Help with Betta! He's lost more than 50% of his fins in the last few weeks and appears to be ill

[Colu]

Or you could do a course of kanaplex and jungal fungas clear fizz just substitute the furan2 for jungal fungas clear fizz tabs and  following this treatment schedule using the two antibiotic medication together make for a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment as he's not looking good I think this would be the best way to go  or you can do a course of kanaplex and follow it up with jungal fungas clear fizz tabs as he seem to be going down hill quite fast I would recommend the combined treatment

Edited December 14, 2021 by Colu

[Minanora]

I agree with exactly what Colu has stated above. Curly isn't doing so great. I'm so sorry that this has been such a rough road with him. Offer Curly a variety of foods to see if he will accept any of it more readily than the pellets. Flakes may be easier for him to ingest than pellets or frozen brine shrimp. Be sure to remove uneaten foods promptly so they don't foul the water. Foods that are high in nutrition are crucial if they aren't eating well. You can also use some seachem garlic guard to help entice him to eat whatever you're presenting him. You can suck up uneaten foods with a turkey baster or oral irrigator. Tiny bits of water removal aren't detrimental to the effectiveness of the medication. Especially if you're only removing a small amount of water to keep ammonia from spiking because of food waste.

Check your ammonia and nitrite daily during treatment. Prime can help while treating diseases where you can't change the water during treatment. Prime detoxifies ammonia, nitrite and nitrate but only to a certain degree so it's very important to monitor everything daily, remove uneaten foods, and otherwise keep everything stable and clean.

[robm74]

I am in the process of this right now. I got him into a 1/2 gallon holding tank, and am cleaning everything in hot water in his original tank. Will refill his original (2.5 gallon) tank with fresh water and maybe just his gravel, log, heater and aerator (no filter) so he has something familiar and then treat with Jungle Fungus Clear and Kanaplex. Let me know if anything doesn't sound right.

[Colu]

Cleaning his hole tank with hot water will kill the benefial bacterial resetting your cycle meaning your more likely to get ammonia and nitirte spikes  I wouldn't recommend his

[robm74]

On 12/13/2021 at 8:30 PM, Colu said:

Cleaning his hole tank with hot water will kill the benefial bacterial resetting your cycle meaning your more likely to get ammonia and nitirte spikes  I wouldn't recommend his

Okay, I already did this with the hot water. I was concerned there was some sort of bacteria that we couldn't get out of the tank despite doing a bunch of water changes and one Kanaplex treatment. I realize this un-cycles the tank.

As for the treatment schedule you laid out up top - for the dual approach of Kanaplex and Furan (I substituted Jungle Fungus Clear for Furan as I couldn't source it), I started with Day 1 yesterday and did both Kanaplex and Fungus Clear.

The Fungus Clear box differs from your Furan recommendation above. It says to repeat the second dose in 4 days.

Should I follow what the box says? (I used 1/4 tablet - because one tablet treats 10 gallons, I have a 2.5 gallon tank)

Your Kanaplex timing aligns with what's on the box.

Thanks!

-Rob

[Colu]

Follow the treatment schedule not what's on the box for jungal fungas clear as it only has 18.4mg of the active ingredient nitrofurazone compare to furan2 that has 85 mg so the chance of of your fish having a reaction is very small

[Minanora]

I apologize for any confusion I may have caused by using the word "clean". When I said "clean" I meant an environment free of ammonia, nitrites, excess uneaten food, and detritus. I am so sorry.

[robm74]

On 12/14/2021 at 9:46 PM, Colu said:

Follow the treatment schedule not what's on the box for jungal fungas clear as it only has 18.4mg of the active ingredient nitrofurazone compare to furan2 that has 85 mg so the chance of of your fish having a reaction is very small

Tomorrow will be day 5 and I am following your schedule for both the Jungle and Kanaplaex. 

Do I do the 25% water change and then add the last doses? 

Also, I will be going away for the holiday and will only have someone coming to feed him for 7 days. They arent equipped to do anything else like water changes. 

Does your recommendation change at all since I wont be able to do any water change for a week after the 25 percent change tomorrow? Is it ok for the residula medicine to stay in there for the week? 

Thanks!

[Colu]

I would do a 50% water changes if you going to be gone for a week and redose the kanaplex and jungal fungas clear it fine to leave the residual medication in the tank it will gradually dissipate over the course of a week I would just do a 25% water change  when you get back

[robm74]

On 12/16/2021 at 11:20 PM, Colu said:

I would do a 50% water changes if you going to be gone for a week and redose the kanaplex and jungal fungas clear it fine to leave the residual medication in the tank it will gradually dissipate over the course of a week I would just do a 25% water change  when you get back

Got it, thanks. Do I keep the carbon filter out of the aerator while we are gone, since we are doing another dose of the kanaplex and jungle fungus clear? Or, do we dose now and just slip the filter in before we leave? Just a bit concerned to go a week without a filter. We will have someone coming to feed him so maybe she can drop the filter in 2-3 days in after we dose today?

Edited December 17, 2021 by robm74

[Colu]

Yes leave the carbon filter out while your gone put back in when you get back @robm74

[robm74]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:14 PM, Colu said:

Yes leave the carbon filter out while your gone put back in when you get back @robm74

We have someone who is feeding him daily. Since the last medicine dose and water change was last Friday, do you recommend we have that person who is feeding him drop in the carbon filter tomorrow or still ok to leave it out until we return?

[Colu]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:03 PM, robm74 said:

We have someone who is feeding him daily. Since the last medicine dose and water change was last Friday, do you recommend we have that person who is feeding him drop in the carbon filter tomorrow or still ok to leave it out until we return?

