Betta behaviour

[BettaMomma]

How long has it been since you last changed his water?
And yep, that ick treatment should be okay.

You don't need to worry about the live food yet... it's only been a few days since he's eaten, right? See how he does over the next few days, then I'd start worrying about food issues...

 

[Rachel.K]

It's been about 4days I think since I last changed the water and yes he hasn't eaten for the last few days..

How long does it take for ich to clear up?

 

[Raechal]

On my brand of ick medicine by Wardley it says not to use on tetras or scaleless fish. It also contains melachite (sp?) green. I would get him in his own tank and treat him there.

None of my bettas have a heater in their tank, but the temp always stays at around 76-78 F in the house as I live in Florida.

When I had the temp up to 80, my betta acted lethargic and would hang in a corner all day for a week or so. Then I lowered the temp to around 76 and he is happily swimming around his tank.

When I was treating my goldfish for ich, I would treat for one day, then do a water change the next day, then treat, then change etc. And the ich was gone in about 7 days.

 

[Rachel.K]

Right I've been treating him as described on the bottle which is every 48 hours and changing the water every other day as well but he's still looking no better. He is just going and resting in his plant I'm worried this is because he wants to find somewhere quiet to die? He still refuses to eat anything....

 

[Rachel.K]

If anyone has any more suggestions about what to feed etc please help. He's still not moving and one of the tetras has dies and the other ones are covered in ich. I don't know whether to complain to my lfs as everything in the tank was fine before I bought the betta so surely it must have come from them? None of them are really moving around the tank or eating...

Don't know what to do feel very helpless.

 

[veen]

i'm treating 1 of my bettas for ich right now too. he is also lethargic and sits either next to the filter near the top of the tank or rests on top of the suction cup thermometer, which is also near the top of the tank. however, he does eat all the hikari pellets (4 or 5) i give him twice a day. before he got ick he was a little tasmanian devil -- always going!

i guess some bettas just handle ick and the meds worse than others. when i treated 2 of my others for ick they didn't act any different at all, were just as active & piggy as they were before the ick.

but i would definitely recommend heating the tank to around 80 -- this will help shorten the cycle of the ick bacteria.

i have also treated some of my tetras (cardinals & rummy-noses) for ick in the past and some of them fared well and some died. i think tetras are not the sturdiest of fish so don't think you're doing something wrong.

 

[Rachel.K]

Ok thanks for the advice, is hikari a brand or a type of pelllet, as I'm from the UK and have looked for them but couldn't find them so would any type of pellet do?

 

[veen]

Ok thanks for the advice, is hikari a brand or a type of pelllet, as I'm from the UK and have looked for them but couldn't find them so would any type of pellet do?

yes, hikari is a great brand. they make different kinds of fish stuff, not just pellets for bettas. it's a japanese brand very popular in parts of the u.s. i'm not sure where to get in the uk, probably any type of betta pellet would be fine if you can't find hikari.