Help!! Sick Betta

[kc0577]

Help Please someone....My poor Betta has been sick for 3 weeks and seems to be getting worse. I Have him in a filtered 1 G tank that I change 2X per week (Ix whole tank cleaned and 1X 50% change) and I check levels daily b/c he is in a small tank. It started as tail/fin rot and it has steadily becoming worse. He now has a sore on the top of his head (which I think was caused by him touching the heater) and also has som film on him. I have been treating him with salt and Melafix and it doesn't seem to be working. I am planning on getting a bigger tank tomorrow for him as to cut down on the "trauma" of constantly changing water. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Also, He doesn't seem to be eating normally anymore...

 

[Lakea]

from what I heard melafix and pimafix are very bad for bettas, it can make the situation worse. You should find a different kind of antibotic, maraycn or bettafix might be good choices.

 

[kc0577]

Here are links to photos of my poor baby... I have purchased him a 5G tank today and changed meds to Quick Cure that was recommended by someone else...I will give it a few days and see how he reacts.
This is how Betta looks NORMALLY...he is beautiful on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Our POOR sick Betta....He started getting fin/tail rot 3 weeks ago and nothing I am treating him with is working...I hope he lives on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The first link is s photo of him healthy and the second of him sick....

If the quick cure doesn't work I will try one of the two listed above.... any other suggestions please let me know

 

[Lakea]

I have no experience with quick cure but I have had it highly recommended to me before. Just make sure with whatever you give him there is no tea tree oil in it, that is bad for bettas. How old is your betta? He looks to be more than a year old. Either way, I think he will do fine with the new treatment, let us know how it goes.

 

[tom91970]

I have had success using Maraycyn before to treat fin rot on an angelfish, so you might want to give that a try.

As for Melafix I found out the hard way not to administer it to bettas---it will kill them.

 

[kc0577]

Thanks for all the input...I have been treating him with Quick Cure for 3 days and he is starting to swim around a lot more...still not eating much...but as long as I keep seeing improvement that's all I care about...Unfortunatley, though we lost a fish..he was one of our Platies..."Spike" No sickness, it must've been his time to go...was sad, but gald he wasn't sick and suffering...he was actually fine that mornign when we fed them...oh well, he is now in fishy heaven...I know I sound corney, but I am really an animal lover LOL

 

[Orion]

Sorry not to be off topic here, but I had never heard that tea tree oil (essentially what melafix is) will kill a beta. What's up with the beta's system that doesn't jive with the stuff? Interesting none the less.

I could swear that sometime in the past I've used melafix in a beta tank and it helped with a wound, but didn't seem to bother the fish at the time.

 

[Lakea]

I dunno, the whole tea tree oil thing confuses me. Apparently people have claimed bettas have been killed when using Melafix. But I just found out bettafix and melafix are made from the same thing, bettafix is more diluted. So if you use melafix on bettas you should cut down the dosage. I have used both melafix and pimafix on my betta without problem. I cannot find anything on the internet to support that tea tree oil is bad for bettas, all I have is people telling me it is bad. I have found a lot of websites suggesting to use tea tree oil on bettas too! *shrugs*

 

[Orion]

hmm, interesting none the less.