FalkorTheBetta
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I think my betta is dying?
- Thread starter FalkorTheBetta
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FalkorTheBetta
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Oh ya and he had some injury on his head which took the scales off and left the area looking raw and red
Hydra get introduced into aquariums with plants and snails. The hydra attach themselves to plant leaves or snail shells and when the plants or snails get moved into a new tank, the hydra go with them. Hydra are not a problem to adult fish but will eat baby fish. In most aquariums, Hydra struggle to survive due to lack of food, but they can last for months without food and they simply get smaller. When food becomes plentiful the hydra grow rapidly and spread.
If you are really concerned about them and there are hundreds of them, you can use Copper sulphate will kill Hydra.
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Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is a good plant to try. It grows rapidly on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate.
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What do you feed the fish?
If the fish has an underlying health issue (weakened immune system or something else caused by inbreeding), it could just be run down. It certainly doesn't look that healthy, and this could be caused by malnutrition, which can be caused by diseases or malabsorption issues (the fish can't digest food well).
Raw/ cooked prawn can be kept in the freezer. You take one out and defrost it, remove the head, shell and gut (thin black tube in body) and discard these pieces. Use a pr of scissors to cut the prawn tail into small pieces and offer 1 or 2 bits at a time. Feed until the fish is no longer eating and remove any uneaten food. Do this once a day and offer other types of food throughout the day.
Feeding the fish lots of high protein food can help them build up reserves and might help it recover.
You can add a vitamin supplement to food. Try to use a fish vitamin supplement. If you can't get a fish one, look for a bird or reptile vitamin supplement. The fish vitamins can be added to food once every day. Bird or reptile vitamins can be added to food once a day for 6 days but do not use it on the 7th day.
You can try adding juice from orange and purple food (orange & purple carrots are good sources) to the food. The orange foods have betacarotene in, while the purple foods have a couple of other anti-oxidants in. These are good for boosting the immune system and might help.
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You can try treating the fish for tapeworm, gill flukes & thread/ round worms. Praziquantel (available from most pet shops) will treat tapeworm and gill flukes. Levamisole will treat thread/ round worms.
You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 weeks and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 24-48 hours after treatment.
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You can try adding carbon to the filter. If there is a chemical in your tap water it could be causing problems to the fish and shrimp. Carbon will help remove chemicals from the water.
You don't want to use salt (sodium chloride) for too long in tanks with Labyrinth fishes because it can damage their kidneys. And Bettafix can case issues in tanks without filtration or aeration because it leaves an oily film on the surface.
If you are really concerned about them and there are hundreds of them, you can use Copper sulphate will kill Hydra.
-----------------------
Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is a good plant to try. It grows rapidly on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate.
-----------------------
What do you feed the fish?
If the fish has an underlying health issue (weakened immune system or something else caused by inbreeding), it could just be run down. It certainly doesn't look that healthy, and this could be caused by malnutrition, which can be caused by diseases or malabsorption issues (the fish can't digest food well).
Raw/ cooked prawn can be kept in the freezer. You take one out and defrost it, remove the head, shell and gut (thin black tube in body) and discard these pieces. Use a pr of scissors to cut the prawn tail into small pieces and offer 1 or 2 bits at a time. Feed until the fish is no longer eating and remove any uneaten food. Do this once a day and offer other types of food throughout the day.
Feeding the fish lots of high protein food can help them build up reserves and might help it recover.
You can add a vitamin supplement to food. Try to use a fish vitamin supplement. If you can't get a fish one, look for a bird or reptile vitamin supplement. The fish vitamins can be added to food once every day. Bird or reptile vitamins can be added to food once a day for 6 days but do not use it on the 7th day.
You can try adding juice from orange and purple food (orange & purple carrots are good sources) to the food. The orange foods have betacarotene in, while the purple foods have a couple of other anti-oxidants in. These are good for boosting the immune system and might help.
-----------------------
You can try treating the fish for tapeworm, gill flukes & thread/ round worms. Praziquantel (available from most pet shops) will treat tapeworm and gill flukes. Levamisole will treat thread/ round worms.
You treat the fish once a week for 3-4 weeks and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 24-48 hours after treatment.
-----------------------
You can try adding carbon to the filter. If there is a chemical in your tap water it could be causing problems to the fish and shrimp. Carbon will help remove chemicals from the water.
You don't want to use salt (sodium chloride) for too long in tanks with Labyrinth fishes because it can damage their kidneys. And Bettafix can case issues in tanks without filtration or aeration because it leaves an oily film on the surface.
FalkorTheBetta
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Thank you for your quick reply. I feed him Nutrafin max flakes(ill include a picture of the information on the back) and also have freeze dried bloodworms that I give him from time to time. For the hydras I took everything out and am letting them dry and replacing the substrate. Do you think that that will take care of the hydra? There werent that many, just like 10 that I could see. The Salt I was only going to do a tablespoon for 7-10 days cause thats what I read was appropriate. Is that right to do? For the bettafix should I move Falkor back to his five gallon? I have him in a Fluval Spec V so it has carbon and a filter, the whole shabang. And would those two remedies be too much for him or should I just do one of them or?? Please let me know and thank you so much for your help.
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Unless you dry the entire tank with all the ornaments, filter, substrate and anything in it, you are unlikely to get rid of all the hydra. You can try but 1 or 2 of them always hide and they divide and make more. If you are lucky they might all be on the ornaments you removed and are drying out, but be prepared for more to appear.
