Last ditch effort for help

[BettaMomma]

Sorry, I know I am not supposed to post about the same thing in 2 places... but I have to
In the betta section i have a whole topic opened on this guy, but I thought i'd put this in here to see if anyone can help me.

I rescued Jasper from WalMart 2 days ago.
He's now in a clean 2.5 G heated tank.
He's currently being treated with Maracyn Two.
I have privacy paper up for him.
He's not eaten since I brought him here.
He only does 2 things:
1) rest on something or lay on the bottom of the tank (when he's on the bottom, he looks like a mermaid that's laid her fins out behind her and is sort of resting on her side
2) dart around the tank like he's crazy

He has nothing physically wrong with him - he's a gorgeous fish. His only problem is his dorsal fin, which is half gone, but nothing else wrong. He doesn't even realize when I look in at him - he acts like he can't see me or it doesn't register that i'm there. Every once in a while I can hear a big ol' splash - and I look over just in time to see him go darting away.

Does ANYone have any ideas for me? I have some hornwort plant on the way so he can rest on it and be close to the top for air, but the poor guy seems horribly miserable with life.

Again, sorry for the double post - i know not everyone visits the betta section, just thought I'd see if anyone had a suggestion....

 

[littlefishie]

Add a pinch of salt, maybe? Always works for my boys, they seem happier with it.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay - I do have some here so I'll throw some in.

He's up and swimming around this morning, which is a GREAT sign, but every once in a while he starts swimming in a circle and does a downward spiral and then lands on the floor of his tank. Sorta looks like a plane crashing He always swims slowly and he always looks sad. I do think he's progressed a little bit, though. We're going on day #4 and he still hasn't eaten anything.

I should have maybe named him Eeyore

 

[littlefishie]

The spiraly thing kinda worries me.. Does he spiral fast or slow? Cos maybe he's just creative in the way he gets to the bottom of the tank..

 

[digital_run]

Im not qualified to give advise about bettas ...But i congradulate you for rescuing him from Walmart and anyone else who does...I constantly see the conditions they are kept in and my heart drops everytime. I hope he makes it and im sure with your TLC he will.

DR

 

[WILDER]

Poor thing, hope he gets well soon, good luck.

 

[BettaMomma]

Thanks. Should he happen to not make it, right after the little ceremony I'll give him - I'm going right back to WalMart to see if another betta needs me. I'll keep going to other stores til I find one that needs me. If it's a day when all bettas are healthy (HA) I will leave the tank empty.

His spiraling is really slow - everything he does is very slow. He moves a bit, then finds a place to lay, and just lays for 10 - 30 minutes. It doesn't seem to affect him if I get up close to the tank, place my hand just on the other side of the glass from him, nothing. Right now he's laying on the bottom of the tank nestled up against the heater, which also worries me because I don't want him to get burned. I try to shoo him away from there, but he doesnt' seem coherent enough to even know what's going on.

Right now, i'm watching him look up at the top of the tank, nose up in the air, and he's making a slow spiral to the top of the tank for air. He gets air, and then he kind of just hangs there, mid-tank until he decides to go back down for a rest, spiraling on the way down.

I just put a plant into his tank (silk) that will allow him to rest very close to the top of the tank so he doesn't have to go too far for air.

It's just so sad - he's a gorgeous fish and I love him to death.
When he does spiral, it seems like... hmmm... you know when you're in the pool and you're in the middle of an innertube and you can do slow spiraly things by swinging your legs around? That's what he does - just turns around twice. Hey, don't dogs turn around 2 times before they lay down It's really odd, because it seems like that's what he's doing. I wonder if he was a dog in his past life?

But SERIOUSLY - the poor little guy just seems MISERABLE.
His coloring has improved, but the darting and spiraling also really worry me.

 

[RandomWiktor]

The dorsal and ventral fins play a big role in how well a fish is able to steer straight; if they are missing significant portions, they can get sent for a loop (literally) trying to swim. Therefore it is possible that he is circling because of severe damage to the dorsal.

When he "crashes like a plane," is he landing nose first? When he swims, is it super-erratic and even a bit sideways? Both of these are signs of a dying fish.

