Need help - ick and damaged eyes?

[BettaMomma]

Okay - so....
I figured out the capacity of the container that he's in.
It's .375 gallons. How much colloidal? I already have 5 drops in there...

I'm sure the pH change was pretty monumental. His water was probably the equivalent of stagnant marshy pond water. I wanted to get him out of it as fast as I could, so I slowly dumped part of it out, then dumped some new in, etc. - but did that only over the course of about 15 minutes, so it was pretty fast.

I figured that a salt dip would be pretty stressful too. Whattya think about me adding a few crystal of salt to his little tank?
I am going to see if I can rig up something to heat up his tank, too. It needs to be raised up - it's only at 70 degrees right now.

 

[cation]

Yeah, he definitely needs to be warmer. As for how much silver - that depends on the concentration of what you have, yadda yadda yadda. However, Kelly's said that it's nearly impossible to overdose, so I might add a bit more anyway. Since he's still recovering from pH shock, and the temperature increase will be stressful, I'd wait to add any salt till you see how he's doing tomorrow. Give him a chance to adjust to the new water and temp.

 

[wuvmybetta]

5 drops is a fair amount of silver, but I would go with around a quarter of a teaspoon. Try to pour it directly on his head, they usually snap at it if it's dark in color, this is good because then they're actually ingesting it as well.

 

[BettaMomma]

Fab, thanks for the advice.
We'll see how it turns out...

 

[BettaMomma]

It's been a while since I've been able to report any good news about attempted rescues, and I'm afraid this time isn't any different. Little Blue gave up sometime during the night. Little guy hung on for 2 1/2 days, he was a trooper. His ick had started to disappear but his eyes never got any better - I'm just guessing that whatever kind of nasty infection he had finally took over and got him.

It never seems to get any easier, especially in cases like this one where 90 seconds of someone's time for a quick water change could have meant the difference between life and death for him.

RIP little Blue...

Your little cloudy eyes will be missed.

 

[Allix]

 

[cerulean]

i'm so sorry to hear that. it's heart wrenching to see them try so hard.

i had a long talk with a vet at his lfs last week. he had some interesting comments about fish in general and other animals. basically he pointed most of the problems to genetics. he's kept fish for decades and it seems that whenever anything gets popular, such as bettas, the fish start to go down in quality at an alarming rate and sickness prevails. many breeders are reputable and work trying to improve the fish species but unfortunately most that sell to the general public, especially in bulk, breed because a) it makes them money, they don't care what qualities the fish exhibits except for pretty colors to attract a buyer and B) people who don't know what they're doing breed again for color, not for the quality of the betta. they have no real idea what they're doing, end up with way too many and then get rid of them at a lfs or chain. someone else picks up one of these bettas, does the same exact irresponsible thing and then poof, has more than they can handle, gets rid of them at the lfs and the cycle continues. true, changing that cup of water would make an ENORMOUS difference in the bettas life but i firmly agree with him. the fault starts all the way back at people who breed for fun or money completely irresponsibly. he's also found that many of these fish don't respond to any meds they're given, the capabilty and their immune system has been bred out of them. because of these irresponsible breeders there is now a huge medicine market out there, one that so many people seem to be supporting on a regular basis. so now we get to spend a fortune trying to save these fish because of this irresponsiblity. it's amazing how a few people can ruin so many betta lives isn't it?

think of all the other animals we've bred to be perfect and have ended up really screwing up the species or causing new problems to arise. it's not simply just a betta issue and it's scarey. the humane society, aspca, and many other large groups go after the warehouses that these local lfs and chains get their fish/animals from. they have shut down many. if you feel led please help support those groups or find out where your local lfs/chain gets their fish. also education is needed for people considering breeding. this forum is very, very helpful for that. considering breeding? please consider the WHOLE picture. the fight has to go further than the lfs because the problem is much deeper than that.

i wish you many blessings with your remaining fish bettamomma, some seem to be able to make it but unfortunately, most don't in this sad situation.

 

[BettaMomma]

um, yeah.

