Internal Parasites?

[soritan]

a long time ago, i posted a picture of a 2.5g All-Glass i used to own, where there were little white blobs all over the place, and it seemed to me that my betta was expelling them through his gills or vent. *cough*

see those little blobs there? they're back. i tried to photograph them, but my camera seems to be in the throes of death.

is that just some form of betta waste i'm not familiar with (how could i miss that?) or is he expelling some sort of internal parasite? sori, the red one, is the only one this happens to. furin doesn't do this. is sori just a messy fish?

he's currently in a 2 gallon bowl, and his last water change was 3-4 days ago.

) i know, i lost track of time.

 

[sukie]

a long time ago, i posted a picture of a 2.5g All-Glass i used to own, where there were little white blobs all over the place, and it seemed to me that my betta was expelling them through his gills or vent. *cough*

see those little blobs there? they're back. i tried to photograph them, but my camera seems to be in the throes of death.

is that just some form of betta waste i'm not familiar with (how could i miss that?) or is he expelling some sort of internal parasite? sori, the red one, is the only one this happens to. furin doesn't do this. is sori just a messy fish?

he's currently in a 2 gallon bowl, and his last water change was 3-4 days ago.

) i know, i lost track of time.

No clue - sorry

 

[black angel]

What are you feeding him?
You should spend some time just watching him to see exactly where they are coming from.

 

[soritan]

I feed them Hikari betta pellets, generally around 4 a day or every other day, depending.

I put him in a 1.25 bowl now, with no plants, and I'm eyeing him. He seems to really like the attention. *laugh*

He doesn't act sick, except he occasionally goes gonzo and swims madly about, often knocking into the bowl and bottom. He doesn't do it often, I'd say I catch him in the act once or twice a day. Aside from those momentary freak outs, he acts just like how he normally acts. In fact, going occasionally gonzo IS how he normally acts, and since I have two cats, I just accepted it as part of his behavior and moved on.

It looks ilke that gunky stuff you sometimes see in betta cups at a shoddy LFS, sort of globby and white.

I wonder if this is just paranoia, or something. I asked about the white stuff before, and people thought that maybe it was some sort of odd bacteria bloom. Except I wonder why Sori gets it and Furin doesn't?

I don't think he's in the throes of death or anything, but I'd have for him to be sick and have me not do anything about it.

 

[fobofobiac]

Is it that whole pinkish thing that you're talking about or the spots on it? Either way it looks really gross. How big is it too?

 

[soritan]

I altered the contrast and circled what I'm talking about:

The stuff seems to be rather tiny, but not excessively so, and not mobile (as in, I don't actually see the buggers swimming). Keep in mind, that this is an old picture, in a different tank than he's in now. I removed all the plants from his bowl and put him in clean, new, treated water. I've observed that a very small quantity of these little gel looking things have shown up, but not to the same degree as the other tank. This could possibly be because they hitched a ride when I moved him from the 2g to the 1g. If they continue to show up in a second move, then Sori is the source of the jelly stuff, not any plants.

I use a silme coat stimulating water treatment, think that might have something to do with it? Maybe Sori is sensitive to it, and Furin isn't?

 

[soritan]

You know, after a couple days in his 1.25g bowl with no plants at all, I've come to two conclusions: First, that Sori fouls his water very quickly, and Second, that the plants in the bowls make a huge difference in the quality of hish life.

My bowl water rarely ever/never goes milky, but without the plants in there, his bowl is already cloudy. It's been about a day and a half. Normally, I change out his water every 3-4 days, depending.

Here's my theory: I used a little too much water treatment in his bowl, thereby causing him to shed a little more slime coat in the water, which then settled on the plants. Previously, I had creeping fig (ficus pumila) in his bowl -- it's been in there since March of last year, and grows rather quickly. I replaced the creeping fig with java fern, which grows very slowly (bowls have very little light, you know?). Since Sori is a big waste producer, and he was with a slow growing plant at the time, instead of the water staying clean until WC day, it got all pearly with that slime stuff.

Make sense? Sound like a reasonable standing theory?