Female Bettas- Unknown Disease, Please Help Me :(

  • Get the NEW AquariaCentral iOS app --> http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1227181058 // Android version will be out soon!

halfmoonplakat

AC Members
Nov 7, 2009
654
1
16
Well my two female betta fish are not doing so well. Just yesterday the white spots were on my melano/blue female's tail. Now half of the tail is gone and all that is left is a white cottony-looking stub. Will it begin to attack her body? The yellow female's afflicted area on her anal fin is gone, as is the area of the fin affected. There is a white fungusy-looking stub at the base of the fin as well.
I have my mind made up between columnaris and fin rot...:confused: I think
Please reply, all suggestions are welcome, and will be appreciated. I'd hate to lose these two. And I am absolutely desperate. I will do ANYTHING. :help:
I have them on Bettafix right now. Should I add table salts/anything?
Thank you
I posted pictures & a description and some other info in another thread:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2228105#post2228105
The title did not garner much attention or responses so I am praying that this will help.
Please reply, anybody...

I took some more pictures today. But my uploading is not working out.
There is a white stub at the top of the melano/blue fish's caudal (tail fin). And there are also areas in the yellow fish's anal fin that have been eaten away. Lastly, the yellow one's ventral seems to be reddish, while the other one stays yellow-clear. It is also getting VERY fungusy in the tank water, it looks like some dissolving cotton or something is trailing behind my fish instead of a ventral fin.
I would be so gratified if anybody responds!
Thank you SO MUCH
 

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
5,354
2
62
Deadmonton, lol, Canada
Real Name
Sherry N.
please tell us the size of tank, what you have on there for filtration, what your water change/filter maintenance schedule is, what your water parameters are (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). also please tell us the ph.

i wouldn't use BettaFix, it's merely a watered down version of Melafix, which is not supposed to be used for labyrinth fish, which a betta is. the oils in the bettafix/melafix have been said to coat the labyrinth organ and cause it to not function properly. a betta needs its labyrinth organ to survive.

i'd do a huge water change (at least 75%) to get the meds out of the water. make sure the new water going in has been treated with dechlorinator and is temperature matched to the tank water. what temp do you have your tank at? if it is over 78 at the moment i would lower it slowly to about 75/76. it sounds like you are dealing with a bacterial problem and lowering the temp is a good idea. lower it over the course of about half a day or more, so that you don't shock the fish.

don't use salt right now, as the fins that have turned into stubs could have open areas that salt will aggrevate further.

i'd go a few days with daily large water changes of at least 60%, making sure you are vacuuming the gravel well and getting all the free floating fungus/gunk out of the water as well.

with the cottony reference it doesn't sound like fin rot to me, sounds like a fungal infection, but the pics in your other thread sure look like fin rot. i don't have much experience with fungus, thank jeebus (knock on wood!) but have had great success using a product called Betta Revive. i believe it is by Hikari. it is a cocktail of methylyne blue, malachite green, and some other meds i can't remember. i used this exclusively for fin rot issues on my 7 bettas back in the day, had nearly full fin regrowth, it didn't stress the fish at all, and made my silicone on the tank such a pretty blue after..... lol. but a few blue seams is a small price to pay for a healthy and happy betta.

like i said, go a few days with no meds and daily water changes, see if there is any improvement, and if not, go get some Betta Revive. note, with the Revive you do need to do daily 100% water changes if the bettas are in unfiltered containers.
 

halfmoonplakat

AC Members
Nov 7, 2009
654
1
16
please tell us the size of tank, what you have on there for filtration, what your water change/filter maintenance schedule is, what your water parameters are (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). also please tell us the ph.

i wouldn't use BettaFix, it's merely a watered down version of Melafix, which is not supposed to be used for labyrinth fish, which a betta is. the oils in the bettafix/melafix have been said to coat the labyrinth organ and cause it to not function properly. a betta needs its labyrinth organ to survive.

i'd do a huge water change (at least 75%) to get the meds out of the water. make sure the new water going in has been treated with dechlorinator and is temperature matched to the tank water. what temp do you have your tank at? if it is over 78 at the moment i would lower it slowly to about 75/76. it sounds like you are dealing with a bacterial problem and lowering the temp is a good idea. lower it over the course of about half a day or more, so that you don't shock the fish.

don't use salt right now, as the fins that have turned into stubs could have open areas that salt will aggrevate further.

i'd go a few days with daily large water changes of at least 60%, making sure you are vacuuming the gravel well and getting all the free floating fungus/gunk out of the water as well.

with the cottony reference it doesn't sound like fin rot to me, sounds like a fungal infection, but the pics in your other thread sure look like fin rot. i don't have much experience with fungus, thank jeebus (knock on wood!) but have had great success using a product called Betta Revive. i believe it is by Hikari. it is a cocktail of methylyne blue, malachite green, and some other meds i can't remember. i used this exclusively for fin rot issues on my 7 bettas back in the day, had nearly full fin regrowth, it didn't stress the fish at all, and made my silicone on the tank such a pretty blue after..... lol. but a few blue seams is a small price to pay for a healthy and happy betta.

like i said, go a few days with no meds and daily water changes, see if there is any improvement, and if not, go get some Betta Revive. note, with the Revive you do need to do daily 100% water changes if the bettas are in unfiltered containers.
They are both in 2.5gallon tanks, they both have sponge filters, I do 90% water changes once a week, ammonia=0.0, nitrate=0.0, nitrite=4ppm. pH=7.2. The water is dechlorinated and conditioned + treated. Because they are in QT tanks (I got them 5 days ago now, they are bare-bottomed). I gave them a 90%+ water change yesterday, and one today.
Thanks for the suggestions! Is Betta Revive very hard to get? I will do a huge water change right now and I will begin lowering the temp.
Thanks for everything
 

mel_20_20

AC Members
Sep 1, 2008
3,300
1
38
Deep in the heart of texas
Can you get any more photos? I think it is probably finrot, and possibly Columnaris, though I don't see more of the classic signs.

