Very Very Sick Betta Fish -- What can I do???

[kate64]

I got a new betta female 2 weeks ago, she has hardly eaten since I got her, she has been having long stringy white poo, and is losing weight. When I first added her to the tank she ate a few times, but it has now been at least 5 days since I have seen her eat. I added API general cure in case it is parasites, 3 days ago to the tank and redosed last night per instructions, but she still seems to be getting worse. 3 days ago I tried separating this female into a breeder box (with a moss ball and hiding cave) in hopes that I could convince her to eat without the competition from other fish (4 guppies, 1 siamese algae eater, 2 endlers, 1 other betta, and some guppy fry) but she completely ignored all the food (I tried omega one flakes, pellets, soaked freeze dried shrimp and soaked freeze dried bloodworms). Everyone else in the tank is acting normal and not seemingly ill, so I'm not sure what is going on with her. On Sunday before water change tank was 0, 0, and 20 for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates respectively; pH was like 7.6 per liquid but strips always show it as acidic so idk which to believe. Tank wise, I change 25-35% of water weekly depending on nitrate levels, I dose aqueon "aquarium plant food" right after water changes, occasionally with a dose of seachem phosphorus (depending on green spot algae growth that week), and a 1/2 recommended dose of flourish excel every few days for the faster growing plants (though not since the last water change considering I'm medicating the tank and didn't want to add stress). As of this morning she looked markedly worse, and developed popeye, I moved her to a 5 gallon tank with a heater, erythromycin, nitrofurazone, and ball for hiding (which she isn't using). Currently she is sitting listless at the bottom of the tank. Does anyone have any idea what else I can do to help her? Is there another medication that I should try? Should I treat the 20g too? Attached is a pic of her yesterday.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Sounds like either a bacterial infection or parasites. @Colin_T knows more about this than me

 

[kate64]

Sounds like either a bacterial infection or parasites. @Colin_T knows more about this than me

Hey she actually passed away a few days ago. Her scales looked really bad, seemed to fall off in a few places, stomach got bloated, still don’t know what was wrong. I treated with antibiotics and anti parasitics to no avail but thank you for responding.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Hey she actually passed away a few days ago. Her scales looked really bad, seemed to fall off in a few places, stomach got bloated, still don’t know what was wrong. I treated with antibiotics and anti parasitics to no avail but thank you for responding.

Oh no! I'm sorry.

 

[FishGuest5123]

In the future, for Popeye, daily 75% water changes and 1 teaspoon of epsom to a gallon of dechlorinated water same temp as tank in mixing bowl size bowl. Allow fish to bathe in water for 2 minutes. Then place back in QT tank. You can do this twice/day. This will pull fluid out. Your profile doesn’t indicate where you live. I imagine if you’re using General Cure then you are in the U.S. If so, wait a couple of days and if no improvement, then I would begin antibiotic (there’s that word) treatment with Kanaplex and Furan-2. Don’t give up on the bettas. They’re wonderful fish!

 

[kate64]

In the future, for Popeye, daily 75% water changes and 1 teaspoon of epsom to a gallon of dechlorinated water same temp as tank in mixing bowl size bowl. Allow fish to bathe in water for 2 minutes. Then place back in QT tank. You can do this twice/day. This will pull fluid out. Your profile doesn’t indicate where you live. I imagine if you’re using General Cure then you are in the U.S. If so, wait a couple of days and if no improvement, then I would begin antibiotic (there’s that word) treatment with Kanaplex and Furan-2. Don’t give up on the bettas. They’re wonderful fish!

Thank you for the recommendation! Yes, I am in the U.S. This was my first time dealing with popeye - I have other Bettas though so I will definitely store this info incase it ever happens again. The disease progression was super weird - the only other fish I've had get sick with such a prolonged and severe disease was a male guppy who also passed away despite my best efforts; but that was many months ago. Both of them developed similar issues though, not eating, stringy feces, listless, and neither responded to any of the meds I used. Eventually, the scales and coloring looked horrible though the guppy came with a severe and progressive rot that accompanied his issues and the betta didn't seem to have rot but she developed the popeye and then her some of her scales seem to have sloughed off her belly which also appeared bloated in the last day. Both fish were sick almost immediately after buying them - I assumed they came sick (though from different stores at different times) and combine with the stress of moving just added insult to injury. I really hope I don't have the underlying cause (bacterial or otherwise) just living in my tank waiting to attack a weak fish... I do swap plants from tank to tank sometimes and use the same gravel vac... but every other fish in my tanks have been healthy. I'll keep a close eye on them just in case and order some Kanaplax and Furan-2 on amazon so I have it should any other future or current fish get sick like this. Thanks again, I really struggled with her - I saw her suffering for so long and felt absolutely terrible that nothing I did helped her. Hopefully it won't happen again, but at least I'll be more prepared if it does.

 

[Retired Viking]

Sorry to hear about your fish.