Amos is deteriorating

[BettaMomma]

Amos' story is kinda long, but to make it short here it is -

I decided to upgrade him from his happy little 2.5G tank to a 5G tank w/filter. BAD idea - he hated it, ate his tail and got ick from the stress. I've since moved him back to a 2.5G tank.

It's heated - he's currently at 82 degrees. I have an air bar in there - with a slight bubble drip for him. His tail has been shredding up (what's left of it) - almost like it's shriveling up on the ends and ripping apart like it went thru a paper shredder. As I look in his tank right now, he's laying on the bottom of the tank. He is once again covered in ick, too. I just put in Maracide yesterday (dose number 2 on day 3 - the dosages skip a day in between) for his ick treatment - after treatment on day 1, the ick disappeared. Yesterday I did a 100% water change - dosed him again with Maracide (to start the treatment again because the maracide got dumped with the water change) and got him on Tetracycline tabs. Shortly after I put the meds in yesterday he perked up and started looking like nothing was ever ailing him.

Today, he's back to laying on the bottom of the tank, scratching himself on things and he's covered in ick. And heis tail is shrivelled up.
He's also found it necessary to always have something touching his side - right now he's wedged himself between the hydor mini heater and the glass.

Anything else I can/should do for him??
I am going to throw some salt into the tank for him in a bit - but anything else anyone can think of that I could do???

He ate normally this morning and whenever he sees me feeding or looking in at Jasper he comes over and sees me like normal, but he's definitely not himself. uugh

 

[WILDER]

There isn't much more you can do for the poor betta, just keep finger crossed, hope he pulls through for you, good luck.

 

[BettaMomma]

The poor little guy - he struggles over to see me when I look in at him.

He's COMPLETELY covered in ick.
I DESPISE that disease

 

[WILDER]

We need healing vibes again.

 

[3fsh]

Well, if you think you are up to a very stressfull, maybe successfull experience then here's what you can do: a short (30 min) bath in very concentrated salt water should be able to kill all of the ick on his body. The only problem is that you would have to completely nuke his tank and everything else that has touched his water while he was in the bath with bleach or a very concentrated salt solution. It doesn't sound like the meds are really helping all that much, so I think this might be the best way to go. IMO Good luck with the little baby.

 

[WILDER]

Yes i agree, forgot about the salt bath for whitespot try it nothing to lose.

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, since I'm at work I can't really take enough time away from my computer to do all that today. My boss keeps rolling her eyes at me every time I do tank changes. My whole team thinks I'm completely nuts already and make fun of me for my animal keeping habits.

It's odd, because one second he'll be laying on the bottom of the tank in a pile, the next moment he'll be up and swimming around, even tho his fins are clamped up - but he is swimming around right now. I haven't totally given up yet because it took Jasper several days to come around to the meds I was giving him. It just seems odd that Amos' ick came back, but that somewhat makes sense, too, because I did stress him AGAIN in the middle of that med cycle because I dumped him back into the 2.5G tank.

Amos is a strong litle guy - he's still eating and right now he's doing the snake dance at the front of his tank. I just don't understand how one second he can be so great and the next second he's just like a deflated pile of fins and scales at the bottom of his tank. It makes no sense.

Now he's hanging out at the top of the tank - just being still.
I'll keep an eye on him - hopefully he'll improve.

 

[BettaMomma]

IF I were to stay after work tonight and do a salt bath (GOOD lord salt baths scare me) - would I have to sanitize EVERYthing completely to make it even worth it whatsoever? I don't have any stuff here to sanitize the tank with at all.

I'm not opposed to going out and getting him a whole brand new tank (for the sake of time & convenience) with nothing in it but a heater and airstone - just wanna know if just a salt bath, water change and rinsing things in his tank would help?

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay - SO...
How the hell long must I wait now to see results from the ick treatment?
i've noticed him scraping against stuff - I just read they do that to try to dislodge the ick cysts. And it says that lethargy and color loss go along with it, in extreme cases. Well I'm sort of relieved to know that most of the things he's been doing are in relation to the ick, but how the hell long do I have to wait before the ick meds will kick in? I've got him at 82... wait, it's now 83 degrees... did 100% water change yesterday and gave him a dose of maracide. (also have tetracycline and salt in there too)

Shouldn't relief be in sight sometime in the very near future? At least some sort of improvement???

 

[3fsh]

If you gave him a salt bath and washed everything in salt water (while he was in the bath, of course) it would kill all of the ick. You don't necessarily have to use bleach... it would be the best option, though. If the medication isn't working now... it might not work in the long run. I would still continue the meds after the salt bath... just in case the nast little bug decides to rear it's evil head again.

 

[BettaMomma]

Well here's the thing, though...
when he was still in his big tank, I started medicating him w/the maracide.
the ick seemed to disappear until I moved him BACK into the small tank a couple days ago. I'm thinking it just reappeared because of the stress of being moved BACK again. Do you think that's a safe assumption?

The poor guy.
I'd really hate to leave here today and decide to do the salt bath tomorrow and not have the chance tomorrow, cuz... well, you know.

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm SO very angry with myself right now.
this is ALL my own stupid fault.



How big of a container do I need to do a salt bath?
How much salt?

What the heck - it can't hurt anything. He can't POSSIBLY get much worse.
Do I need to watch him for passing out? If so, what if he does and I have his tank emptied to clean it?

What would you guys do?

 

[BettaMomma]

SO.
Just to put it into perspective here he was before:

and here he is today:

I'm such a bad Betta Momma.
I feel completely horrible.

 

[3fsh]

I would put him in a (approx.) 1 gallon container with his tank water. Then I would scrub out his aquarium with salt and refill it with fresh, dechlorinated water so that it has a few minutes to heat up. Next, I would add about 1 tbsp. salt to his water and just keep an eye on him while it is dissolving. I find it helpful to put an airstone in as it provides some oxygen and keeps them from freaking out. (Just make sure it isn't blasted on high... a couple bubbles a second should do the trick.) I give 30 minute baths, but I watch the fish the entire time to make sure that they are okay. Now "okay" means not passing out... I would expect him to try and get out of the container, but if he freezes up and starts floating around then you should remove him immediately. When the thirty minutes are up, I just net the fish and transfer them back to the aquarium. Hope that helps!

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay - I'll try it when I get to the office tomorrow, if the boss is out AND if he's still alive.
Thanks.