Help With Sick Betta - Update With Recovery Pics

[electric yellow]

Sorry to hijack this thread:
Laurafrog: im in Victoria/Aus would you suggest i crank my heater to 30degrees celcius? Or somewhere between 28-30? I just did a 40% water change and will do another one tomorrow morning. I was going to take off to the shops tmw to get some meds. I have Melafix and Pimafix in the cupboard but im assuming i will need something else. Will my plecs be affected at all?

 

[Janene]

Thanks again Laura.

I will look for test kits to get the measurements you requested tomorrow.

 

[LauraFrog]

Get the liquid ones as the strips are not accurate at all and are a waste of money. The best one is the API Freshwater Master, but any test that involves adding drops of liquid from bottles is sensitive and accurate. Dip strips are useless.

 

[loraxchick]

for the two folks on here (the OP and Ramjet's owner) use an Ich or whitespot (same parasite, just different names we call it) treatment. remove all carbon from filters increase temp to 30C as mentioned and INCREASE AERATION in the tank...warmer water can not hold as much O2, so make sure there is more surface disturbance to accomplish this. as mentioned Ich is relatively easy to treat and diagnose and usually pretty simple to get rid of...temp method is sometimes all you need.

as far as plecs and ich treatment, i believe all scaleless fish (loaches, cories& other catfish and plecs) need half a dose. you MUST treat the whole tank, not just quarantine the sick ones. the parasite has several stages and one of them is to fall off into the substrate until it reattaches to the host (this is being overly simplified). so if you are SEEING the spots, chances are there are nasties in the tank too. so you have to treat everyone, even the plec. just use a half dose. it will have the same effect.

and agreed with above, the betta in question looks very healthy apart from the Ich...should make a full recovery
GOOD LUCK!
cheers.

 

[Janene]

Thank you all.

Am out of bed now (it's freezeing here this morning)
About to head out to buy everything I need. I will take a photo of the Beta (the second one) with me to show anyone I talk to, so they cannot convince me its something else.

I have a PH test kit, wich uses the drops - it's the one that comes with two other bottles (ph down and ph up)

I feel better about being able to save him now. Thanks again

Btw - His name is Edward.

 

[LauraFrog]

Okay, good luck! The most important kit to get is ammonia, but it's probably easier to get the master kit which has absolutely everything you'll need - API freshwater master. Two of the five tests in this kit deal with pH, so if you can get the separate kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate cheaper you can do that, but usually the master kit will be cheaper than buying the three separately.
I'm not going to let this post turn into a pet store rant, but often they know a lot less than they think they do, and 'I've been working in a pet store for 6 years' doesn't cut it if they still don't have a clue (or feed customers whatever their boss feeds them). Most ich treatments are pretty straightforward, and he's definitely got a good chance. I certainly hope they'll recognise whitespot, because that photo is showing the classic 'sprinkled with salt' look - textbook ich.

electric_yellow - sorry I missed your post last night, I've been slogging through a 1300 word essay on Nazi Germany... yep, crank the heater as long as the plec can handle it. Bettas are fine with temps of around 30 but I'm not sure about the plec. The higher you can get the temp without hurting the plec, you'll speed up the parasite's life cycle so you can kill it faster, and it doesn't appreciate being cooked anyway.

 

[electric yellow]

I will turn it up 1degree then.

 

[Janene]

Ok got the master kit. -

Levels are (approx)
PH looks to be about 8. It was 7 on the normal test, and when I did a High PH test, it looks to be around 8 (should I add some ph down?)
Ammonia looks to be about 0 - maybe just above that, but not as dark as the "0.25" colour.
Nitrite looks to be about 0.25
Nitrate looks to be between 5 and 10.

I have a White spot solution.
I'm going to do a 50% change again this morning before adding the white spot treatment.
temp is now on 30 - will leave it like this a few days?


Thanks again.

 

[loraxchick]

i wouldnt mess with the ph. test the ph of your tap water as well as tank water to get a standard to measure against for future reference. also ammonia, etc.
good to know the baseline waterstats.
good luck with him.

 

[Janene]

Ok, I will leave the PH alone.

He seems to be a lot more active today then yesterday.
Thats just with a couple of 50% water changes, 3 in total.
Which gives me hope. He still hides in his cave sometimes, but he comes
out often now (looking for food most likely lol)
He hasn't lost his appetite at all.

Here's some pics I took after adding the White spot treatment.
Obviously he's still very infected, but at least he's moving about more.

 

[CeeJayy]

Wow, ive never seen a whitespot case like that!

On the other hand, well done to you for caring for him! Hes lucky to have someone like you who cares about him and is treating him

 

[Devorax]

The only concern I have at this point is when the whitepsot falls off. Don't be fooled in to thinking that it has gone away, as this is part of the lifecycle of the disease. It may appear all is well when in fact it is actually about to get much worse!! To ensure this doesn't happen, continue the treatment for another 2-3 doses at the intervals indicated on the meds. This way, you will kill of that which is living in the gravel before it has a chance to re-attach itself on the fish. Otherwise, you might think it's okay and then in a week or two you may end up with it back again and resort to pulling your hair out! The med is harmless to the fish when dosed correctly, so don't worry about it bothering Edward. Good luck

 

[LauraFrog]

Edward?

Devorax is definitely right, when the spots go away you still need to continue treatment for a week or two or they will come back. Active is a good sign, this definitely sounds hopeful.

The fact that your tank is producing nitrate means it's well on the way to being cycled by the sound of it - can you check the amount of nitrate in the tap water for us? The fact that nitrite and nitrate are showing means that both ammonia and nitrite are being processed... in short, that means that both of the species of bacteria you need are starting to establish, and all you need to do is test the water every day and do water changes when either ammonia or nitrite is over 0.25, until you have three days in a row where they both read 0 - this will mean the tank has completed its cycle. Then you can go back to water changes once a week, which is a lot less work! (Nitrate is normal, it is the end product of the nitrogen cycle and it doesn't hurt fish unless it gets up over 100ppm or so... this only happens in a tank that's really filthy and never gets enough water changes, or when there is a lot of nitrate in the tap water.)

 

[Devorax]

Yep, at the end of post 20, she said his name is Edward...lol

 

[loraxchick]

you're doing everything right as mentioned keep up treatments even after visible signs are gone (ie the spots). it is CERTAINLY good that he is still eating and active...hopeful sign indeed!! im sure he'll be just fine...once those ich-y (yes, pun intended) parasites are gone...
you should consider keeping those photos of Edward around...may help a LOT of folk who are concerned that their fish has Ich...your photos are very good and shows exactly what ich looks like (as opposed to other diseases like colomnaris or fungus). there are loads of posts about white spot and when someone asks, is this whitespot? just slap up a photo of Edward and say, does it look like this?? would be a good "service" for people i think. just a thought.

but good luck...hopefully he's on the mend to a FULL recovery keep us posted
cheers!