betta swollen and lethargic

[hazee]

One of my girl bettas is all swollen and lying on the bottom of the tank. I think her eyes maybe swollen too. All parameters are normal. I think the penguin tetras might have given her whatever they had because i've had her for more than 6mos and she's been really healthy.

Is there anything i can try to make her better?

Is there any type of medication you keep on hand just in case your fish get sick? Would you recommend having anything in particular cause i feel really useless not having anything to help my fish with. I'd feel a lot better if i could stock up on typical fish medicine even though i'm getting the feeling not much works with fish.

Oh one other thing i've been wondering. I feel like i should quarantine any new fish so they don't potentially kill off the fish i've had for a long time. Do any of you do this? If you do doesn't it stress the new fish even more to be moved twice? Also if you do quarantine them how long do you do that for?

 

[chichian]

I'm not sure what exactly is wrong w/your betta. How are your water parameters? You might wanna take a look at this http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm, I just found it today. From that page, potentially it is a bacterial infection (it mentions inactivity and bulging eyes)--but from there I'm not sure and if it is bacterial, not sure if it's gram+ or gram-. But you may want to inspect that chart and see if that helps you diagnose it, after perhaps a water change.

Is there any type of medication you keep on hand just in case your fish get sick? Would you recommend having anything in particular cause i feel really useless not having anything to help my fish with. I'd feel a lot better if i could stock up on typical fish medicine even though i'm getting the feeling not much works with fish.

I haven't stocked up a medicine cabinet yet. I have some leftover ich med from when my Rummy Nose tetras had ich, but I was thinking about doing this too. Perhaps some Maracyn and Maracyn II (one treats gram+ bacterial infections, one treats gram-), and some parasite med just in case.

Oh one other thing i've been wondering. I feel like i should quarantine any new fish so they don't potentially kill off the fish i've had for a long time. Do any of you do this? If you do doesn't it stress the new fish even more to be moved twice?

Yes, definitely if you want to play it safe. That's how I came to treat an entire 84 gallons for ich (not quarantining). I'm in the process of setting up a 10-gallon quarantine tank myself. I've never done it before for the reason you mentioned--moving fish always stresses them out unless they're apathetic weirdos, but now I know it's better to do that then to have more fish afflicted or to have to treat an entire tank (it gets expensive too if your tank is large).

Also if you do quarantine them how long do you do that for?

I'm not sure personally. I was going to do 2 weeks, but I'm not sure what's good. Hopefully someone else has an idea of this (I would like to know too ).

 

[hazee]

moving fish always stresses them out unless they're apathetic weirdos,

LOL

Thank you Chichian. That was awesome and very helpful.

 

[chichian]

No problem. Good luck with your betta .

 

[hazee]

I lost the sick girl betta...

I'm going to make sure i have a quarantine tank all ready to go before i buy any more fish and i'm going to spend money on some fish medicine just in case before i spend money on anything else.

I'm lucky i didn't lose all my original fish.