BETTA IN TROUBLE

[fwishee]

My betta looks really sick. He's lying on the bottom of his tank, on the gravel. His body is still, on his side, and his gills are taking in big gulps of air.

He's seemed in good health since i got him about a month or two ago. Apart from his tail fins were shorter than they should have been, but i put that down to wear and tear. I'm sad to see him like this, have a feeling he could be dead by the morning.

Does anyone know what could be up with him?

Any ideas what i could do???

~jen

 

[fwishee]

Please somebody help.... should i float him up to the surface in a net so he can breathe air at the top?

 

[Biorium]

This might help :

http://www.practical-pet-care.com/betta_question.php?ID=3.2004101221402595

 

[fwishee]

Thanks for the article, Bio. He was dead this morning when I checked though It was dropsy... his scales were all sticking out and he was bloated and had lost his colour. Poor wee guy. I think he had a hard time with a food pellet that i gave him, which could have triggered it, but by the time I saw him there was no saving him really. Thank you again for the article, it has some good advice, i'll keep it.

~Jen

 

[mcshell]

sorry to hear that.
it's always difficult to see a betta gone.
i had one died of dropsy while ago... it was a tough feeling.

at least the little fellow had someone cared about him in his last days.

 

[Biorium]

I'm really sorry.

 

[Lotus]

Sorry to hear that

 

[Firebug]

sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[accordztech]

sorrie to hear that man.

but i doubt it was the pellet you gave him...highly doubt that.

 

[fwishee]

Thanks everyone.

accord, what makes me think it was the pellet is that he had trouble passing it, he just gulped it down in one and when i found him it was still kind of sticking to him

 

[cheovanna]

I have 4 bettas, i got them from walmart cause i felt really bad for them. I also bought a 10 gallon tank and made seperate slots for each fish..here's the problem my oldest fish (about a year) didn't really take too well to being switched from it's bowl to the tank. It just sank to the bottom and stayed there only coming up for air and not eating. I took him out and put him back in his old bowl, and now he's just staying at the bottom of the bowl.. I don't know what could be wrong. I'm thinking it's just old age.

 

[cheovanna]

oh and also... one of my fish just floats at the top of the tank at the corner and stays there forever is that bad??



sorry for all the dumb questions..

 

[ashleigh]

sorry fwishee- I really don't think it was anything you did though.
Cheovanna- could you tell us a bit more about the set up? do you have a heater, how long has it been running, how often you do water changes, that sort of thing? It sounds like old age is a possibility, but it's always best to have more information.

 

[cheovanna]

yeah it has a heater and it's been running for about a week. I changed the water today since i've had it only for about a week.. I didn't change all of it cause it has a filter system as well.

 

[ashleigh]

you should never change all of it actually, about 20% weekly is fine. I'm not positive if this is what is going on or not- but the problem may be that your tank hasn't cycled. Ordinarily a betta is hardy enough to handle a cycle but coming from the crappy conditions you rescued them from they may not be. Or, it could have nothing to do with a cycle at all they may just be in bad health from the store. Just in case, I woudl do little 10% water changes for now- do you have any test kits by chance? Aside from that, other than lethargy, are there any physical signs of trouble that you can see?

 

[cheovanna]

I can't see anything that would be wrong.. one of the fish i got from walmart did have velvet though, but i made sure to keep all the fish away from eachother... I've had franka for almost a year now and this is the only time he's been acting like this. The fish i got recently from walmart, are better now too.. but now franka seems sick.

 

[ashleigh]

so tell me if I have this right, okay? You had Franka first, then added three new fish to the same environment. So franka could plausibly be two or three, which is getting up there, but not ancient. I feel like the I am so bad at answering these questions without being able to see the fish. I guess I will say this- because he has beein in contact with other fish, he could have picked something up. watch for signs of parasites like light poo (sorry gross) dashing against rocks, that sort of thing. but you're right, he could be getting old too.

 

[cheovanna]

all right.. thanks so much. what should i do if anything like that does happen?

 

[ashleigh]

I woudl say keep up with water changes for now and maybe go ahead and treat for internal parasites. you can buy a prepared medicine, or if you are leery of that I woudl try soaking his food (something yummy for him like a few frozen bloodworms) with fresh minced garlic for about an hour before you feed him. Did you say what you have been feeding already and I missed it?