I agree with big water changes, temperature matched water, I like Prime to condition because it can help detoxify traces of ammonia and/or nitrites that may be in the water, in between water changes.

I saved your photos to my desktop and then opened in paint, circled some areas I wanted to ask about, and for some reason I can't get them back on here. Said "File Invalid" so I don't know why.

Anyway, it looked like I could see something that was sort of filmy and cloud-like on the caudal fin of one of them, is that what I'm seeing or was that something else in the tank.

I would guess that this is finrot and possibly Columnaris.

Do the big water change, as BFM recommended, and check them out early in the morning. Do another water change.

Pristine water will help, if nothing else it helps their own immune systems fight this.

You said they are all in separate tanks... where they together at the lfs when you bought them?

Please try to get more pics. I'm so sorry your girls are sick.

EDIT: I just noticed you say your nitrITE is 4ppm. Is that correct, because if it is then you have got to keep doing water changes until you get nitrite down to 0ppm.
 

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
5,354
2
62
Deadmonton, lol, Canada
Real Name
Sherry N.
whoa, hang on here, your nitrItes are at 4ppm??? you don't have 'trItes and 'trAtes confused now, do you? if your nitrItes are higher than zero then your fish are being poisoned.

where i live Betta Revive is sold in most larger stores, like Petsmart, etc. shouldn't be too hard for you to find it. comes in a little package shaped like a fish and is a dark blue liquid. if i recall correctly, when i was treating a 2 gallon bowl (i've learned now, bowls are for soup!) i used about 12 drops. perhaps you might want to try 16 drops in a 2.5 gallon. warning, it will stain all softer materials blue! so if you have suction cups, silicone anything, light coloured plastic plants..... they will be smurfed, lol.

i'd treat with the Betta Revive until you start to see improvement, then stop treatment and continue doing daily water changes of at least 60% to keep the environment as clean as possible and keep pathogens at bay.

good luck, and keep us updated!
 

mel_20_20

AC Members
Sep 1, 2008
3,300
1
38
Deep in the heart of texas
In a 2.5 gallon tank I would do water changes every other day if they were healthy.
With an illness you definitely need to do daily, if not several times a day to keep ammonia at 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate 20 or so.

If you have no ammonia, no nitrate, and 4ppm of nitrite then your tank is not cycled yet. Water quality problems are probably the cause of this, which is most likely fin rot.

Do you see any red splotches under the skin, red streaks -fine lines of red on the body or in the fins? They may be developing septicemia.

Lets see if pristine water helps them. If I were you I'd do another big change in the morning, test to make sure the params are ammonia and nitrite 0ppm, and if they look like things have not worsend, or hopefully they appear better, then you could hold off on starting antibiotc meds.

The fish with healthy immune systems can fight off a lot of minor bacterial infections, and hopefully that may be the case here.

I would, however, go ahead and go to a pet store and get some anitbiotic to have on hand should you need to start treatmen. I've had good success with Maracyn and Maracyn II. If at all possible I would get Oxytetracycline to have on hand.


Oxytet-MS
Oxytet-MS is an effective treatment for a wide variety of gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial diseases including Hemorrhagic Septicemia, Mouth Fungus, Fin and Tail Rot, Gill Disease and Dropsy. Freshwater use only.
Oxytet-MS will not adversely affect your biological filter bed and can be easily removed through carbon filtration.
Active Ingredient: 100% Oxytetracycline




Another good med combo is Furan 2 and Kanaplex (kanamycin).

If this looks like a bacterial infection and they are not showing signs of improvement by early afternoon we might want to consider starting treatment.
 

mel_20_20

AC Members
Sep 1, 2008
3,300
1
38
Deep in the heart of texas
I think the Betta Revive is a good idea. Go with that and see if you see signs of improvement, you can hold off the big guns to see if that will help. I would go ahead and stock your fish medicine cabinet, though.

Something mild is always a good idea and BFM has had success with Betta Revive. I think the biggest thing, though, will be keeping their water absolutely pristine, perfect parameters, temperature steady; no fluctuations.
 

halfmoonplakat

AC Members
Nov 7, 2009
654
1
16
Hi everybody,
Thank you for all the responses. I forgot to put this down, but yesterday I just thought that it was abnormal colouring. I will post pictures at 5:30-ish tonight (Ontario-time) (?), there is a reddish, scale-less patch of skin near the affected white caudal-stub,covering the left side of the melano/blue fish's swim bladder area. I think it is the disease eating away at her scales.
 

halfmoonplakat

AC Members
Nov 7, 2009
654
1
16
Well I tried looking for everything. I could only find Maracyns I and II surprisingly. I put them to use in my two fish tanks and took some more pictures.
P.S. You are correct, I mixed up nitrites with nitrates...Whoops!
Here are the pictures from yesterday:

Y1.JPG y2.JPG y3.JPG
 

halfmoonplakat

AC Members
Nov 7, 2009
654
1
16
Sorry the pics are blurry but hopefully you can see the white-bump in Pic1 at the top of the base of the caudal fin. And how there is a chunk missing.
Here are today's pictures: (I found out how to use the macro feature + do lighting a BIT better, LOL :D)

t1.JPG t2.JPG t3.JPG t4.JPG t5.JPG t6.JPG
 
Last edited:
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store