Stellarfish
New Member
Hello,
We’d bought a betta (named Nebbie) for our son, but mostly it’s mostly me who is taking care of him as I used to have some aquariums with tropical fishes when I was a teenager.
But I never really took care of a Betta.
We both the fish on last November, with a 3.5 gallon aquarium, some plastic/silk plants, a small smooth cave for him to hide.
On December, we had to travel for 3 weeks, and we thought it would be a good idea to use an automatic feeder (bad idea...) and we came back, his aquarium was soooo dirty that I thought he had died. But not yet! He was a fighter and didn’t give up. I completely cleaned the aquarium, made a gradual change of water on his “quarantine” container and put him back to the cleaned aquarium. He was still playful and active by then.
I have to admit that I didn’t changed his water periodically, almost 2 x month with 1/3 of water change with conditioned water (now I know it’s wasn’t enough...).
On March, a green algae started to grow over the gravels, artificial plants and cave and I started noticing a change of behaviour and of his coloration, and food leftovers where all over the floor. A white spot on his body and some slime coming out of his fins. In beginning of April I treated him with the Tetra Lifesaving 4-in-1 for 5 days as recommended, but no sign of improvement came. The water quality was normal (NO2, NO3, PH, GH, KH). Two weeks ago, his belly started to be bloated.
A week ago I cleaned the whole aquarium. Put him in his “quarantine” container, cleaned the gravels and all decor to get rid of the algae only with tap water. After cleaning and put all stuff inside again, I treated the water and waited 48 hours to put Nebbie back to his aquarium.
After some internet investigation (no vet for exotic animals open nearby to help), and using my cellphone camera zoom to look closely his body, I think he is with dropsy and something else. The water today is NO2 0, NO3 0, pH 7.5, kH 40, gH 120. The temperature was always a constant of 78F.
Everywhere I read, dropsy it’s a dead sentence. But I’m not sure if it’s dropsy + Ick or something else. Please, help me to diagnose him and some clues on which treatment (if any) is mostly effective.
I’m adding some pics for your analysis.
Thanks.
We’d bought a betta (named Nebbie) for our son, but mostly it’s mostly me who is taking care of him as I used to have some aquariums with tropical fishes when I was a teenager.
But I never really took care of a Betta.
We both the fish on last November, with a 3.5 gallon aquarium, some plastic/silk plants, a small smooth cave for him to hide.
On December, we had to travel for 3 weeks, and we thought it would be a good idea to use an automatic feeder (bad idea...) and we came back, his aquarium was soooo dirty that I thought he had died. But not yet! He was a fighter and didn’t give up. I completely cleaned the aquarium, made a gradual change of water on his “quarantine” container and put him back to the cleaned aquarium. He was still playful and active by then.
I have to admit that I didn’t changed his water periodically, almost 2 x month with 1/3 of water change with conditioned water (now I know it’s wasn’t enough...).
On March, a green algae started to grow over the gravels, artificial plants and cave and I started noticing a change of behaviour and of his coloration, and food leftovers where all over the floor. A white spot on his body and some slime coming out of his fins. In beginning of April I treated him with the Tetra Lifesaving 4-in-1 for 5 days as recommended, but no sign of improvement came. The water quality was normal (NO2, NO3, PH, GH, KH). Two weeks ago, his belly started to be bloated.
A week ago I cleaned the whole aquarium. Put him in his “quarantine” container, cleaned the gravels and all decor to get rid of the algae only with tap water. After cleaning and put all stuff inside again, I treated the water and waited 48 hours to put Nebbie back to his aquarium.
After some internet investigation (no vet for exotic animals open nearby to help), and using my cellphone camera zoom to look closely his body, I think he is with dropsy and something else. The water today is NO2 0, NO3 0, pH 7.5, kH 40, gH 120. The temperature was always a constant of 78F.
Everywhere I read, dropsy it’s a dead sentence. But I’m not sure if it’s dropsy + Ick or something else. Please, help me to diagnose him and some clues on which treatment (if any) is mostly effective.
I’m adding some pics for your analysis.
Thanks.
I hope he makes it!
