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Persistant mystery illness in Betta tank


GinkoTracks
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Hello everyone! I'm new! And I have a problem. 

I have a 7 gallon planted tank with 2 amanos, a few neos, a nerite, some pest snails I can't get rid of, and a Betta. I've had this tank for over a year, and my last fish, Punkin, had been doing great in it until she started doing what I can only call coughing. You can see it in this video. 

I tried to treat with ich-x, since I've heard that ich can attach to the gills and cause irritation, but she did not react well to it. She almost seemed to have a seizure in response to it, even though Im pretty sure I've dosed her with it before. Regardless, I dosed two times, she had the same terrifying reaction, and quit. After that, I simply tried to treat her with daily water changes. But she didn't get better. It turned into dropsy, which I tried to treat in a hospital tank first with a trifecta of kanaplex, metroplex, and focus, then with maracyn and maracyn2. She didn't get better, and I ended up euthanizing her a few weeks after all this started (SIP Punkin - I miss you sweet girl). 

 

Which brings me to now. I reorganized the tank but didn't treat it, convinced at the time that maybe Punkin had died of something genetic. I ordered a new fish after about two weeks, and placed him in there (at this point the tank had been without fish or a heater, though the shrimp and stuff were still in there, for about two weeks, and with a heater but no fish for about a week). It didn't take long for him to start showing the same coughing symptom. I consulted reddit and fishlore, concluded it might be gill flukes (though I'm very open to being wrong, i just want to figure out what's going on at this point), and tried to treat with prazipro. I've treated twice now (1.7 mLs each time, 7 days apart), and thought I was in the clear.

 

Until I saw him cough again today. So clearly I'm not. Which also led me to realize that much of what he's been doing lately in the tank is getting stuck swimming around the pieces of wood i have in the tank, which could be because he's itchy, and not endearingly stupid like I had thought. His pectoral fins have also been kind of ragged, which I had assumed was because of transit at first, but its been at least a few weeks and hasn't gotten any better, so I'm starting to think that might be an issue as well. I unfortunately haven't been able to get a good video of him coughing, but it looks almost identical to the Punkin video. That being said, I've included a few videos that show his fins and the scratching behavior pretty well, so long as you don't mind having a staring contest with a fish lol. 

 

I really just want to figure out what to do. I don't want to lose another fish so soon. I have a bucket I could use as a hospital tank around, and I have plenty of meds. I'm even willing to tear down the tank and start fresh, especially since Winter break is around the corner - I would have time then. 

 

BTW will post values before the end of the night - still have some last minute studying to do, then I can test the water. Also if need be, I can link the fishlore and reddit threads I've started on this issue too, if they will provide more information. 

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Here are the parameters! I use RODI water and remineralize with salty shrimp gh/kH. I don’t know why the pH is always so high, especially when the other parameters are normal, but it’s stayed a persistent problem for me, even after switching to rodi. I try to do filter maintenance every month.

AAD4EF9C-E86D-4DB9-B2B6-60AE8D88D62B.jpeg

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