper Quiet 10 or 20 (can't remember). I usually run sponge, purigen and matrix in the filter box.
He eats Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets. I feed him 2x day 2 - 3 pellets each time. I have tried freeze dried brine shrimp and freeze dried blood worms. He won't touch either.
He has been in his 10 gal tank for about 11 months. Unfortunately we did a fish in cycle because my daughter brought him home from a chain pet store and a little .5 gal tank with a torrent of a filter and no heater. From there I have tried to learn more about betta fish than I ever planned to. However we tried to keep the ammonia/nitrites down during the cycle by using Dr. Tim's nytrifying bacteria - ammonia rarely got over .25 and the same for nitrites.
My water parameters are good: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 nitrates usually run under 5ppm. pH is steady @ about 8.0. KH measures 8 and GH 12.
About 2 month ago I had a huge bout of cynobacteria. The stuff covered everything. I tried physical removal (daily) and lights out - both to no avail.
Then Prince began to look affected by it - torn fins, black and read streaks in fins. He has been over bred and has huge fins (they call him a double half moon dumbo betta). I wasn't sure if his black streaks are his natural color or if they we fin rot.
I couldn't beat the cyno, so I finally I broke and used Erythromycin to clear it up. Got rid of cyno, but no effect on what I thought was fin rot (still not sure). Further research led me to use kayaplex. I ran one round of each per manufacture's instruction.
Directly after each, Prince seemed to perk up a bit. But soon would return to his pre-treatment state of lethargic, laying on bottom, coming up only to eat or sitting on heater at water level.
OH...all this happened after I followed some (bad?) advise to put a nerite snail in to help with the algae. Prince hated him and at first would sit directly next to him in a fighting pose...later though he became very reclusive. We got rid of the snail within 1 week.
My pre-sick days consisted of water changes 2x week @ 25%.
Still trying to figure out what was wrong led me to suspect ich. Light showed very small "sugar" like dots (not the typical salt light bigger dots). He also has something that looks almost like velvet on his head/back. SO...I started with Kordon Rid Ich plus. I have been doing the tank 4ml everyday after a 25% water change/vacuum. Today I did a 75% WC and vacuumed the top 1 inch of gravel and took plants out and flushed with very hot water. I have been doing this Rid Ich treatment for 6 days now.
Also he has read streaks in his fins and along his body.
Sorry for the long post. I will post some picture. I need help to try to get this guy better. My fear is that my constant interjection of WCs and meds are stressing him out contributing further to his condition. I am at the end of my knowledge/abilities. I have a class to teach tonight, but will be eagerly looking for any reply when I come home. THANK YOU!
I have a sick betta. His name is Prince. He lives in a 10 gal heated and filtered tank. I keep his temp between 80 - 82 degrees. The filter is a Tetra Whisper Quiet 10 or 20 (can't remember). I usually run sponge, purigen and matrix in the filter box.
He eats Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets. I feed him 2x day 2 - 3 pellets each time. I have tried freeze dried brine shrimp and freeze dried blood worms. He won't touch either.
He has been in his 10 gal tank for about 11 months. Unfortunately we did a fish in cycle because my daughter brought him home from a chain pet store and a little .5 gal tank with a torrent of a filter and no heater. From there I have tried to learn more about betta fish than I ever planned to. However we tried to keep the ammonia/nitrites down during the cycle by using Dr. Tim's nytrifying bacteria - ammonia rarely got over .25 and the same for nitrites.
My water parameters are good: ammonia 0, nitrite 0 nitrates usually run under 5ppm. pH is steady @ about 8.0. KH measures 8 and GH 12.
About 2 month ago I had a huge bout of cynobacteria. The stuff covered everything. I tried physical removal (daily) and lights out - both to no avail.
Then Prince began to look affected by it - torn fins, black and read streaks in fins. He has been over bred and has huge fins (they call him a double half moon dumbo betta). I wasn't sure if his black streaks are his natural color or if they we fin rot.
I couldn't beat the cyno, so I finally I broke and used Erythromycin to clear it up. Got rid of cyno, but no effect on what I thought was fin rot (still not sure). Further research led me to use kayaplex. I ran one round of each per manufacture's instruction.
Directly after each, Prince seemed to perk up a bit. But soon would return to his pre-treatment state of lethargic, laying on bottom, coming up only to eat or sitting on heater at water level.
OH...all this happened after I followed some (bad?) advise to put a nerite snail in to help with the algae. Prince hated him and at first would sit directly next to him in a fighting pose...later though he became very reclusive. We got rid of the snail within 1 week.
My pre-sick days consisted of water changes 2x week @ 25%.
Still trying to figure out what was wrong led me to suspect ich. Light showed very small "sugar" like dots (not the typical salt light bigger dots). He also has something that looks almost like velvet on his head/back. SO...I started with Kordon Rid Ich plus. I have been doing the tank 4ml everyday after a 25% water change/vacuum. Today I did a 75% WC and vacuumed the top 1 inch of gravel and took plants out and flushed with very hot water. I have been doing this Rid Ich treatment for 6 days now.
Also he has read streaks in his fins and along his body.
Sorry for the long post. I will post some picture. I need help to try to get this guy better. My fear is that my constant interjection of WCs and meds are stressing him out contributing further to his condition. I am at the end of my knowledge/abilities. I have a class to teach tonight, but will be eagerly looking for any reply when I come home. THANK YOU!