Good Morning!
I think this is the right spot to post my concerns on my King Male betta (if I’m incorrect let me know, I’m new to these threads and am just looking for advice. Will repost accordingly
)
I have a male King Betta (he is housed alone, too aggressive for tank friends.) that was a pet store rescue (he wasn’t doing too hot, picked him up due to fin rot and fixed him up with no issues till now. That was about 6-8 months ago.) He is kept in a planted 10 gallon, with air pump/stone, heater and a canister filter. His light is on a timer and is on for about 6 hours a day. His water parameters are good. Neutral Ph, no nitrates/nitrites/ammonia, water is soft and I do 25% water changes weekly (in addition to gravel vacuum since we’re struggling with keeping algae under control.)
I noticed about 2 weeks ago that he was worm burdened (I’m pretty sure its roundworm) and can only assume it was from plants that were shipped (I did a quarantine on them but didn’t have any antiparasitic meds to treat them with. Found a few worms but thought I had eradicated everything prior to putting them in his tank. Guess I was wrong!)
He presented like this:
All I had on hand was fenbendazole (from work, I work in the veterinary industry) and had our exotics doctor calculate out his dose. 100mg per 10 gallons, while I waited for medicated food to arrive in the mail. All we had was powder so we calculated how many grams it would be based off the amount of fenbendazole percentage (half gram for close to 100mg, percentage is 12.2% fenbendazole.) I finely crushed the meds and reconstituted in betta water and shook violently, then let it sit for a few hours to help dissolve the meds.) The medicated food is metronidazole/praziquantel.
I read that treating with fenbendazole in the water was essentially useless but I had mixed reviews so I went ahead and tried it. Dosed two days, did a 50% water change and left him be for a day, then dosed again, waited another day then did a 50% change and turned on filtration. Let him sit for a few days. During his medicated treatment I used Stress Coat and almond leaf extract for the boost in tannins.
At the three day point with filtration I did another 25% change and noted that his eyes were cloudy and fins were clamped. Food arrived but he was refusing to eat it (soaked with garlic guard and still a big fat no from him) and our local pet store finally got General Cure back in stock so I stopped filtration and dosed with General Cure according to package directions (including recommended water changes.)
Filtration was turned back on but eye cloudiness remained, so I let him sit for three days and it appeared that pop eye might have been starting to I went ahead and started him on Doxycycline and also followed package directions. (Same company that makes General Cure.)
During that time I did salt baths to help with gut motility and to replace any electrolytes since he started refusing all forms of food. (Pellets, flakes, crumbles, blood worms, peas, etc.) I did one bath a day, 1.5 gallons of warm and treated water (I only use UV sterilized betta water, no tap water) with a 1/4th teaspoon of dissolved aquarium salt in a heated/aired tank with stress coat added in, only letting him soak for 10 minutes total. Let him acclimate to temp for 30 mins by floating on water surface and then added him in with his tank water. (Did the same thing when returning him to the main tank, just didn’t add in the salt water to main tank when switching him back.) I did this maybe 5 days in a row (could have been less, but not more. I’m losing count.)
I fear that he is currently afflicted with blood poising (he has what appears to be hemorrhaging on his abdomen.) He is listless, rubbing on the substrate/rocks and is not active at all (he was very active before getting sick, and very responsive to voices/movement outside the tank.) I am unsure where to go from here. He is still refusing food (we’re heading into week three) and I am at a loss as to where to go next. Is it possible that the round worms have died inside his body and he is unable to pass them, causing internal bacterial infection? (I know they’re worms, they went back in him when I would come to the tank and he would start swimming around.)
I’ve tried to reduce his stress during the back and forth with the salt baths and medications but it’s hard (he’s very sensitive) and hence why I let him sit for days in between treatments and did not do multiple treatments at once.
Am I overdoing and overthinking this? Should I just let him sit in his main tank or should I risk the stress and move him into his hospital tank? Should I treat again, but this time with erythromycin? I’m at a loss, my fish keeping friends, and don’t wanna give up on the little guy but I have clove oil on hand (if it gets to that point, I really don’t want it to.)
side note: He is able to swim, he does take a cruise around his tank a few times a day and does not appear to be sinking (I don’t think swim bladder is affected.) and comes up every morning for food, but eats it and spits it right back out. (I am taking out uneaten food after he refuses and swims back to his dock spot.)
(^Before he got sick, poor lil mans , including his resin made mini tank I got for Christmas!)
