Hello! Some of you will remember my desperate pleas for help about 4-6 weeks ago when I was trying to save the two bettas, which belonged to my friend and were in bad shape. One of them I lost after a hard battle ... 
But George at least is alive and well. He first came to me completely constipated and it took 2 peas and days of fasting to get him all chipper again. I noticed at that time that the tips of his fins looked a little white and frayed at the tips, but being a newbie, I did not know what that meant... I gave him back to my friend making sure that she did not again put him into 69F (!!) water, which is what he was in when I first found him and threatening her that I would put him up for adoption if I ever found her neglecting his water changes again.
Well a week later when I saw him, his fins had noticable white fuzz on them. I searched on the net and immediately started with fungus medication. This did not show any result and I posted on the emergency forum. Wilder was helping me and every few days we tried a new medication until finally tretracylin showed some improvement. By that time the white fuzz had grown at least half way up his fins and there was a little patch on his body right at the beginning of the dorsal fin. I had to do 2 full treatments of tetracycline to get rid of all of it.
Once it was all off you could really see how the bacteria had been eating away on him and his spikes looked completely MANGLED. If you imagine taking a round wire and then just hammering away on it while twisting the wire, so that it is no longer a round rod but flattened and bent - that's what they looked like!
Well we have been doing frequent water changes and using some aquarium salt to prevent any further infections and he fins have been restoring nicely.
... well, except for one ...
You see when I first got him, he had completely broken one of his spikes, so it was sticking about 90 degrees into the wrong direction. It looked completely broken, but did not fall off and I somehow assumed that it would eventually. Well - it did not. Moreover, as the fins started regrowing, there was more growth right in the crook of the break which actually strenghtened the odd angle and the spike is now growing forward in the wrong direction AND backwards in the direction it should have been growing. 
I really wanted to put up some good shots of him as he is pretty and has an adorable face, but my husband has failed to find the charger for the "good" camera for 3 weeks now, so I gave up and took shots with my miserable little snap shot camera. I figured that if I was gonna put up pics, I'd better put them up BEFORE he dies of old age.
So here is the link to the pictures I posted. The first 2 were while he was still sick and the rest I took tonight while he was in a smaller bowl during the water change.
NOTE: (in case you are not familiar with flickr) There are little icons above the pics. One says "all sizes". If you click on that one it blows up the picture to a larger format.
[URL="http
/www.flickr.com/photos/39684179@N05/...57620808220720/"]http/www.flickr.com/photos/39684179@N05/...57620808220720/[/URL]
He is doing great except that he has SERIOUS constipation issues. I feed him the same food as my betta (just less, even tough he looks bigger than mine) and he instantly plugs up if he does not get his pea (mine has only had 2 peas in the 2-3 months I've had him and he never gets constipated).
My friend has also become a MUCH better fish mom. Just the other day he got majorly constipated (we suspect some visitor fell for his puppy eyes and dropped in some food) so that George's swim bladder was being pushed in and he had a little problem staying upright and swimming down. My friend noticed it as soon as she saw him that morning and instantly had her room mate call me (leaving a frantic message on my voice mail) while she tore off and turned her whole fridge and freezer upside down to find a pea. She fixed it up for him right away and fed it to him.
She told me that she was worried out of her mind because she knew that I would KILL her if she ever let the fish die! LOL - Don't worry - she LOVES him - but it seems my threats have impinged.
But George at least is alive and well. He first came to me completely constipated and it took 2 peas and days of fasting to get him all chipper again. I noticed at that time that the tips of his fins looked a little white and frayed at the tips, but being a newbie, I did not know what that meant... I gave him back to my friend making sure that she did not again put him into 69F (!!) water, which is what he was in when I first found him and threatening her that I would put him up for adoption if I ever found her neglecting his water changes again.
Well a week later when I saw him, his fins had noticable white fuzz on them. I searched on the net and immediately started with fungus medication. This did not show any result and I posted on the emergency forum. Wilder was helping me and every few days we tried a new medication until finally tretracylin showed some improvement. By that time the white fuzz had grown at least half way up his fins and there was a little patch on his body right at the beginning of the dorsal fin. I had to do 2 full treatments of tetracycline to get rid of all of it.
Once it was all off you could really see how the bacteria had been eating away on him and his spikes looked completely MANGLED. If you imagine taking a round wire and then just hammering away on it while twisting the wire, so that it is no longer a round rod but flattened and bent - that's what they looked like!
Well we have been doing frequent water changes and using some aquarium salt to prevent any further infections and he fins have been restoring nicely.
... well, except for one ...
You see when I first got him, he had completely broken one of his spikes, so it was sticking about 90 degrees into the wrong direction. It looked completely broken, but did not fall off and I somehow assumed that it would eventually. Well - it did not. Moreover, as the fins started regrowing, there was more growth right in the crook of the break which actually strenghtened the odd angle and the spike is now growing forward in the wrong direction AND backwards in the direction it should have been growing. I really wanted to put up some good shots of him as he is pretty and has an adorable face, but my husband has failed to find the charger for the "good" camera for 3 weeks now, so I gave up and took shots with my miserable little snap shot camera. I figured that if I was gonna put up pics, I'd better put them up BEFORE he dies of old age.
So here is the link to the pictures I posted. The first 2 were while he was still sick and the rest I took tonight while he was in a smaller bowl during the water change.
NOTE: (in case you are not familiar with flickr) There are little icons above the pics. One says "all sizes". If you click on that one it blows up the picture to a larger format.
[URL="http
/www.flickr.com/photos/39684179@N05/...57620808220720/"]http/www.flickr.com/photos/39684179@N05/...57620808220720/[/URL]He is doing great except that he has SERIOUS constipation issues. I feed him the same food as my betta (just less, even tough he looks bigger than mine) and he instantly plugs up if he does not get his pea (mine has only had 2 peas in the 2-3 months I've had him and he never gets constipated).
My friend has also become a MUCH better fish mom. Just the other day he got majorly constipated (we suspect some visitor fell for his puppy eyes and dropped in some food) so that George's swim bladder was being pushed in and he had a little problem staying upright and swimming down. My friend noticed it as soon as she saw him that morning and instantly had her room mate call me (leaving a frantic message on my voice mail) while she tore off and turned her whole fridge and freezer upside down to find a pea. She fixed it up for him right away and fed it to him.
She told me that she was worried out of her mind because she knew that I would KILL her if she ever let the fish die! LOL - Don't worry - she LOVES him - but it seems my threats have impinged.
