My giant koi betta fish, Turkey, has been suffering various issues and I would really appreciate help in healing him. His normal home is a 10 gallon planted tank with no tank mates, and in the beginning of December 2023, I noticed he had Popeye in one eye.
Popeye Treatment
I treated him with a course of Maracyn, which crashed my cycle. After testing and receiving high nitrate and nitrite levels and him sitting at the bottom of the tank, I put him in a hospital 3 gallon tank with heater and cycled filter while I did numerous water changes on the 10g.
hospital tank is at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and has cycled nano filter with air stone in it
water parameters are all normal (no ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH is 6.8-ish). I don't have a hardness test. I do have a water softener, however it is currently bypassed due to unrelated water pressure issues so tap water is hard water with minerals.
While in the hospital tank, the Popeye got worse so I did another round of maracyn, and when his eye looked better I put him back in the 10g (which had tested for normal parameters). A few days after that I noticed him on the bottom of the tank and lethargic so I put him back in the hospital tank again and since then, while his eye is better he appears to be struggling with swim bladder disease now.
I will note that any time I move him out of a tank I acclimate him for at least 20 minutes to new tank/temperature so as not to shock him.
Swim Bladder Treatment
I thought he was struggling with a bacterial infection so I did a course of Kanaplex starting on 12/28/23 and he would bounce back and forth from appearing to doing better, and then either sinking to the bottom of the tank and being lethargic, or he floats to the top because of swollen belly/swim bladder and struggles with swimming.
I took a break for a week of no medications and just changing his water because he would perk up during small water changes and I also used Level 1 aquarium salt treatments.
This whole time I was dosing with Sachem Stress Guard, and after reading a post here about it potentially causing lethargy I stopped using it (1.5 weeks no Stress Guard and after a few water changes).
I started dosing Metroplex on Monday 1/15/24, second does was Wednesday 1/17.
Today I did a 10 minute epsom salt bath (1 tablespoon per 1 gallon of water) and he was actively swimming and curious, although he still had a swollen belly.
Because he had issues seeing, I had previously been feeding him Aqueon betta pellets. I know I went wrong with feeding him one (bad) food with no variety. I have since bought Fluval Bug Bites betta pellets because he does not swim after sinking pellets, but only eats off the surface. I have freeze dried daphnia in the mail on the way, and am considering buying frozen food as well.
I know this was a lot to read, so thank you if you made it this far. I have been frantically researching and Charlie-Day-yarn-map-plotting how I can help him, so I appreciate any help possible!
