Sick Betta

[bri moar]

Hi everyone!

I’ve had my betta fish for just over a year and he hasn’t been doing great for the past week so I’m reaching out because I’m not sure what to do at this point.

Over the summer I noticed his fins started getting tattered and he had black bits on the ends, meaning he definitely had fin rot, so I started doing 50% water changes every week and putting Seachem Stress Guard. The black bits went away and his fins look a little better now but they are still very tattered so I’m not sure if he still has fin rot and that’s the first problem with my betta.

My second problem started two weeks ago when I left him with my mom because I went on vacation. When I came home he couldn’t swim to the top of the tank and his spine was crooked, which is a sign of swim bladder. I ended up switching him to a small hospital tank with a suction leaf on the side so it was easier for him to swim to the top to get air, and then I fasted him for three days and gave him a bit of frozen pea. He still wasn’t better so I repeated the process and it still did nothing. I’m also doing 100% water changes every couple of days because I read somewhere that I should but I also know that this can stress the fish out.

Just in case my post isn’t very clear, I’ll give a brief overview of what I’m currently doing to deal with this:
- 1 gallon hospital tank
- 100% water changes every few days, using Seachem Prime to dechlorinate the water (I did this today)
- Still using a little bit of Seachem Stress Guard because I’m not sure if the fin rot is gone
- Just finished a three day fast, fed him a frozen pea two days ago, gave him a single aqueon pellet yesterday and today
- Water is heated to a proper temperature

I’m hoping that someone can give me some advice on this and I’m truly sorry if this post is confusing, I’ve never posted to a fish forum and I was hesitant to make this post but I don’t know what to do anymore.

Thank you so much for the help and feel free to ask anything I didn’t cover in my post.

 

[Colin_T]

How many Bettas do you have, 1 or 2?
Can you post pictures of the sick fish?

Don't do a 100% water change every couple of days, just do a 75% water change each day for a couple of weeks. That way you don't handle the fish and it can stay in the water while you drain and refill the tank. After the fish has recovered, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once or twice a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

 

[bri moar]

Thanks so much for the reply! I have one betta and I’ll post a picture below. I’ll also definitely give the article a read.

How many Bettas do you have, 1 or 2?
Can you post pictures of the sick fish?

Don't do a 100% water change every couple of days, just do a 75% water change each day for a couple of weeks. That way you don't handle the fish and it can stay in the water while you drain and refill the tank. After the fish has recovered, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once or twice a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

 

[JuiceBox52]

What are your water parameters?

Question: you said you began doing 50% changes every week when you noticed him going downhill, what was your cleaning schedule before? Most members here do at least a 50% change weekly anyway as it is the healthiest for the fish long term

 

[bri moar]

I currently don’t have anything to test the water parameters right now, but the temperature is around 78 degrees. Before he got sick I was doing around 75%-50% every two to three weeks, which could have been the cause of this all.

What are your water parameters?

Question: you said you began doing 50% changes every week when you noticed him going downhill, what was your cleaning schedule before? Most members here do at least a 50% change weekly anyway as it is the healthiest for the fish long term

 

[JuiceBox52]

I would strongly suggest investing in an API master test kit.
The water change schedule could be the cause, poor water quality is usually the cause of these things. Dont sweat it though, we pretty much all started out making mistakes and we learned from them, that's what the forum is for.

 

[bri moar]

I would strongly suggest investing in an API master test kit.
The water change schedule could be the cause, poor water quality is usually the cause of these things. Dont sweat it though, we pretty much all started out making mistakes and we learned from them, that's what the forum is for.

Thank you so much! Should I start feeding him again or continue fasting him for a few days and then feeding him?

 

[JuiceBox52]

How long have you fasted him as of now?

 

[bri moar]

How long have you fasted him as of now?

I started a three day fast on the 16th, fed him some pea on the 19th, fasted again for three days and fed him some more pea the next day and then I gave him two aqueon pellets yesterday and today.

 

[JuiceBox52]

It's really up to you. He is not bloated so dont worry about the peas, the reason for fasting now is to reduce waste in the water

 

[bri moar]

It's really up to you. He is not bloated so dont worry about the peas, the reason for fasting now is to reduce waste in the water

He still isn't able to swim properly, so just to clarify, this is because of the water quality and not overfeeding?

 

[JuiceBox52]

I doubt it's from overfeeding. It wouldn't be directly from water quality but a disease probably caused by it. I cant say what that disease would be, maybe another member can pin it down

 

[Colin_T]

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge and do a huge water change and complete gravel clean on his normal tank, then move him back into it.

Start feeding him normally and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for 2 weeks, on his normal tank.

Clean the filter on his normal tank. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Add some salt. Use 2 heaped tablespoons of salt for every 20 litres of aquarium water. Keep the salt in the tank for 2 weeks then stop using it. When you do water changes, add salt to the bucket of water before adding it to the tank.