Tam

@Odd DuckOkay, I'll put him back in the QT tomorrow evening after doing the epsom salt treatment, and I'll keep him in there for at least the first half of treatment with the new meds, and I guess I'll leave out the aquarium salt? I'm kind of glad I put him back in his tank for tonight though because he's been very active in there again, which makes me hopeful that he just really didn't like the QT and was moping about it, since he's been zooming around his tank all day today. Thanks so much for all your help!!

@Odd Duck Ack, well, he's already back in his tank, and the poor guy was so excited to be back too. I still have the QT up though, it just needs a water change. Do you recommend leaving him in the QT for the duration of the epsom salt treatments or the metroplex + focus or both? I won't be able to have the meds til Saturday at the earliest, and I won't have both until Monday at the earliest. And should I continue treating him with the aquarium salt while he's in the QT or just leave the salt that's in there to be removed with water changes? I can put him back in this evening, and then start the epsom salt tomorrow evening... I'm working within weird pockets of time for various reasons so it's a little difficult to juggle. Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to do anything wrong 😣

All right, I was already leaning towards letting him acclimate to his tank again, I can start the epsom soak tonight or tomorrow. I'm actually in the middle of cleaning his tank right now and the ammonia was back to 0ppm, so that's a relief!

All right, I think I'll keep it simple and just do the one container, and I'll only do it once a day and see how he does, if it goes well and seem to be helping I'll do it for the full week. I think I'll take him from the QT and do the epsom salt bath and then put him back into his own tank. Unless the change of 3 different waters would be more stressful? I could put him back in his tank after I clean it this afternoon and then do the epsom salt bath this evening once he's gotten acclimated to his own tank again, then he would go from his tank to the bath and then back to his tank. I dunno if I'm overthinking this, it's kind of what I do with everything 😆

@xXInkedPhoenixX Oh also, do I need to have a secondary container with a bit less of the salt in it that I put him in before returning him back to his tank? When I was trying to find good instructions about it before a bunch of places said to have two containers, one with the full salt amount and one with like a quarter of it to put him in for a few minutes after being in the first one, and then put him back in his tank, so as to like, adjust him to the different levels of salinity more gradually. Or is that not important? All the conflicting info about it confused me which is why I never tried it before.

@Odd Duck I wondered if maybe it was his nostril but then it seemed it had clearly gotten bigger to me and it's just the one that's like that, it never stood out that much before or I'd have noticed it. Makes sense that swelling in the area would be the cause. I'll see about doing the epsom salt soaks, it just makes me nervous because when I've tried to find instructions about it in the past I always got a different salt vs water ratio and amount of time to keep him in etc. I'll use the metroplex as soon as I get it, maybe I'll get lucky and it'll arrive sooner than Saturday. Then when the focus arrives I'll mix that in as well, and until then I'll do the epsom salt soaks. The only maracyn my local petco has is fritz maracyn oxy which is a liquid and I don't think is the right thing. I'm doing a very thorough cleaning of his tank today and as long as the ammonia issue is resolved I'll put him back in his own tank and keep a close eye on him. He perked up last night after I fed him dinner, and this morning as well after I fed him breakfast, but he still seems a bit listless. Again it could be boredom. I have his QT next to his main tank and last night he saw his snail and got very animated, so I'd like to think he just wants to be back in his home. @xXInkedPhoenixX When you do the epsom soaks the container you put him in is purely the 1TBSP mixed with the gallon of water right? It's not diluted or anything? Out of nerves for messing up I'll probably only keep him in for 10 minutes 😣

Thanks so much @Colu that is immensely helpful!

