UPDATE! Help! Lethargic betta sitting in top corner of tank

[Kylaraven]

UPDATE! Now she will NOT get up off the bottom of the tank! I saw her this morning and thought she had died I put a little bit of food in but she DID NOT move! She’s just laying on the rocks at the bottom. She doesn’t look bloated anymore but she’s super lethargic and I have no idea what is wrong! I’ve never had a fish do this before!

 

[charliebankston]

Were her fins like that when you got her?

 

[Kylaraven]

Yeah her fins have always looked pretty feathered at the ends. It hasn’t gotten worse since I’ve had her either. Her color was not like that though, she’s never had any red/brown on her at all

 

[charliebankston]

Have you done any treatment in the tank?

 

[charliebankston]

Water changes? I don't remember

 

[Kylaraven]

I haven’t treated it with anything (outside of the basic conditioning with water changes) yet. And I’m in the middle of doing a 30% water change right now

 

[charliebankston]

OK good. Just a broad non educated guess it's either bacterial or fungal. That doesn't narrow it down much. You could start treatment with a broad spectrum antibiotic like Api e.m. erythromycin. ??

 

[Kylaraven]

I have some ‘microbe-lift artemiss’ that I’m going to try before going to antibiotics. (Unfortunately nowhere near me has antibiotics on site so I’d have to order online and wait for them to get here)

 

[charliebankston]

Oh OK, something is better than nothing. Hope it works for you

 

[Kylaraven]

Thank you so much! I hope it works too. I’ll update with information

 

[charliebankston]

OK, good luck!

 

[Autumnsky]

Do another water change again in the morning.

Do you have a test kit? What are the tank parameters?

What size is the tank?

You might just want to move her to a container and do 100% pwc each time. There could be some bad stuff in the substrate, and so a bare bottom container might be better.

 

[charliebankston]

Do another water change again in the morning.

Do you have a test kit? What are the tank parameters?

What size is the tank?

You might just want to move her to a container and do 100% pwc each time. There could be some bad stuff in the substrate, and so a bare bottom container might be better.

On another post for this issue she said it was a 10g, set up and cycled for a year, and her water test came back good. But no numbers given on the test parameters

 

[Autumnsky]

On another post for this issue she said it was a 10g, set up and cycled for a year, and her water test came back good. But no numbers given on the test parameters

Good. Thank you charliebankston.

The water changing is likely gonna help right now without medication. You can also use a 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of aquarium salt or Kosher salt or sea salt which doesn't have iodine or other additives for the first pwc.

***Dissolve the salt in a small amount of hot water then add/get the water pwc to tank temp.

Then for the next pwc, make the solution to 1 tsp. salt per gallon. Of course always treat with dechlorinator for tap water whether it is mentioned or not.

If you happen to have plain Epsom Salt available, (no perfumes, herbs or additives).

You can add the 1 heaping teaspoon mix same as the regular salt, and add to pwc water. 2nd pwc increase it to 1 regular tablespoon.

Thinking the smaller container idea is a good one, and get the fish off the substrate. The Betta looks like it is having a serious circumstance so it would be helpful and easier to treat.