Sickly Betta

My veiltail betta, Pickle, is looking poorly this morning. I noticed he was less active and was slow to eat (highly unlike him) and his scales seem to be a bit raised.

He is in a 3 gallon cube tank by himself which was cycled before he went into it and he has been in there for ~5 months. Heated to a consistent 78 degrees. There are 2 windblown java ferns, 2 water sprite plants (floating) and a scuba helmet ornament in there, nothing else (aside from heater and filter intake). Water change of 80ish% weekly (as much water as i can take out without stressing him out too much). The tap water is treated with conditioner before it is put into tank.

Water parameters as of 10 minures ago are 0, 0, 10. Last water change was Thursday.

I think it may be early signs of dropsy, but I'm just confused as to how he has come down with it. I'm religious about water changes and I do not over feed. I would say maybe I need to do more frequent water changes because he is in a small tank, but he has a filter, plants, and the water quality is always perfect when I check it (usually once a month before a water change just to make sure). Even just before a water change the nitrates are never more than 20ppm and ammonia/nitrites are 0 of course.

I'm going to increase the tank temp to 80 and add salt to his tank and start doing daily water changes until he (hopefully) improves. Anything else I should be doing?

I've attached a picture that shows how his scales are raised. Note that his fins are white at the tips (always and it is not white poop. Excuse the dirty exterior glass, I never notice it until I try to take a picture lol.

Sorry to see your little guy is doing bad...

It does look like fin rot and I can see the raised scales. It may be dropsy, but it could not be, I don't know for sure.

Fin rot is caused by poor water parameters. Did you get out of swing with your weekly water changes?

PheonixKingZ said:

Sorry to see your little guy is doing bad...

It does look like fin rot and I can see the raised scales. It may be dropsy, but it could not be, I don't know for sure.

Fin rot is caused by poor water parameters. Did you get out of swing with your weekly water changes?

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His fins have always been tattered-looking (they were very bad when we first got him) so it's hard for me to tell if they look poorly because of fin rot or if they just haven't/won't regrow fully. He also tore them about a month or 2 ago, I had a cut in half waterbottle placed to baffle the flow of the filter and he decided it was a jungle gym. Perhaps that is how the bacteria/whatever is going on here got started, though I didn't think much of it because water parameters have always been normal. I've attached another picture that shows them better. I didn't include it initially because he was taking a breath and he looked bloated, which he doesn't very much in actuality.

Im just baffled about how this could happen when I am consistent with water changes and he is in a planted tank on top of that. I did get 3 days behind on water changes 2 weeks ago, but the every other one has consistently been every Thursday. Meaning there was only really 3 days between the last water change and his most recent one. I've never seen any ammonia in this tank before but perhaps there was just the right coincidence that allowed it to occur without me noticing before the water change.

But again, perhaps that's all that was needed to make him sick I hate this small tank and cannot wait to move him once I move. I think the only explanation is that in such a small tank even just being a few days late for the water change must have been enough opportunity for disease to settle in.

Ok, fins don't look as bad in that picture, so most likely not fin rot.

If dropsy is detected early enough, it can be treated: https://www.thesprucepets.com/dropsy-in-aquarium-fish-1381806

Seachems "KanaPlex" is good for pineconing, you may want to look into getting that.

This thing may be an early stage of dropsy, or it may just be pinconing. Either way, the KanaPlex and the water changes will help.

PheonixKingZ said:

Ok, fins don't look as bad in that picture, so most likely not fin rot.

If dropsy is detected early enough, it can be treated: https://www.thesprucepets.com/dropsy-in-aquarium-fish-1381806

Seachems "KanaPlex" is good for pineconing, you may want to look into getting that.

This thing may be an early stage of dropsy, or it may just be pinconing. Either way, the KanaPlex and the water changes will help.

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Thanks! I'll run to the store later on and see if they have Kanaplex. If not I'll see if I can get some here quickly. I will do a google myself, but do you have any idea if Kanaplex can be used in conjunction with salt? I'm not usually one to use meds, but I've never had something like this happen and it does seem indicated...just not sure if people usually stop adding salt while adding medication.