I can get both metroplex and focus on amazon but it'll take a couple days to get here, I don't think I'll be able to find them locally. I'm already planning on going to petco on thursday so I can pick up some frozen bloodworms then (all I currently have are frozen mysis shrimp) and by then the meds will hopefully have arrived, but shipping is tough right now so who knows. Right now it says the metroplex would get here Saturady and the focus would get here monday 😣 I was just in front of his tank taking more pictures and he was acting very excited and alert, but he does seem to stop and rest at the bottom even then for a bit. When I tell you this fish never holds still I'm not exaggerating, so even this little brief rest is weird for him. I just went and offered him his dinner and no worries about his appetite, he snapped it up eagerly. I've attached the additional photos I took. Thanks again for all your help! I'd be at a loss otherwise. ETA: I don't think the temp around the heater is really any different than the rest of the tank, and I made sure the heater is actually still working, the QT is the same temp as his usual tank. I think he hangs out by the heater because there's nothing else in the tank for him to cuddle up to.

Okay @xXInkedPhoenixX I'm here for your help again. This isn't really the update I wanted to give, I'm suddenly getting worried about Jupiter's behavior. He seemed fine and active this morning but around afternoon he seemed to be moving more slowly, staying at the bottom of the tank more, and then this evening as I've been keeping an eye on him he spends all of his time resting on the bottom of the tank, particularly under the heater, and pretty much only comes up for air unless I'm standing in front of his tank to get his attention. He ate with his usual gusto this morning and has had a bowel movement today but he maybe seems a little bloated to me, I'm not sure, I could just be over sensitive to that because Lucien had chronic constipation/bloating problems. I haven't given him his dinner yet, but the way he swims up to the surface expectantly when I go to his tank makes me think he'll probably eat it. I checked the water and ammonia was 0ppm. Tomorrow is the last day of treatment and I'm not sure he should be moved back into his tank or if I should continue treatment. I don't know if it's any of the stuff I added to the water that's making him behave this way or not, it's just been the aquarium salt and kannaplex, and some water conditioner when I did water changes. He was still acting normal when I took him out of his tank for treatment, he just had the one popeye and the little injury, or whatever that is, but his behavior was the same as always. Now he's really lethargic, and as a fish that's always been extremely active since I got him this worries me a lot. I took a video of him but I can't upload it here, so here are a few screenshots. I really can't tell if there's anything physically different with him or not, like I can't tell if his other eye looks like it's swelling too now or not... the original one is definitely still larger but it's so hard for me to judge. He doesn't exactly look happy, or like he's feeling well. I'm really not sure what to do at this point 😭 I'm sorry the photos are blurry and not very good, if you think it would help you I can try to take some better ones.

Thank you again @xXInkedPhoenixX for your help, I've been so busy I couldn't reply until now! Jupiter still seems to be doing fine, pretty active and always eager to eat though honestly I think he's bored in the bare tank. I feel bad because he's been happily making tons of bubble nests for the past month for pretty much the first time since I got him and I feel like I've disrupted his fun. I changed his water today and I checked the ammonia levels beforehand and there was 0ppm thankfully. When I notice he's had a bowel movement I've been siphoning it out and he always eats all of his food at mealtime so there's never leftovers in the water. I took out two gallons of water and replaced them, adding a tablespoon of aquarium salt and the next dose of kanaplex after dissolving them first. I got imagitarium aquarium salt from petco and it didn't have any dosing instruction so I followed what aquarium co-op said, except I added a tablespoon for his 2 and a half gallons of water instead of the 3 that it said for the lowest dose, which I hope is okay. His eye hasn't gotten any worse, but I don't know how long it should take for it to get better. Will it actually decrease in size again? I'll do this for as long as I need to but I'm wondering how long I'll have to keep him in the QT for, like weeks?? The first round of kanaplex will be finished on day 8, but I'm not sure how to tell if he needs another round or not.

