HELP Betta w/ transit Hole 'n Head???

Firey rosetail

Fiery Rosetail
Nov 5, 2009
16
0
0
Hi, I bought a betta from a US breeder. the fish took the whole 24 hours to get out of the bag, courtesy of the USPS Express.
He had a gray head to his gills, now insintctively I thought his face is gonna rot off. I cannot get pictures with my digital yet.

I need to compare notes. I treated with clean water and most of the gray OMG head cleared up, there are lesions and pitting behind his eyes. He has a gray scale mark in the center of his fish head joining to the body next to the gills.

He is losing color as a red pictured here, with pink irridescance to purple as a cambodian. I am upset, firstly, I asked for a mug shot from the breeder, and two he is showing spots through his solid fins that were described to me as pictured and just out of the bag he had initially the 100% red-cambo opaque. He was really beating his bag up with punt sounds as I was cutting the knots open. I did three sets of the 5-1 test dips for my gallon and his bag. I did see pink water...would that be amquel or the nitrates leeching his feathery fins?

I did three sets of water tests bag and my water all normal. and continue those. I have him quarentined until I see improvement as he has red mark, sores?? on his gill cheeks, that flap and keep his face from flaring for me as the face flare opens and the beard drops down. Nothing like that yet is happenng to show his enthusiasim or beard of good gill health.

Melafix for the possible HLLE, I did do 5 drops two night ago, 7 drops last night for the sores and to see if I would see reddening---His face reddened temporarily, the first night and the second stayed red very under skin red, not muich improve over the 'sores' at the cheeks.

So, today I started General Cure a pea size dose cures HNH (and other bacteral, fungus and anchor) with some Mysis tonight... which he ate some, what can I expect? how long should I do this? I have his five gallon ready tomorrow and want to leave the whisper cartridge out until he is done with meds. then again I am thinking the smalller tank is easier to monitor until he is better for the five g.

This red cambo HM colors go to brown, under which at the first change I suspected fin rot which HLLE Head and lateral line, I owuld like to blame that instead of a protozoa I cannot see. I do not blame the seller, they are not a pet store.

Does this sound like I have it right? I am flying bby the back of pacages and a pet store filp card. Most of all, the pitting I might be seeing ro the body redness doesnot look like the web pictures of HNH which is more commonly diagnosed in other types of fish. Am I confused? I will say that his appetite has picked up he was only eating 1-2 worms/ shirmp a day, not otuching hikari and the breeder said the fish was fed those. why isn;t he eating 'fresh' pellets? He did replace the food I could see through him after I gave him the Melafix, appetite picked up 2x more. I was also leaving him at 80 degrees anything colder looks sick in color.

I mean I never expected the drastic color variation in colder 70-74 room temps. So, how do red irridescant Bettas look in cold water-- a very brown thin veined look happened... I htought the water ws rotting his fins,killing him so fast it scared me! Could under reddness also body fungus, with sudden red streaks ??? I have white nonirridescant patches going on now cheecks.....etc and one strand as broken off at the dorsal. As he warms even at 78, I see brown anal/ dorsal adn some caudial changes patches of clear to brown and the bright red nearly disapears. Temp related only...? what of the veining,,again back of common packages shown Hemmorraigic sept as the same cheap illustration of the viens in the doral..I am dumb, please help. The fish is brand new and there is not another to replace him.

What about the melafix combination? I am sorry I can;t get a good pic at all yet, hoping the description helps anyway.

Thanks to all who have info, and suggestions!
 
Day 2 He finally opened his entire head instead of flapping his gills, when he saw me this morning! It wasn't the defnsive loose gill look, But I will take what I got as a positive and so I put his second dose in the water and not his BW. Can we post VIDEO clips?
 
Melafix for the possible HLLE, I did do 5 drops two night ago, 7 drops last night for the sores and to see if I would see reddening---His face reddened temporarily, the first night and the second stayed red very under skin red, not muich improve over the 'sores' at the cheeks.



What about the melafix combination? I am sorry I can;t get a good pic at all yet, hoping the description helps anyway.

Thanks to all who have info, and suggestions!

I heard that melafix/Bettafix is actually harmful to anabantoids such as Bettas. I would stop using it immediately.
 
I heard that melafix/Bettafix is actually harmful to anabantoids such as Bettas. I would stop using it immediately.

There isn't actually any evidence to support that. These products (which are both the same ingredient with a different amount of dilution) have been extensively tested on gouramies and Bettas. Bettafix is designed for use with Bettas.
 
Thank you. Actually, the dosage is rough on the Betta if you put it in and forget that you did that...and not do a WC...my next question is how much water change..100% right?

Ok next problem ist he cycling the tank which I don't understand throughly, about feeding the tank with bacteria. He is in a 1 gall 3/4 ful now.. I did a 50% water cahnge with aged water in the 5 gall fishless setup this morning.. Well I ran my 5-1 test strip this evening...normal results for that strip.

BUT I ran my first ammonia tests..YIKES! the 5 gal has been aged 1gal at a time at least four hours- it read .5 stress level. The 1 gal read 3.0 harmful and I did the partial 50% declor WC, obviously not 100% ...and I think I need to clean the bottom again)

What do I do? With his treatment of general cure, it stunk up the tank and I changed it after putting the cure ammount for 1g in the water. Which is most harmful? He has a bare tank 5g right now, and I just stuck a fresh 1gal replacement from this morning I took out. Problem is what is more harmful the fresh unseasoned water with start right 5 gal seems alot and I havenm't heated it.

Would the meds give me a false reading? Help!!!
 
The meds can give you a false reading. What declor are you using?

Melafix and Pimafix are perfectly safe with ALL fish. There is a rumor that surfaces occasionally saying they aren't safe with anabantoids and kuhli loaches but that is not true. I use these two products regularly on all sorts of fish with no ill effects. The active ingredient in the two products is different and they do different things. Melafix works as an antibiotic. Pimafix is an antifungal and antibioitic.
Mark
 
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