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In my opinion, flake and freeze dried food is not enough for any fish, others will disagree with me here and they are entitled to. But frozen foods like prawn/ shrimp, fish, squid, octopus, and various insects like mozzie larvae, aphids and small flies, are all good foods with prawn being one of the best foods for conditioning fish and helping them build up reserves.
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Salt can be used at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. You can double that dose rate (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) if you like but you do not want to use salt for any longer than 2 weeks.
Salt (sodium chloride) can harm or even kill fish that come from soft water where they were never exposed to salt and never evolved to deal with it.
I would not use salt or Bettafix on the fish because the more chemicals you expose it to, the more damage you can potentially do to the fish. If you want to deworm the fish that is fine but I would try to avoid other chemicals and add more variety to his diet and try to build him up physically and see if that helps.
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In my opinion, flake and freeze dried food is not enough for any fish, others will disagree with me here and they are entitled to. But frozen foods like prawn/ shrimp, fish, squid, octopus, and various insects like mozzie larvae, aphids and small flies, are all good foods with prawn being one of the best foods for conditioning fish and helping them build up reserves.
------------------------
Salt can be used at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. You can double that dose rate (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) if you like but you do not want to use salt for any longer than 2 weeks.
Salt (sodium chloride) can harm or even kill fish that come from soft water where they were never exposed to salt and never evolved to deal with it.
I would not use salt or Bettafix on the fish because the more chemicals you expose it to, the more damage you can potentially do to the fish. If you want to deworm the fish that is fine but I would try to avoid other chemicals and add more variety to his diet and try to build him up physically and see if that helps.
FalkorTheBetta
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So I should just leave the fin rot and just try to build up his immune system and see if that takes care of it?
clean water will normally fix mild cases of fin rot. A mild case is where the fins might be damaged a bit but there are no red lives/ veins running through the fin. It's a bit hard to tell on a red fish but the tail isn't that bad.
I would try feeding him up and just keep doing daily water changes like you have been and see how he goes over the next 2 weeks. If the tail gets worse during that time then maybe add salt or a broad spectrum fish medication. But if fish are fed well and kept in clean water they can normally heal themselves.
I would try feeding him up and just keep doing daily water changes like you have been and see how he goes over the next 2 weeks. If the tail gets worse during that time then maybe add salt or a broad spectrum fish medication. But if fish are fed well and kept in clean water they can normally heal themselves.
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FalkorTheBetta
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Ok and should I move him back into his 5 gallon with a filter and do like biweekly water changes or keep him in the 1 and do everyday?
FalkorTheBetta
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And sorry for all the questions, this is my first time dealing with anything like this so i'm a bit panicy about the whole thing
The bigger the tank, the better it is for the fish. So if you have a 5 gallon tank with a filter, then put him in that and do big (75%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate each day for a couple of weeks. Feed him 3 or 4 times a day during that time and see how he goes.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
FalkorTheBetta
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Ya the only thing is that that's a ton of water and I don't want to make the bill skyrocket for my dad so I'd probably only be able to do it twice a week for the five
If you are using mains water then doing a 50-75% water change is only going to be 10-15 litres per day and that is not much at all. That's like flushing the toilet 2 times. Most people use 100 litres of water when they have a shower.
Even if you change 50%, that's one 10 litre (2.5 gallon) bucket per day, which most people can afford unless they live in a desert.
Generally the cleaner the water, the less bacteria in it and the easier it is for the fish to heal itself.
Even if you change 50%, that's one 10 litre (2.5 gallon) bucket per day, which most people can afford unless they live in a desert.
Generally the cleaner the water, the less bacteria in it and the easier it is for the fish to heal itself.
FalkorTheBetta
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Aha i'm in Arizona so maybe? Ill try to talk to my dad about it to see what I can do. Thanks for all your help
FalkorTheBetta
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Hi, I'm back. So I was reading up on it more and I think it is columnaris. He has the saddle, there is white under his gills, he is having trouble breathing and his tail has fluff on it. No fluff in the mouth though. Does this change anything or just keep at it with the water changes? I heard that it's really deadly so i'm just concerned about it. He's also not really eating. He'll go up to the food gets it in his mouth then spits it out
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How old is your betta? He could just be declining from old age. I have one like that and he looks much like yours and behavior sounds the same. I keep his water clean and I do use a teaspoon of salt in his tank every few weeks. I also give him vitamins. He is content and hanging in there. What makes you think it is Columnaris? I do see a couple of faded spots that could be from columnaris but nothing else. I just went through a dreadful 5 weeks of columnaris. It only affected my bettas. Killed 9 of them and wiped out 3 tanks, one being a complete sorority. Mine began hiding and not eating. Then cottony fuzz began growing on their faces. A total nightmare. I don’t believe yours is columnaris but it can be treated with Kanaplex and Furan-2 together. That is the ONLY thing that may cure it but you have to act fast. If it is internal the fish will eventually die. Once mine became covered in cottony growths, I euthanized 5 of them. The other 4 died on their own. I had no survivors. I hope you have a better outcome. Prayers and much luck. NOTE: Enclosing a pic of my old man. He looks dreadful but is content and has been like this for about 6 months. The ragged fins, color fading, and a mysterious white spot that appears and disappears are signs of aging.
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