Thanks so much @xXInkedPhoenixX for replying, I was hoping you would! I'm really relieved to see a lot of my thoughts confirmed, and for some extra tips! I was already planning on picking up some aquarium salt tomorrow and was thinking of using it in conjunction with the kanaplex, glad to have that course of action reinforced. I always second guess everything a hundred times when it's something new that I'm not experienced with. How much of the aquarium salt should I add per gallon? I was also intending to do a water change every other day before dosing the next rounds of meds. The package says to dose every 48 hours up to 3 times, and then if I need to I can do another course for a total of 6 times as long as the fish isn't stressed. There are some tighter spots in his tank where he would have to squeeze to get through, I'll definitely fix that before he goes back in his tank. He does have one snail as a tank mate but it's doing just fine, so no worries there. The amount of ammonia was small but any amount is concerning. I don't think that's what's caused the popeye but it's definitely an exacerbating factor, definitely doesn't help, and frustratingly I don't actually know how long it could have been a problem because I hadn't checked his water parameters in a while. Checking weekly for a long time and always seeing 0ppm for everything lulled me into a false sense of security. The catappa leaf has only been in the tank for a week + a couple days, I'll do the tea method from now on. I was wondering how putting a leaf in the tank wouldn't just cause ammonia as it broke down, should've gone with my gut on that one. If the swelling in Jupiter's eye gets worse I'll look into an epsom salt bath to reduce swelling, but I get nervous about doing too much and causing more stress... I do have some on hand at least, without any additives. Since the kannaplex is one scoop per 5 gallons I actually filled his quarantine tank with 2 and a half gallons so I could easily halve the scoop, I did it as carefully as I could using a razor blade to level it off and then separate it out. Jupiter has been in the quarantine tank with the meds for a few hours now and is just as active as ever, he never seems to hold still which is the norm for him. The flow of the air stone was a little strong in the 3 gallons without anything else in it to impede the flow so I put a valve on it to lessen the amount of air that gets through and that seems to be working. I'm very helicopter parent with my pets so I'm watching him like a hawk. Thanks so much for your help and encouragement!

Here I am again, I was hoping I wouldn't have to return so soon looking for help and advice after the last time, since it's only been a month. This time it's my betta fish Jupiter, and I just want to get some opinions and see if I'm doing what I should be doing. Over the past couple of days one of his eyes has swelled and at the same time I've noticed a little hole/scratch by his eye. I say hole because to me it really looks more like a hole than what I imagine a scratch would look like, I don't know if he got an injury and that's causing his eye to swell or if it's something else. My betta Lucien died a month ago from some kind of suspected fungal infection that moved very fast, and I know there was contamination between the two tanks despite my best efforts so I'm on very high alert with Jupiter. His behavior seems fine, swimming energetically, eating voraciously, very active and alert, he's even been making bubble nests with gusto lately. Still I've put him in a 3 gallon quarantine tank with a heater and air stone and just started treating him with kanaplex, because I don't know for certain what's causing the popeye and if it is just an injury I don't want infection to set in. I'm not sure if there's more I should be doing, or if this is the wrong course of action to begin with. This is my first time actually using meds on a fish and I'm nervous. I only just in the past week or so started adding catappa leaves to his tank, and when I checked his tank at his last water change on Tuesday (two days ago) there was actually a little ammonia in the water which really surprised me since his tank is fully cycled and has been up since March. I'm kicking myself for getting into the habit of not consistently checking my water parameters. I do water changes of around 30-40% weekly, but still. Here is a photo of Jupiter with his enlarged eye and the hole/scratch for reference. His other eye looks perfectly fine and normal.

@xXInkedPhoenixX Thanks so much! Your advice has been really helpful, I'm definitely saving it all and feel more prepared going forward. I haven't been in the hobby very long, less than a year and a half, and I've had so many questions all this time and didn't know where to turn to, so finding this forum has been a huge relief! @Minanora Thank you! I'm already finding how kind and helpful people are on here, I actually teared up a bit with how nice the responses were because I was feeling so horrible about losing Lucien. I hope I can become more active going forward, not just when I need help or have a fish emergency. I also really prefer to be over-prepared, that's what I'm going for! Hopefully next time something happens I'll feel more equipped to do something about it and not just watch helplessly. I only have two small tanks but even that feels overwhelming at times, I can't imagine having a 75 gallon! That must be a ton of work. I actually have a beautiful 16 gallon waterbox aquarium that's been sitting empty for several months because I found after my two tanks that a 3rd was too much, but now I'm hoping to get my 16 gallon going in the next few months and move my betta Jupiter over from his 6 gallon, and that in itself feels like a huge undertaking 😆