I think this is the right spot to post my concerns on my King Male betta (if I’m incorrect let me know, I’m new to these threads and am just looking for advice. Will repost accordingly
)I have a male King Betta (he is housed alone, too aggressive for tank friends.) that was a pet store rescue (he wasn’t doing too hot, picked him up due to fin rot and fixed him up with no issues till now. That was about 6-8 months ago.) He is kept in a planted 10 gallon, with air pump/stone, heater and a canister filter. His light is on a timer and is on for about 6 hours a day. His water parameters are good. Neutral Ph, no nitrates/nitrites/ammonia, water is soft and I do 25% water changes weekly (in addition to gravel vacuum since we’re struggling with keeping algae under control.)
I noticed about 2 weeks ago that he was worm burdened (I’m pretty sure its roundworm) and can only assume it was from plants that were shipped (I did a quarantine on them but didn’t have any antiparasitic meds to treat them with. Found a few worms but thought I had eradicated everything prior to putting them in his tank. Guess I was wrong!)
He presented like this:
All I had on hand was fenbendazole (from work, I work in the veterinary industry) and had our exotics doctor calculate out his dose. 100mg per 10 gallons, while I waited for medicated food to arrive in the mail. All we had was powder so we calculated how many grams it would be based off the amount of fenbendazole percentage (half gram for close to 100mg, percentage is 12.2% fenbendazole.) I finely crushed the meds and reconstituted in betta water and shook violently, then let it sit for a few hours to help dissolve the meds.) The medicated food is metronidazole/praziquantel.
I read that treating with fenbendazole in the water was essentially useless but I had mixed reviews so I went ahead and tried it. Dosed two days, did a 50% water change and left him be for a day, then dosed again, waited another day then did a 50% change and turned on filtration. Let him sit for a few days. During his medicated treatment I used Stress Coat and almond leaf extract for the boost in tannins.
At the three day point with filtration I did another 25% change and noted that his eyes were cloudy and fins were clamped. Food arrived but he was refusing to eat it (soaked with garlic guard and still a big fat no from him) and our local pet store finally got General Cure back in stock so I stopped filtration and dosed with General Cure according to package directions (including recommended water changes.)
Filtration was turned back on but eye cloudiness remained, so I let him sit for three days and it appeared that pop eye might have been starting to I went ahead and started him on Doxycycline and also followed package directions. (Same company that makes General Cure.)
During that time I did salt baths to help with gut motility and to replace any electrolytes since he started refusing all forms of food. (Pellets, flakes, crumbles, blood worms, peas, etc.) I did one bath a day, 1.5 gallons of warm and treated water (I only use UV sterilized betta water, no tap water) with a 1/4th teaspoon of dissolved aquarium salt in a heated/aired tank with stress coat added in, only letting him soak for 10 minutes total. Let him acclimate to temp for 30 mins by floating on water surface and then added him in with his tank water. (Did the same thing when returning him to the main tank, just didn’t add in the salt water to main tank when switching him back.) I did this maybe 5 days in a row (could have been less, but not more. I’m losing count.)
I fear that he is currently afflicted with blood poising (he has what appears to be hemorrhaging on his abdomen.) He is listless, rubbing on the substrate/rocks and is not active at all (he was very active before getting sick, and very responsive to voices/movement outside the tank.) I am unsure where to go from here. He is still refusing food (we’re heading into week three) and I am at a loss as to where to go next. Is it possible that the round worms have died inside his body and he is unable to pass them, causing internal bacterial infection? (I know they’re worms, they went back in him when I would come to the tank and he would start swimming around.)
I’ve tried to reduce his stress during the back and forth with the salt baths and medications but it’s hard (he’s very sensitive) and hence why I let him sit for days in between treatments and did not do multiple treatments at once.
Am I overdoing and overthinking this? Should I just let him sit in his main tank or should I risk the stress and move him into his hospital tank? Should I treat again, but this time with erythromycin? I’m at a loss, my fish keeping friends, and don’t wanna give up on the little guy but I have clove oil on hand (if it gets to that point, I really don’t want it to.)
side note: He is able to swim, he does take a cruise around his tank a few times a day and does not appear to be sinking (I don’t think swim bladder is affected.) and comes up every morning for food, but eats it and spits it right back out. (I am taking out uneaten food after he refuses and swims back to his dock spot.)
(^Before he got sick, poor lil mans
, including his resin made mini tank I got for Christmas!)