How old is this guy ?

squidneh said:

do you have any idea if Kanaplex can be used in conjunction with salt?

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This may help: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/...aquarium-salt-directly-into-the-water.351029/

So it seems the answer to your question is yes.

itiwhetu said:

How old is this guy ?

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We got him around June this year. Initially I thought he was young when we got him because he's quite small. However he hasn't grown at all so he was probably full grown when we got him, which makes it hard to guess how old he is.

I don't think it's an age thing, I think its the lack of water changes.

How is he doing?

Pickle is still hanging in there. Unfortunately the Kanaplex isn't arriving until later today, so I've just been doing a 80-90% water change each day and adding salt/conditioner to the water I refill the tank with, as well as increased the temp to 80 and I stopped turning on his light as he seemed to be seeking out shade to hide in and not coming to the surface often. As of yesterday he was still eating, he refused food this morning but hopefully it's just because it was earlier than I would normally feed him so he wasn't awake yet.

His scales don't seem more or less raised and he doesn't appear to be bloated, perhaps very very slightly. He is lethargic and mostly lays on the bottom of the tank, using the dunes created by the frequent and large water changes as little beds. But he does kick around now and then. I just did his water change and he was attacking his reflection in the glass, so there is still some spunk left in him. I can only hope he is able to pull through.

I ordered some Indian almond leaves along with the Kanaplex and I'm eager to be able to add them and the medication and see if it can help him kick whatever this is (still thinking early stages of dropsy).

PheonixKingZ said:

I don't think it's an age thing, I think its the lack of water changes.

How is he doing?

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I'm leaning away from it being age as well. I think he may have an already compromised immune system from being poorly bred or just weak stock, and being a few days late on a water change in combination with being in a small tank was too much for him.

I have a normally very strict water change schedule. All of my tanks get 75-80% changes every week, every single Thursday. I didn't even miss a week, only a few days, which happened only because I had a very rigorous week for my graduate program and was hardly home except for to sleep until the weekend. My tanks are heavily planted and well maintained so being a few days late should not have theoretically caused any major harm. My 20g and 10g inhabitants are perfectly fine. Even being in a 3 gallon, with him being the only inhabitant in a planted, heated, cycled, well maintained tank I still don't think it should have caused him to deteriorate like this more than a week after his late water change. But who knows!

I always take responsibility for the health of my fish. I'll assume this is my fault, even if I am frustrated about it. I just want him to pull through.

I really hope he does. It sounds like you are doing everything right.

Hang in there buddy!

Sorry to hear this, one other thing I would do is fast him for a few days too, his stomach looks big, could be the dropsy but won't do him any harm to fast especially as he refuses food now and then.
Perhaps see if you can source some live daphnia after the fast they are good at clearing out fish if constipation is to blame plus they usually love chasing them!

betta fish said:

Sorry to hear this, one other thing I would do is fast him for a few days too, his stomach looks big, could be the dropsy but won't do him any harm to fast especially as he refuses food now and then.
Perhaps see if you can source some live daphnia after the fast they are good at clearing out fish if constipation is to blame plus they usually love chasing them!

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Thanks for the advice! I agree it's probably best to fast him, especially since he is starting to refuse anyway. I'll see if I can get some live food! But I do regularly feed frozen foods, at least

Pickle passed away it seemed promising this morning, I have been at my desk all day and he was swimming about a bit and resting on some leaves closer to the surface. But I checked in again after a few zoom meetings and he has passed.

I still wonder what exactly this was because he did not exhibit symptoms other than slightly raised scales and being lethargic for a couple of days. From my research on dropsy the raised scales are usually an early sign and the disease progression takes several days to weeks. Pickle's scales were only slightly raised and never got more raised than that. Pickle was fine Sunday and first showed signs something was wrong on Monday, and now has passed by Wednesday. At the first sign something was wrong I did a huge water change and added salt, and did so Tuesday and this morning as well, but it still took him so quickly.

I guess I'll never fully know.

Thanks all for your support.