Good morning, I've had one of my Betta boys not acting his usual self past few days and kept posting in different betta threads, and making numerous trips to my lfs looking for answers, trying different things including daily water changes. He is in his own 2.5 gal heated tank with preset filter, tank is heated at 80F. Ammonia in this tank was never >0.25 but since he started hanging around the surface of the water and not fully displaying his gorgeous fins I started with daily PWCs to keep ammonia at zero, which I have. All other parameters are WNL (within normal limits). The tank haa been going for about 7-8 wks and is heavily planted, has driftwood and moss ball in it. Aquarius has loved living in his home frolicking between the plants and mosses, playing hide and seek with me. He never stopped eating but right after the meal (feed my guys frozen brine shrimp, glass warms, blood warms, tubifex& frozen peas alternating them, will be introducing more variety to their diet once I've done enough research on it, really interested in garlic but don't know enough about how to prep it for them). Aqua was not displaying any physical signs of illness other than his behavior, and finally I got advise to shine flash light on him... Bingo!!! Gold dust! Barely noticeable but definitely there!!! Got Quick Cure, dosed it 2 days in the row now, today will be day #3, so last day ... Maybe??? Now, it says on the bottle to "remove carbon"... From the filter??? My filter has prefabricated cartridge that I change about monthly or when it doesn't work any more. There are black granules inside it like half of a pea size little balls in there that I assume may be something with carbon, but to remove I'd have to tear up the cartridge so left it in hoping I'd find some answers here. Can someone experienced with velvet in bettas PLEASE chime in? Should I change the filter cartrige? Aslo not sure how quick that medicine works bcs Aqua looks about this same. Another thing since his tank is only 2.5 and has lots of plants (live), gravel, driftwood, ornaments) I wasn't sure how much to put it there. It says on the bottle "1drop per gallon" but how do you measure 1/2 drop? Plus with all the other stuff in his tank there is less then 2.5 gal of water. Putting medicine in tanks scares me, don't want to hurt my pets so the past 2 doses I only put 2 drops each time. Again RECAP: 1) dose , 2) filter question, please help me help my sweet Aquarius feel better.
Betta with velvet
- Thread starter Pearly
- Start date
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Aw I really hope your betta returns to his full glory soon. Regarding the carbon, that black stuff in your cartridge is carbon so that really needs to be removed otherwise the carbon cleans the medication out of the water before it gets a chance to work. You need to find a way to remove it. Cut your cartridge open and pour the carbon out somehow. Then continue treatment as if from day one.
Oooohhhhh.... Ok! Feeling real dumb right now, but ok I'm doing this for my fish. Ok, so do I slice the cartridge open and pick out all the little marbles which I'm to discard? And how about the rest of the cartridge? Does it stay in? Mine is pretty slimy but I noticed that when it gets that way I don't have any ammonia issues so haven't been messing with filter cartridges during water changes too much lately. Or save in some special way? Now, this cartridge do I is about due for changing any time now, so should I just put a new one in after the treatment is done?
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
I refer you to the following thread How to treat velvet disease with invertebrates in the tank? to help with treating your velvet. Pay close attention to the response by " The Wolf"
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
Ok so the Wolf recommends Formalin and Malachite green, I've got Quick Cure and started using it (but as confessed above never took the carbon out of the filter media!) it has greenblue color to it. I'll check the ingredients of Mardel Quick Cure and see if it compares. Thank you again
