it can't be long now

[purple_drazi]

Spike is laying on the bottom of the bowl under the java moss. I thought he was already dead but he's breathing.
I put tetracycline in the water on Monday hoping that would help but I guess it wasn't enough to fix whatever the problem was.
This can't go on.

 

[f250fisherman]

What was the tetracycline for?
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[purple_drazi]

It's a long story why, but he hasn't eaten since Aug. 16. I've tried hand feeding him his favourite bloodworms and giving him peas but he refuses all food. He actually turns his back on it. He's been in salt & bettamax since the 16th but it wasn't helping.

I know that some people on this forum don't like Faith at bettatalk.com but she knows what she's talking about and on Monday I noticed that Spike was starting to lose colour and turn grey, he's barely moving and just floating at the top of the bowl, so I took a look to see if Faith had any other suggestions.
She has a page on betta diseases
http/www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm

Under bacterial infection I read: "Betta may have clamped fins, lay at bottom or at surface, not eat, lose its color, turn gray, barely swim around" and it sounded like Spike so I thought he might have a bacterial infection. Tetracycline is a broad spectrum antibiotic that she recommends for it so I thought I'd give it a go.

He actually perked up a bit which made me happier but he still refused to eat. And now he's on the bottom of the bowl. It's like a death watch here. It's awful.

 

[shrks1fan]

Did you do the flashlight trick to see if he had velvet? Shine a flashlight on him and if you see gold dust like stuff, then it's velvet and can be treated with salt and aquarisol and is almost always treatable. It's probably not, but if he had clamped fins at the beginning, that is one of the symptoms of Velvet. So I just thought I'd throw it out there. I really hope he's able to pull through, but if not, then I'm sure he had a good life with you.

Linda

 

[purple_drazi]

yeah, I did. thanks for the thought though.