Also, seeing as he's not eaten, does he express interest in food or does he just not even care? Sometimes on finicky bettas who aren't feeling well, pre-soaked pellets, flakes, and blood worms - soft foods, in short - help for whatever reason. And, is he bloated? If he's willing to eat, you might be able to feed a peice of a pea to make sure he isn't just constipated.

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, it's odd.
Because he seems to be going from place to place in the tank to rest.
He swims casually by and then stops to rest on a plant.
He them swims over to the heater and props himself up on top.
He then goes into the hidey cave and sits there for a while.
This cycle has been repated since I got him.

Twice now I've seen him just take off darting around the tank - the first time he did it for a few seconds, the most recent one went on for around 20 seconds. He usually stops when he bashes his face into the silk plant, then he stops, and pulls himself back for hmm... like 10 seconds and just kinda hangs there like he's stunned.

As I'm typing this, he's very slowly making his way across the front of tank. It takes him about 10 seconds to swim the length of the 2.5G tank. He comes up for air, then he goes back to resting. And when he's resting, it seems like it suddenly occurs to him that he needs to go up for air, so he makes a straight shot up to the top for air, then finds a new place to lay.

When he swims frantically, he never goes sideways - it's always just really fast darting. He keeps his balance really well generally, except the few times I've seen him do the circling thing.

The OTHER really odd thing is that every once in a great while, I'll see him take off a little faster and swim for oh, probably 4 - 5 inches like he's completely normal, then he goes back to being a zombie.

Is any of this signs of old age? I hope I didn't get him on his very last stage of life. That'd be sad. Well, either way it's sad.

He doesn't necessarily land nose-first, but sometimes when he's swimming along he'll just crash his face into the glass as if he didn't know to stop.

Okay, now he's looking up at the top of the tank doing swirls again. And now, he's resting back on the plants.

I'm perplexed.
and sad.
and mad.

I want to write another nasty letter to WalMart.

Oh, and as far as food goes, I've tried a few times to put a pellet up at the top of the tank but he doesn't even see it - he is usually hanging out at the bottom of the tank and just doesn't even realize anything's there. it's just so hard for him to get to the top of the tank.

 

[BettaMomma]

I just watched him swim a total of 2 inches.
The entire time he was sort of laying over sideways and he kept sort of "jumping" a bit as if someone kept touching his back.

I don't have a very good feeling at all about this

 

[digital_run]

Sounds like you've done about all you can for him....Give it time and a little luck and hopefully he'll make it....Its sad because sometimes they are just too far gone from mistreatment/neglect that nothing can bring em back. Good luck!

 

[BettaMomma]

um WOW.
I got some hornwort plants from 3fsh via FedEx (THANKS!!), dropped them in the tank, he beached himself on them, and while he was there, I dropped first one food pellet RIGHT in front of his face and he ate it. Then he ate a second one.

There just might be SOME sort of hope for him. If not, at least he's eating something I guess that is a good sign. One of the pellets he even had to shove off the plant and sort of turn himself around and navigate over to.

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, he's managed to rip his bottom fin to shreds.
Here's the last place he decided to lay down and rest:

The poor little guy.
The sad thing is, like I said - he's a gorgeous fish with no visible signs of ANYthing wrong. See? :

He's doing his spiral swims again this morning. UUGH

 

[rdd1952]

Sorry to hear your still having problems with him. Hopefully, he will be ok. It sound as if you are doing about all you can. Just wanted to let you know that the two I rescued from Walmart Tuesday are doing fine. One of them went a couple days before he ate and he was moving a little slow but he seems fine now, swimming and eating. I have pictures now but having computer problems and can't get it to "find" my camera. Hopefully, I will have that worked out tomorrow or Sunday when my son comes over.

 

[BettaMomma]

Thanks.
I've been working with him for 4 days now and his color has improved.
He seemsm to be moving around a bit more.

I'm boing to be treating him w/CopperSafe this afternoon.
Right now i'm looking for something to accurately measure it out - frantically. lol

I'll keep ya posted.
I REALLY REALLY wanna make this guy better so he can have a great life