HELP! SICK BETTA!!!

LaRues Lady

LaRues Lady

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Aug 8, 2007
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I went to check on my Betta a few minutes ago and he's not looking too good at all. He's been acting fine, swimming fine, and eating (relatively) fine until just a few minutes ago. Over the last few weeks it seems as though his eye sight has been going away and he's been having a little trouble finding his food, but eventually he gets it. I noticed yesterday that his eyes looked a little swollen, but I didn't get too concerned. It definitely wasn't pop-eye and I had just planned on keeping an "eye" on them!

Anyway, I went in to feed him a few minutes ago and he was floating on his side. It appears that he is unable to swim; he still wiggles his whole body around, but it's as if his fins don't work. He had floated over to the filter current and it was pushing him to the other side of the tank. He eventually swam into the wall. I don't know if he was doing this on purpose or if he just couldn't swim. He was able to eat one of his pieces of food, but it swam right in front of his face and he was able to just "suck" it up. His eyes are a little swollen still, but there really hasn't been any change. I was wondering if anyone might know what might be wrong with him. I have a couple of ideas (naturally the worst is floating around in my head), but I was wondering if anyone might know what could be wrong and if it's treatable. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! I'll be around here for a little while if anyone has any questions, but the tank is downstairs, so I will be running back and forth to check on Magellan (my Betta) and this thread. Thanks in advance for any help you could give me!

By the way, I've had him for a little over 14 months now, so I'm guesstimating him to be about 19 months old (I know Bettas only live to be about 24 months old...). He's alone in a 10 gallon filtered, heated tank with lots of plants and "hiding places."

Thanks again!
 
Actually Bettas live 3-5 years.
If he's floating on his side it might be too late; could be anything from constipation to a swim bladder infection.
You could try Melafix and Pimafix in the tank but this usually only works when symptoms are not severe.
 
His stomach does appear to be a little bit distended, so I was wondering if he might be constipated also at first. I fast him one day a week (Saturdays), so I had considered fasting him again today to see if he "went." I tried to feed him because I wanted to see if he perked up a little bit with food, but it didn't really seem to do anything for him.
 
I read somewhere that the world record betta is 10 years old, living in a lab in pristine water conditions getting special food and daily exercise, but it's not unheard of for them to live 3-5 years when kept in ideal conditions so unless your guy was old from the shop, he's not too old to have a couple more good years in him. Can you give us more information such as water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, temp?), your water change schedule, tank size and filtration? Has anything been added to his tank recently (some decorations can leach toxic paint)? Have you been using a dechlorinator during water changes? What about any other chemical/medication additions? Or new tank mates? Sorry for the barrage...the more info, the easier it is to make relevent suggestions. Good luck! If it's constipation, you can try feeding him the inside of a cooked pea...good fiber, and my betta went for it even when he wouldn't go for anything else when we had a constipation scare a while back.
 
Water parameters - I just got home from being away at college, so I'm still trying to locate the test kits. As soon as I find them, I'll post it.

Temp is about 76 or 78 degrees.

Water changes - usually 2.5 gallons every 10 days.

Tank size - 10 gallons filtered

Tank additions - I added two apple snails about a month ago but removed them after three days because he kept attacking them (can't really blame him, but I thought he might like to watch them. Boy was I wrong!). No added decorations or plants.

As I stated, I brought him home with me from college (both tanks are 10 gallons, filtered and heated). I clean the gravel and tank very well when I take him out of the "vacation" tank (the tank at my house away from college) and put it in a plastic bag with the cleaned gravel and filter inside the tank. When I transport him, I bring five gallons of tank water that he has been in and put the decorations, "toys," heater, thermometer, and filter cartridge in the tank water as to keep the good bacteria alive.

Also, I always use dechlorinator and let the water sit out for a couple of hours before changing/adding water to the tank.

Anything else you need to know, please ask!!!

I'll get back to you with the parameters ASAP. Thanks again!
 
Parameters:

NitrAte - 5-10
NitrIte - 0
Alkinity - 200
pH - 7.8

I don't have anything to test the ammonia with right now, but it always has stayed at 0. I'm afraid to try a water change because I'm afraid it will shock him too much and do him in...
 
Sounds like everything's ok, maybe the stress from the recent move home contributed to him being susceptible to whatever he has? Wish I could help more, but I honestly don't know what what would cause those symptoms other than maybe bacteria related to pop-eye...hopefully someone else will chime in with some experience and can recommend an effective treatment. Clean water is often the best medicine and would help remove any irritants in the water, if that's the cause, and it wouldn't hurt to try some pea for the potential constipation. Good luck!
 
I tried the peas a couple of hours ago and he nipped at them but didn't eat them off of the top. Hopefully he can get some of them from the bottom. As of a few minutes ago, he seems to be "floating" (like he always does) upright and comes up for air every few minutes. Hopefully he was just trying to knock some of the "backup" out or something, but I'm still preparing for the worst.

Also, I have one dose of Maracyn II left from a previous treatment of pop-eye that isn't expired. Should I go ahead and start him on that and pick up another package this afternoon (so he gets a continuous dose), or should I try something else? I'm thinking it was Malafix I started to use for him one time but the warning label made me change my mind. Something about it was illegal or against legal judgement for pregnant women in California to use it because it could potentially be so harmful to people and unborn children, so I changed my mind. Again, I only THINK it was Malafix, but I could have gotten the names mixed up. I'm not trying to defame the Malafix company, but if that was the product, I want to stay away from it if at all possible.

Thanks again for all of you help so far!
 
He still isn't doing very well...can anybody please suggest something for me to do for him to help him?

Thanks!
 
bump!
 
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