You could get them to add the carbon filter back in but it will be fine to wait till you come back 

[robm74]

On 12/21/2021 at 6:03 PM, Colu said:

You could get them to add the carbon filter back in but it will be fine to wait till you come back 

Hi Colu,

I hope you are having a nice holiday. We are back and did a water change as you recommended, vacuumed the gravel and put in a new filter element.

As we were cleaning out the tank, the water still looked blue and there was some fizzing - it still looks a bit blue - so I'm guessing the medicine(s) are still in the tank in some amounts.

We heard from the person who fed him during the time we were gone that he ate okay. 

However, he still doesn't look so good, his fins still seem jagged and wasting away. Here are a couple of photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/meJsQJFFxVuGkb9C7

I've also taken away the ceramic log from the bottom of the tank, just in case something is leeching off there. So, he's in a bare tank - just the heater, aerator and filter.

Any other thoughts? He's still eating okay, but can't really swim and stays at the top of the tank.

[Colu]

If he still eating I would do a course of kanaplex in his food  and add some aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons to his tank the salt will help with Gill function and add essential electrolytes for one week then give him a rest from the meds

[robm74]

On 12/26/2021 at 6:42 PM, Colu said:

If he still eating I would do a course of kanaplex in his food  and add some aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons to his tank the salt will help with Gill function and add essential electrolytes for one week then give him a rest from the meds

Okay, I will give this a shot. But are you recommending the Focus too? If so, it's a bit tricky to get based on what I am seeing online.

Would you also recommend leaving everything out of the tank as I have it, or putting back in the ceramic log, silk flowers or anything else so he has someplace to "hide"?

And as for food, we had been rotating between Northfin Betta Bits and frozen San Francisco Bay Spirulina Shrimp, but as he got sicker, we backed off the shrimp because it was hard for him to chase down and was fouling the water. So, we've just been doing the betta bits. Any recommendation here with food?

Thanks again!

Rob

Edited December 27, 2021 by robm74

[Colu]

Northfin Betta or hikari bio gold Betta pellets are good I would get a Betta leaf hammock so he can rest on it near the surface I would use focus it acts as a binding agent to bind the medication to the food  you don't have to use focus it just causes less  of the medication loss  thought water diffusion

[robm74]

On 12/26/2021 at 7:14 PM, Colu said:

Northfin Betta or hikari bio gold Betta pellets are good I would get a Betta leaf hammock so he can rest on it near the surface I would use focus it acts as a binding agent to bind the medication to the food  you don't have to use focus it just causes less  of the medication loss  thought water diffusion

Got it, thanks. As for the Dosing in Food, is it the same whether I use the Focus or not? Do I dose the Kanaplex and/or Focus based on the 2.5 gallons in the tank in the food recipe? Not sure if he will eat 1 tbsp of food - as we only usually feed him a few pellets at a time. Do we make the mix in some sort of bowl then scoop it into the tank?

As for the leaf hammock, we bought one a few months back but he just didn't seem interested. We can try again.

[Colu]

I get a jug add one table spoon of the pellets one scoop of the medication and a couple of drops of water 1 cap full of garlic guard mix it well add a couple of pellets twice a day and you can can store leftover food in the fridge 

[robm74]

On 12/26/2021 at 8:08 PM, Colu said:

I get a jug add one table spoon of the pellets one scoop of the medication and a couple of drops of water 1 cap full of garlic guard mix it well add a couple of pellets twice a day and you can can store leftover food in the fridge 

When I do this, do I keep the carbon filter out for the length of the treatment? How long should I feed him this mix for? Is one week ok?

As you can see here, he is still not looking so hot:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EMDYCqcUGLWWoyW47

[Colu]

As your adding it to food you don't need to remove your carbon filter and I would feed him the medicated food for seven days  @robm74

[robm74]

On 12/29/2021 at 1:26 PM, Colu said:

As your adding it to food you don't need to remove your carbon filter and I would feed him the medicated food for seven days  @robm74

Hi again. I have an update. I completed the course of Kanaplex plus Focus on Wednesday. It is hard to tell but I dont think the fish got any worse but not sure he got better either.  Since I stopped feeding the Kanaplex infused food, his energy level has picked up but the fins all around still seem dangerously eroded.  He is still eating fine but a few times over the past week would spit up a pellet.  As you can see from these pics and short video from here pasted below he has a hard time swimming. If he tries to swim to the bottom of the tank to chase food for example he struggles and then kind of floats back up.  Any idea as to where to go from here? If you recall, we tried Kanaplex and Jungle Fozz prior to this round of Kanaplex, Cocus ana food pellets. Thank you for all of your help. 

 

Pics here 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sb11Yj49CAukZXkt6

[Colu]

I would give him a rest from the meds what you describing could be swim bladder Epsom salt baths 1 table spoon for 2 gallons for no more than 15 minutes once a day as to not stress him out as Epsom salt acts as a muscle relaxants to help reduce pressure on the swim bladder and it should help his fin as well

[robm74]

On 1/8/2022 at 10:35 PM, Colu said:

I would give him a rest from the meds what you describing could be swim bladder Epsom salt baths 1 table spoon for 2 gallons for no more than 15 minutes once a day as to not stress him out as Epsom salt acts as a muscle relaxants to help reduce pressure on the swim bladder and it should help his fin as well

For the Epsom salt would that mean taking him out of the tank and doing it? As for swim bladder, yes it could be but would that cause the fin rot?

[Colu]

Yes it would I use a  bucket to do Epsom salt baths  swim bladder won't cause fin rot because he's been hanging at the surface a lot he probably got some trap air that putting pressure on the swim bladder the Epsom salt baths with help release the trapped air