WHY O WHY

[Rodders]

Ok this happend to my last betta

Is what happend, I put some cardianls in and the next day this happend.
He died very fast. All otherr fish were fine except most the cardianls died except three.
So, a few weeks have past and yesturday i went to one of the LFS.
I bought, 6 cardinals, 2 swordfish and one betta all from the same shop.
All were fine in the shop.
Now i just looked and my new betta has exactly the same thing, but no dead cardinals and nothing else dead!!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. WHY ONLY THE BETTAS?
I've added meds fast, so hopefully I can save this one.

 

[endilliteracy]

The cardinals are probably eating your betta's fins. I suggest isolating the betta and treat him there, or get rid of the cardinals.

 

[SRC]

Get him out and put him in some water treated with salt right away...1 tsp aquarium salt to 1 gal water.

They are eating his fins

 

[Sorrell]

I think it's the gouramis Definately get him out and give him some salt and see if you can get some colloidal silver from a health food store and put a few drops in his water. Keep the new container super clean, daily water changes are a must to prevent secondary infections. Try and keep him eating and cover the container to keep all his attention on healing himself. Sorry this happened, but you should be able to bring him back

 

[jimbo1177]

Gouramis are very aggressive fish, we had some in my family's tank and they would attack the other fish and chew at the fins of the angelfish. Could be the same thing. They don't seem to mix well with fish that have elaborate fins.

 

[Rodders]

Its not any of the other fish.
Its an infection, its got to be.
Reason i say this is because my first one was in the tank with gouramis for a few months and no probs. Then these cardinals went in and it happend, but it started as a spot on him, nothing else, it grew larger and spread to his fins. Cant have been because of nipping.
No other fish affected.
Anyway, the same has happend to my second one. No other effected. Its not others bitting him.
Poor little chap just passed away. It effected this one much faster than my old one, nothing i tried in his last few hours worked
Gonna take him back to LFS for an analysis.

 

[Texaswoman]

I think he might be getting nipped, but that doesn't look like what killed him from the picture. Was the back half of his body discolored before? I would say some type of bacterial infection. I would use Maracyn 2 to treat, and for the fins, salt or some Maroxy. Keep us updated, and tell us about the color, and what is the color doing on your new betta?

 

[SRC]

If it happened after you put the Cardinals in ..then the cardinals are what nipped at his fins. They don't nip at anything else because nothing else has fins like a betta that attract their attention.

The stress of being chased and nipped is enough to lower the betta's immune system...to allow a bacterial infection to take over..and possibly fungus. Once that happens it's spreads like wildfire**..and when I say wildfire I mean like within hours sometimes.

You can look at the spines and tell something ate on them, as the fins have been literally stripped off. Otherwise the spines themselves would have been deteriorated as well.

**this fish was fine when I left work one evening...the next morning this is what he looked like (I was gone approx 12 hours).

I didn't get his water temp right when I did ia water change, and it was enough to stress him out...lowered his immune system..and BAM he died the next day with this bacterial infection/fin rot. You can see how the spines and fins both have deteriorated/turned black...not just the fins went away and left clean spines. Once that type infection reaches the body..it's over with. And with all you fins eaten off...well that doesn't take long to happen .

 

[Rodders]

How comes it started with a spot on his body with no signs of fin nipping at all.