Scared I'm Losing My Betta

Reframer

Reframer

AC Members
Feb 22, 2009
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36
Minnesota
Hi guys,

Don't tell the others but my Betta is actually my favorite of all and he's going down hill fast so I would appreciate any help.
Somehow ich got in his tank and I started treating with salt on day 1, on day 2 he was covered with it so I did 60% wc and used jungle treatment for 2 days (victory green I think). On day 4 I did 60% wc and added a bit more of salt and melafix. Then he started hiding and looking worse even though the ich appeared gone. I found that some Betta have a bad reaction to melafix so I did a 70% wc.
Currently all he does now is hide and lay at the bottom breathing heavily. He hasn't eaten in 3 days, normally eats like a pig. I have tried betta pellets, fd bloodworms, and fd baby brine shrimp.
I added some extra, but light, aeration. I don't know whether to treat for ich again, in case the ich is causing gill trouble, or if this is all a reaction to the treatments.
 
Give him some time and leave him be..

A note regarding the treatment of ich, or any disease really, you have to give the meds time to work. What happened on day 2 was that if you turned the heat up on the tank, this sped the lifecycle of ich up, causing the fish to look worse. Ich can only be killed in the free swimming stage, so you have to wait til the cysts on the fish burst, theres nothing you can do about the spots on the fish but wait. The salt in itself would have cured the ich. Since you changed from salt to meds then added melafix, your beta is overwhelmed with all of the changes.

Personally I would add charcoal to the filter to remove any residual meds, the add salt at a level of 2 tsp per gallon over a 24 hour period, add it extremely slow so as to not stress the betta further. Leave this in for 14 days to make sure you have killed all of the ich in the tank. Aereation is not needed for bettas, they are labrynth fish. Feed it what you normally do, and overal, just try to stress it the least possible.

Good luck.
 
Ok, also forgot to mention that I orignally added the melafix because he seems to have some fin rot from the ich I guess. Do you think the salt will be enough to heal this?
 
i say do a 100% wc then put in parsite clear tank buddy and just leave the fish alone for awhile
 
Salt and clean water will take care of the fin rott, if thats what it is.. either way, clean water and salt will fix you up.
 
sleepyskater said:
A 100% water change would get rid of ALL the bacteria :)
90% water change sounds better :D
Click to expand...

Actually, it would nto get rid of any of the bacteria :). Your bacteria, aka biological filter, is stuck to the sides of the tank, in the gravel, deco in the tank, and mainly inside of the filter. It takes major scrubbing to dislodge it. I still wouldnt advise this becasue we dont know what the reg maintenance schedule is that leaves the risk open for old tank syndrome..
 
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