@xXInkedPhoenixX Thanks, I'll definitely stock up on the meds you mentioned! I have regular epsom salt but I don't have aquarium salt so I'll get some of that too. I tried the epsom salt early on with his constipation but it didn't seem to help. I'm so nervous with trying new things because it's unfamiliar and I'm afraid of screwing up somehow 😣 - another question if you don't mind, when you make the catappa "tea" do you use the whole pot or do you just use some of it and save the rest, like in the fridge or something? Seems like otherwise you'd be going through a lot of leaves.... @Boulder_Betta I was thinking fungal too but I'm so unfamiliar with it all, with pictures of various things I looked up online nothing really seemed to fit, except maybe columnaris (which I think is actually bacterial from what I read?) And it was so weird because there was no sign of anything on his body (aside from one small white spot on his cheek that wasn't fuzzy when it first showed up) until less than a day before he actually died. If it was something, either fungal or bacterial, I was wondering if I could just use one of the meds to treat his entire aquarium and if that would deal with anything left over living in there, do you know? Or would that be bad for the snails/plants/beneficial bacteria? I actually have maracyn on hand, it's the only thing I have. @Adam Swarbrick Thanks, I'm going to get the med trio and some aquarium salt for sure!

Thank you @xXInkedPhoenixX and @Adam Swarbrick for your replies and help! Once I get the new substrate I'll move my hardscape and plants into a new 10 gallon but I think I'll end up waiting for a month or two before I get another betta no matter what, I'll just work on maintaining the tank. I think Lucien was probably experiencing organ failure, I just don't know what underlying thing caused that, and I don't suppose I'll ever be able to know, although I'm certain he didn't have dropsy at least. I really think that spot on his side was strange and wish I'd realized it sooner, and I don't know what the stuff growing off of him in the last 24 hours was, I can't convince myself that it wasn't something contagious. I'm still nervous about previous cross-contamination between my tanks and any going forward though I'm trying to be really careful. Thank you for your encouragement, I've really been feeling awful, it's been almost two weeks and I miss my fish so much. A couple more questions, are there any medications you would recommend I have on hand for the future? And regarding the catappa leaves I'll buy some for Jupiter's tank and for whoever my next betta will be but I heard they change the color of the tank water. Of course the fish's health is more important than aesthetics, but I was wondering just how much does it change the color of the water?

