Jaybird

Well, I guess it won't be a problem now. Fred passed away overnight. Whatever hit him, hit him hard and very fast. I noticed he was getting more and more pale as the day went on yesterday. I'm thinking that maybe we won't be buying any more fish, can't seem to keep them healthy and that's not fair to them. Will hold onto the tetras for now and try to keep them as best we can. They don't really have the personality that either of our Betta had though. Thanks to everyone for your help, it was appreciated.

It was a bit hard to get a good picture, you can see some of it up by the top of the heater, just to the left of the thermometer. It kind of looks like strings of phlegm floating about.

He's looking slightly better today, moving around a bit easier. Now there's a bunch of white snot looking stuff in the tank. From what I'm reading it's some sort of bacterial bloom. I did a 25% water change and siphoned out as much as I could, but a few hours later there's just as much or more back. Should I do a full change in the morning?

Thanks all. Was a hectic day yesterday. The main tank he was in, and the quarantine tank he is now in, were both being kept around 80F. I was checking on him all day yesterday, and of course the temp didn't fluctuate on me. Woke up this morning, and the small heater in the quarantine tank is no longer keeping temp (dropped to near 70). I took the heater from the main tank and put it in the quarantine for now, and cranked the heat pump in that room to help maintain the heat in the main tank until the stores open around here so I can go pick up another heater. Funny someone mentioned it, I found him trying to hide a lot yesterday so I used a dish towel to cover the majority of 3 sites of the tank/top (left room for air and have the bubbler in quarantine). He's moving around a tiny bit more today and his fins don't appear any worse than they did yesterday. Hoping things will continue to progress in the right direction. Out of curiosity, and purely theoretical of course. If you happened to be able to get something like KanaPlex to help deal with a problem like this. Would you stop the bettafix and salt baths? Maybe just stop the bettafix? Also, since it's possible something came in on either the plants or tetras, would you dose the main tank?

I used the aquarium salt and gave him a 10 minute bath. He wasn't moving around too much so I didn't want to push it. I did monitor him the whole time and never saw him stop breathing, but he did kind of slump onto his side. He's back in the quarantine tank with the recommended dosage of bettafix (9 drops per 2 cups). He's not looking too good. Doesn't seem to be able to swim to the top anymore and is swimming around in circles a little bit while laying on the bottom. Sometimes curling up into a ball or just laying on his side. Has no interest in eating. I moved the air stone in there since it doesn't seem like he can make it to the top for air. Once I moved the stone in (it's leaning up against a cave I cleaned before putting him in quarantine), he's actually hiding underneath it now. 2 days ago I wouldn't have even known he was sick. He has spent a tiny bit more time at the bottom since we added the plants, but he would always shoot to the top as soon as he saw someone by the tank to interact with. No signs of anything wrong with his tail until yesterday morning. Tks again too btw.

Much obliged. So just to be clear, about 10 minutes in a 1tbsp/2gal solution and then back into the quarantine tank? A lot of the videos I'm seeing are using epsom salt, but the aquarium salt I have is sodium chloride I think. Which one in particular were you thinking of?

Sorry for the wall of text, trying to provide as much info as I can. I haven't changed what he was eating, but he has been eating a bit more lately (particularly one meal a few days ago). I had been feeding him one or two pellets twice a day with a freeze dried blood worm a couple times a week as a treat. I was told I was feeding my old Betta too much and since this guy was so small when we got him that he didn't need much. He seemed fine with it up until now. I try to feed him on one side of the tank, then drop a few pellets in for the tetra on the other side of the tank just to try en ensure that everybody gets some food. I had a small filter on the tank as well, but I need a refill for the filter. It's removed right now, but I do have a bubbler buried in the gravel to help keep some oxygen in there for them. I'm going to run in town later for a new filter. I did leave the old filter a bit longer than usual to replace, wonder if that caused some issues.

Howdy, Pretty new to the hobby, please be gentle. I have a Betta that we got from the pet store about 3-4 months ago. He would generally sit on the suction cup holding up the heater when nobody's around, but as soon as you went anywhere near the tank he would follow you around. Would play with you with a ping pong ball. About a week and a half ago I picked up 3 neon tetra to give him some company (only a 5 gallon tank so I didn't want to add too much), and the guy at the store sold me some wisteria that had already been growing in water. Waited a few days to see if they were doing fine in the small 3 gallon quarantine tank I had and then moved them in. Everything seemed fine until yesterday. I noticed part of one of his fins almost looked like it folded/rolled into a straight line. The tetras seem unaffected. Did about a 40-50% water change and gave it the night. Today that fin and another are exhibiting the same symptoms and much worse than the day before. He's spending almost all of his time laying on the bottom and is hiding in his cave a lot, which generally he would never do. He's coming up to the top occasionally but his swimming does appear labored. We were using API test strips previously but ran out, went out and picked up an API master test kit today and checked the water we pulled out yesterday and the water that's in there currently. Both are pretty close: Yesterday (using the master test kit) 7.6 ph .25 ppm Ammonia 0 ppm Nitrite 5-10 ppm Nitrate (although it looked much higher on the test strip yesterday) Today 7.6 ph 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 20-30 ppm Nitrate (strange that today's is showing more nitrate than when I tested last night's water. It had been about a week since our last 25% water change). The master kit doesn't appear to test alkalinity, but the last time we tested with one of the strips it was about 80 KH ppm. I'm setting up the quarantine tank again after giving it a good rinse. Using all fresh water with some Microbe-lift XTreme to condition the water. We're on a well, no chlorine has ever shown up on one of our test strips. I'm not really sure what else to do. I have a small heater I'm going to put in that tank as well to keep it warm. I'm in Canada, so access to fish meds is limited. This is actually my 2nd Betta. I had one about a year ago that passed as well after a few months. I was given melafix and primafix, also bettafix. I didn't use the betafix with the other two. I have not used anything on him yet as I think it was how I used them last time that may have made my previous betta worse. I also have aquarium salt, but am not really sure how to properly treat him with that either. I remember when I was trying to figure it out last time I was reading conflicting information and ended up not using it because I didn't feel comfortable without knowing what I was doing. Was pretty bummed after spending so much effort trying to save the last one, I didn't look at fish for about a year. Watching the poor thing suffer just killed me. Thinking I probably shouldn't have bothered trying again. I can't seem to keep them healthy. Any help with saving this poor soul would be appreciated.