my lil guy can never get a break

[sumer_kay]

My betta is swollen and pine cone looking, looks like he swallowed a pea. I'm pretty sure it's dropsy. What I want to know, is is it contagious?? Should I treat whole tank just in case(community), or put him in fishbowl and treat by himself. He is in a 10gallon, (my only tank) but I do have a fish bowl. Please help, I love the lil guy.

 

[sumer_kay]

HELP ME PLZ!!! don't want my poor lil guy to be short lived...and he seems so happy too...bloated, but happy...=(

 

[staredecisis]

From what I understand, it is debated on whether or not dropsy is contagious. You'll have to make the judgement call. If it were me, I'd separate him, and treat him individually, and do a water change in the old tank, but perhaps someone else will come along and tell you more here soon. Sorry about your fish.

 

[Loopyness]

no one knows whether dropsy is contagious. I too would separate him and treat him, the only other bad new is that most of the time dropsy cannot be cured. my betta has dropsy too, i havent treated him and just made sure the water is clean and that he eats. I hope everything turns out okay
Get well soon little guy !!

 

[sumer_kay]

I just bought my first test kit, and here is what it said

40 Nitrate
300 hardness
120 alkalinity
7.8 ph
.5 nitrite

I give it easy balance every monday..why is it still all whacky??
Is this okay, or do I need yet another chemical
(I added 4 new fish yesterday, took out two old ones, and in the past week have added new plants, and a new cave ) (four weeks ago I added new gravel)
(6 weeks or so ago I added a new bio-wheel filter )
Is it NTS AGAIN ??

 

[staredecisis]

Has your tank cycled?

It sounds like if you removed the old gravel and the old bio-wheel, you might have just killed nearly your entire populate of beneficial bacteria.. You may be in a mini-cycle now, because they are trying to grow back, which would account for the odd water parameters.. do some daily water changes to try and get that back to normal while it's cycling.

This is all provided your tank cycled at all in the first place.

 

[sumer_kay]

Has your tank cycled?

It sounds like if you removed the old gravel and the old bio-wheel, you might have just killed nearly your entire populate of beneficial bacteria.. You may be in a mini-cycle now, because they are trying to grow back, which would account for the odd water parameters.. do some daily water changes to try and get that back to normal while it's cycling.

This is all provided your tank cycled at all in the first place.

The thing is b4 I only had marbles not gravel, (i didn't remove them all) and I didn't have a bio-wheel b4 either, just a normal aquaclean.err whatever they're called. I put gravel in to help with beneficial bacteria....well, they seem fine despite tezt srips ect. my betta built a bubblemest today...crazy feesh