Hello all, I posted this on a different betta-specific forum but didn't get any help so I'm cross-posting here. I'm sorry this is long. I made a post back several months ago now about my betta Lucien. He was having bloating problems/constipation and some swim bladder issues. I could never get it under control no matter what I did, he was a very picky eater and only wanted to eat flakes, and the only thing I could do to keep his bowels moving along was to wrap up freeze dried daphnia in his flakes and trick him into eating them off of a toothpick. Even with this he would always bloat right after feeding him, and because of the bloating and his gradually worsening swim bladder issues I wasn't able to feed him very large amounts. While I don't think he was really thin I don't think he was able to get all the nutrients he needed with just the daphnia and the flakes. All this to say, he'd been slowing down for a few months and then a few days ago things went downhill very quickly. He stopped moving much at all and was acting weird, not responding to me anymore like he had done all this time, and he was abruptly not interested in dinner, despite eagerly eating his breakfast. Then I was away from him for maybe two hours, came back to check on him and one of his eyes had gone cloudy, and then swelled up hugely. His other eye always looked fine. I thought at first that maybe his difficulty swimming made him run into something and injured his eye, but I'm not sure anymore. In less than 24 hours he went from looking pretty normal to being completely washed out of color, red gills, hardly able to swim, the one popeye, clearly not able to breathe, he would struggle so hard to get to the surface of the water for air way more often than normal. It was really distressing to watch and not knowing what it was or being able to stop his suffering. Then I noticed some stuff that looked like mold almost, coming off his gills, his one popeye, and this weird white spot on his side. I'd noticed this spot a couple of weeks before but thought that it was his scales changing colors because they were constantly changing so much. I didn't notice anything like that growing off of it until the day he died. I do have a picture of it, though it's blurry, but I'd rather not have to look at it again if I can help it.... I've put this post off for a few days because I'm so heartsick over losing him. I loved him a lot, he was my first betta and he was really special, I kind of can't overstate how dear he was to me. I didn't even have him for a year and half yet and I feel like I failed him. I really want to figure out how he died so I can hopefully have what I need on hand in the future to help any other fish, and know what to do. I'm assuming his immune system was worn down and something got hold of him and took him out but it was very quick, less than 48 hours altogether. I've tried to do some research but can't really find anything that it seems to obviously be, the only thing I thought sounded kinda similar was maybe columnaris? Like I said this is my first betta and I'm inexperienced, and could really use help from some people who've been in the hobby longer and know more than me.Some info on his tank conditions: I kept him in a planted 10 gallon tank, weekly water changes of around 40% and gravel vacuuming. Water parameters were always 0 nitrite and ammonia, very low nitrates. The PH is around 8 and the water is a little hard but nothing crazy, I don't have exact numbers. Temp is always 78 and it runs with a sponge filter. There are two nerite snails also in the tank and they're both doing fine.I also have another betta, Jupiter, in a 6 gallon tank and I'm certain there's been crossover between their tanks even though I've tried to keep them as separate as possible. In the beginning of September I had to evacuate my house due to a wildfire and evacuated with my fish and when I set them up with their heaters in a safe location I accidentally put Lucien's heater in Jupiter's tank and vice versa, and just in general I'm sure there's been some crossover with tools and stuff, though I use a different siphon for both tanks. I've been watching Jupiter like a hawk and he seems completely fine, but then he doesn't have the bloating/constipation issues and will eat anything so he has a more varied diet and I'm sure his immune system is strong. In fact he's been happily making a bubble nest the past couple days for the first time.And finally another question, and if no one can answer anything else I really want help with this - I really want to get another betta, but I don't know if I can put it in Lucien's tank. I don't want to risk my next fish getting whatever Lucien did. But I don't want to trash the whole setup and start over cycling a new tank, like I said I have plants in the tank and it's been cycled now for over a year, I finally have the plants growing pretty well in the last month or two and the algae pretty under control after struggling with it for a loooong time. I've put a lot of love and hard work into this tank. The tank itself does have a leak very high up and I've been dealing with it by just not filling it to the top, but I have another 10 gallon of the same kind that I want to swap it out with while the tank doesn't have a fish in it, and I also want to replace the substrate for something that isn't inert and is good for growing plants. Aside from that I want to keep using my hardscape and plants, and the filter, so I can keep it cycled/not have to start completely over from scratch. So, my question is if it's safe to put another fish in the tank? I did a near complete water change after Lucien died, and I'll keep changing the water on schedule as usual. Is there anything I could treat the tank with to kill off anything that's growing in there that could harm another fish? Or do I just need to wait for anything in there to die off without a host to live off of? I would much appreciate any help anyone can give me, and I'm sorry this got so long, I just want to be thorough. I've been agonizing over this for days. Like I said before if I need to upload the pictures of Lucien I can, I would just like to avoid it if possible because it hurts so much to look at them. Thanks so much for any help anyone can give!!

Right, I always forget about the charcoal aspect of filters, I've so far only used sponge filters but I do have a couple HOBs that I plan to use on future tanks but I don't intend to use cartridges and will do my own thing with them, so there wouldn't be any charcoal. I hope fasting helps your betta, it hasn't helped mine unfortunately. I did a 3 day fast and at one point when all he would do was spit out his food he went a full week without eating. Bloating notwithstanding I'm glad he's at least eager to eat again, it's just he's only eager to eat flakes. His bloating problem seems to be more chronic which is why I was wondering if maybe there was something else going on causing the bloating.