I contact the actual farms and breeders that these fish come from.
I don't just attack the stores. In many cases, it isn't the store's fault, but there is NO freaking excuse for a fish to be in water that smells so bad it stings my eyes and nose. It's no wonder this guy's eyes pretty much melted away. He probably went into shock when he got into the clean water because his body was so used to trying to fight off the toxicity.

The whole entire world of how bettas are such a teeny little novelty thing just completely destroys me. It's sad that you can go buy a fish for less than a burger costs at some fast food places. Is this right? Is this far? I hardly think so. I think some pretty damn stiff regulations should be slapped on ANY store that wants to sell fish, and the penalties should be monumental when they're not holding up their end of the bargain.

You're right about people wanting pretty fish and not really caring about their health in the process. As long as it makes the person happy, then it's all good as far as they're concerned.

All that being said, I really don't want to turn this thread for little Blue into a long discussion about how breeders and folks who give breeding a try but really don't know what they're doing and let it get out of hand, I just wanted to give him a proper good-bye so he's not forgotten.

Oh well, one day when I'm president I guess I'll make sure that I get animal lovers on my cabinet. We'll kick some ass then.

 

[cerulean]

exactly

 

[eudielynn]

So sorry about little Blue. At least he was clean and as comfortable as he could be for his last few days. I know how heartbreaking it is to see these little guys that haven't done anything to deserve the treatment they get die. People are very lazy and cruel when it comes to animals. They don't think that they can feel pain and even if they do - it's only a fish. All we can do is try to help those we can in any way we can, even if it's only to make them a little more comfortable before they pass on.

You mentioned that you can get a fish for the price of a burger, and I think that is part of the problem. Bettas are way too cheap. This makes them appear disposable. I wish the prices would jump to say $20 per fish. Then maybe the stores would take more interest in their investment and the people who buy them would be more concerned with their care and treatment. I know I'll get flack for this, but I really believe it would be in the bettas best interest.

 

[FrisaGirl]

I'm really sorry Bettamomma. But at least he had someone who cared about him at the end.

 

[BettaMomma]

You mentioned that you can get a fish for the price of a burger, and I think that is part of the problem. Bettas are way too cheap. This makes them appear disposable. I wish the prices would jump to say $20 per fish. Then maybe the stores would take more interest in their investment and the people who buy them would be more concerned with their care and treatment. I know I'll get flack for this, but I really believe it would be in the bettas best interest.

I agree with you 110%. If we could have people like wuv and other good breeders around here solely responsible for the continuation of bettas and supplying them to people who want them, keeping bettas would be a whole different ballgame. And i've posted before that I think that bettas should be more well-taken care of when and where they're sold, which in turn would make them much more expensive, and got blasted for saying that because "If bettas were that expensive, I'd not be able to afford one..." blah blah blah

Well, whether some people like it or not, that's the reason why so many die.
Let's see - if I'm calculating this correctly, today I could go over to WalMart... pick up a betta for $3.47, get a little bag of gravel for a couple of bucks, *maybe* splurge and get a plant for 1.58$ and then take him home. VOILA, instant "pet" for about 7 dollars. Wow, what could be more great - a pet for 7 dollars. And the best part of it is, if I get sick of him after a couple of weeks - who cares, cuz I ONLY spent 7 bucks on him, so no big loss. Same reasoning with parents who have kids yanking on their leg to get them a "fishy". The fish goes home, it gets forgotten about and the parents aren't out all that much money.

The only reason why I have almost all of the ones I have is because they were sick or dying. If there would be only healthy good ones out there in the world that did cost 20$, I'd probably only have one, but he'd be healthy and I wouldn't be sick to my stomach every time I went to look at the bettas in any store.

SOOOO.... after having said ALL that, I really, really don't want an argument, so please don't get on my case about saying that the prices of them should be jacked up. Open a new topic on it if you care to debate it - this is Blue's thread and I'm kind of emotionally jacked up today so it would not be a good place for a debate.

Thanks for the kind words.. I'll miss him.

 

[Kiarra]

Poor Blue. But you did an enormous amount of good for him, even though he didn't make it.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, I don't really feel like I did.

But thanks.

 

[MegTheFish]

Poor baby Atleast he had a good life at the end. Thank-you so much for saving all these bettas lives! You truly are an angel. You deserve a trophy!!!