Betta with velvet

I went on a field trip with my son and his class today...while there I had a conversation with one of the teachers. I'm known by some of them for my "fish keeping" hobby..so one of them startes telling me about a betta she has that doesn't seem to be doing very well. She wants to know how I keep mine so well...when all her's don't seem to last long.

Well, I ended up stopping by her class at the end of the day to check out the little guy and he did look pretty sad. Fins all clamped and hanging on the bottom...so I offered to take him home and doctor him up..see if I could clear up the problem for her.

Got him home and took a good look at him.....he's covered in velvet ! I have never had this problem with any of my fish...I have delt with ich, but not this. I looked up some info on how to treat for it so now it's just wait and see if it works. I'm using an ich med, since I happen to have some handy...to late to run out and get anything else. I have also added extra salt to his water and will add some more tomorrow to slowly increase the salinity. Hope I don't over burden him with the treatments...just have to wait and see.

I have also completely rinsed his gravel and filled the 2 gallon tank up with clean water and severly overdosed it with ich medication...(no the fish isn't in it, I have him in a smaller cup for now). I put a 10 gallon dose in the tank just to be sure I get rid of it. It was old gravel in that tank and I think she just put water in it and then the fish...that gravel must have been full of velvet and every fish she put in it would die.

I guess I'm not really asking anything...just sort of sharing this with anyone who might be interested in reading about it...but any advice or suggestions will be appreciated and considered...if you think I missed something or did anything amiss...since I have never delt with velvet before.

Well, the heat may be a problem as right now I only have him in an lfs cup..poor fella. I do NOT want to float him in any of my tanks !! Don't want even the slightest chance of any of that spreading to my fish !

Any ideas on keeping him warm....and also in the dark? I"m not asking alot am I ??...lol....??

Thanks for the tips Aknif I can certainly do the blackouts and the salt without a problem...do you think that will work minus the added heat ?

Well...the water was certainly nasty...smelled very bad... ...lots of weird floaty things in there....nasty nasty....

As far as teaching proper fish care...lol...well, there is an opportunity in the spring when they do "enrichment clusters". Parents with specific interests do little shops with a group of kids in whatever hobby or interest they're invovled in. I had been considering doing something with this but haven't figured out what sort of thing to do as a project that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. I would have to buy all the supplies, enough for about 10 or so kids. I suppose I could start collecting large jars for "tanks" but I really don't want to encourage kids to keep fish in small containers...lol...and most would probably loose interest pretty quickly and the fish will become just one more thing mom has to take care of. I'm a mom myself and can't bring myself to do that to someone else...lol..

I don't get angry with folks for thier ignorance. This teacher just doesn't know how to care for a tank properly. I had been working with her on her 10 gallon during the last school season and she has that one going rather well at this time, though the fish she has in it will outgrow that tank for sure....lol....four typical, pretty little pond goldfish...I did give her that bit of info. I'll see what happens when they reach the "gotta go" size...lol.

I will never just march in and start telling anyone about everything they're doing wrong with thier tanks...but I will look for opportunities to help out when I can. Like at this time I can explain to her about velvet and water conditions and do it in a way that is helpful instead of critical. I can also introduce her to a gravel vac. I think she just scoops the water out with a pitcher when she does water changes...but at least she does them...

I work at the school and often check out the tanks in the different classrooms and offer helpful advice when I can. I find most folks just don't know and don't realize there's more to keeping fish than just filling up a container with water and putting some in....unless it's a particular hobby of theirs. My first attempts at keeping fish were dismal failures because I didn't know about chlorine issues...lol...I was one of the "put fish in water and watch them swim" crowd myself...so I totally understand !

But anyway....in my world...people are more important than fish and I consider them first anytime I am in a position where I can offer help and advice in fish care....and I'm ALWAYS looking for those opportunities !