Sorry, what I mean is why is a sponge filter more effective vs a HOB when using the dark water almond extract? Also I was wondering if it's safe to use with snails, I don't want to add anything in that could hurt them.

No problem there since I use a sponge filter, but what about the sponge filter makes it more effective vs a HOB filter? Thanks for the info! I don't know what's with that fish, if it's anything other than a flake he acts like it's not even food, unless it's a freeze dried blood worm, but I haven't given him any of those for a few months because I didn't want to worsen his bloating/constipation.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea Thanks! It's my first, I've had it for a year and I'm still constantly learning. @Colu I did try giving him frozen mysis shrimp but he literally won't eat anything but his flakes, he won't eat the daphnia unless I hide them in the flakes which is not easy to do. I'll give it a try feeding him two small meals a day for a bit and see if it can help him. @Betta I feed him the fluval bug bites flakes, he won't eat anything else, it's frustrating because I have one betta that I got in march who is like a trashcan and will eat literally anything, and then I have Lucien who is the pickiest fish you can imagine. I'll look into getting some almond leaves or extract... do you have a brand you can recommend, and does it color the water?

It's not white, more like a pale yellow, sometimes with darker bits mixed in.

I did try that at first only I had him in a smaller amount of the epsom salt and for longer, but I didn't notice it doing anything for him and found more success with the daphnia in getting him to have regular bowel movements. He is having a bowel movement every day and it's not stringy anymore/getting stuck on him, but it's not the nice dark color it should be. I'm wondering if there is something else that could be causing the bloating/constipation and if there's something I should be treating him for, like a bacterial infection.

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum and I'm looking for help with my betta Lucien. I've had him for about a year now, in fact it'll be a year in about two weeks, and he's been having bloating/constipation for a couple of months now. The only way I'm able to keep him regularly having bowel movements is by feeding him daphnia, which he refuses to actually eat and I have to very carefully wrap them in his flakes every evening and hand feed him off of a toothpick because they're the only thing he'll eat. The thing is immediately after I feed him, which I'm doing just once a day now, he gets very bloated. It doesn't seem to matter how much or how little I feed him, his stomach just balloons up no matter what and won't go back down until he's eventually had a bowel movement. He's been a lot less active, he spends time resting on the floor of his aquarium or at the top of the waterline. I'm worried he may have some problems with his swim bladder, sometimes I think it looks like swimming is more difficult for him than it used to be, but I honestly can't tell anymore because I've overanalyzed him so much. It's not like he's completely inactive, he's just less so than he used to be. I told myself I'd make a forum post on Saturday so here I am but he's making me second guess myself a lot this evening because he's especially active right now, swimming all over his tank, but of course I haven't fed him yet so he's currently at his least bloated. I think he always looks at least a little bloated. I also cleaned his tank today and he's always more active after I've done that, checking everything over for changes. He's still very excited and eager to eat, though before I got him to regularly have bowel movements he did refuse to eat for a while. I'm really not sure what to do for him, I was wondering if maybe I should treat him with a broad spectrum antibiotic or anything like that. He's my first fish and I can't even fully express how much I adore him. I'm really afraid of messing up and making things worse. Advice is very much appreciated, I just want to do whatever will give Luci the best life. The photos I've attached are what he looks like right after eating, a top down view of him, and what he looks like resting at the top of the water. It's hard for me to get a better picture of him because the second he sees any kind of movement from me he gets excited and won't hold still. For reference: He's in a 10 gallon, heavily planted tank with two nerite snails. The PH has always been around 8-8.2 though I haven't checked in a while, nitrates 0 unless I dose with fertilizer, nitrites and ammonia are 0, not sure about hardness or KH, and the water temp is 78F.