Sick Betta

[Cbass]

Hi all! Our little betta all of a sudden started to feel ill and was hoping to get some advice. The other day I noticed that she had injured her mouth and started to rub against the substrate. Overall activity was fine though. Next day she was gulping air from the surface frantically and going to the bottom of the tank/hiding (she has always been active during the day). After testing the water, the nitrate levels kicked out almost 20ppm so I did an emergency water change and the levels dropped to 10ppm. The tank has some plants, but I've been battling green and red algae for a month. It's a 3 gal tank. She then started to breath heavily the next day. Note I do have an airstone and a heater. Temps are between 75-80 degrees daily and I do weekly water changes weekly.

Based on what I know/read, I guessed gill flukes. I put her a salt bath for about 6 min since I didn't have any API General Cure. Later that day I put the meds in. She is still eating. I have to feed her with tweezers but her appetite is there. Just lethargic with slow and steady breathing (not gasping). 

The one thing I noticed: My tap water parameters have changed. In the past it was 7.6-8. Now it's 8.6. Right now her tank is 8.2. Dropped almond leaves (I use them in my other tank) to hopefully help. The current water parameters:

Ph - 8.2
Ammonia/Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10ppm
Gh/Kh - 7 and 5 respectively
Phospate - 0
TDS - 275
 

Thoughts? Thought at first it was ammonia poisoning, but I test ammonia every 3 days and always get 0 (0.25 after a water changes since my tap has trace amounts). At this point it may be a waiting game as I'd like to think I've done everything I can. The API instructions say that I need to dose again after 48 hours, so I plan to do that tomorrow. Pics below. She looks dead, but she moves from that spot to her hammock often. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Cbass

[Zenzo]

I hope that she recovers. It is not uncommon for municipalities to change they way they treat water as they transition from winter/spring to the warmer summer months. I have noticed elevated chloramine at times. 

If she has an injury, the salt should help. An anti bacterial med like Maracyn is also something that you can try (for any infection around her mouth injury).

Lastly, make sure that you have enough o2 in the tank. An ayirstone could help if you Dom't have one. Yes, they have a labyrinth organ, but if she is already stressed, that's one less thing to stress her. 

Good luck!

[Cbass]

@ZenzoI hope she recovers as well. I ended up buying EM Erythromycin when I picked up General Cure as I wasn't sure if it was a parasitic or bacterial illness. I was going to try that after the second dose of General Cure as I've read it's not good to dose both at the same time. I definitely use an airstone (first thing I put in when I set the tank up). The air flow isn't turned up all the way because it creates a lot of current for such a small tank, and I didn't want her to stress when trying to swim. 

Good to know about the water municipalities. I have a 20 gal planted, and when I first got it up and running, the Ph was 6.8. Now it's 7.4 and it was driving me crazy trying to understand why since I use aquasoil. 

[Zenzo]

Glad you have that med on hand. As far as treating at the same time, you can treat both meds together. This was actually part of the original med trio that Cory tested over the years. 

[BAT]

I had an episode of what I thought was gill flukes in betta.  Same thing. Heavy breathing. Hiding at bottom and loss of appetite so I also had to tweezer feed. 
 

I have had mine be sensitive to nitrate spikes. But more in the 40s. 
 

general cure seemed to work. Admittedly I went full board and did kanaplex and Ich X as well as salt. 

i find 1 tbsp per gallon of salt works wonders alongside meds. 

[Cbass]

@BATWhen you did the salt, did you dissolve and drop it in the tank? Did you have change the water after awhile?

I was thinking of doing the same at the expense of my plants (would rather have the plants die versus the betta) but wasn't sure how much stress that would put on her with the meds. 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Cbass

[BAT]

I also had planted tank and thought the same

basically I removed water. Then replaced the water with salt water that I had made to equal 1 tbsp to 1 gallon  I mixed it in the bucket that I put clean water in before I put into  tank

i did it little by little. Like replace 3-4 gallons one day. So then it was overall 1 tbsp: ~2.5 gallons

then the next time I changed water (aligned with when medication treatment said I could change) did the same thing w salt. 
 

my plants actually did fine. 
 

Let me know if you need more explanation. 

[Cbass]

Quote

i did it little by little. Like replace 3-4 gallons one day. So then it was overall 1 tbsp: ~2.5 gallons

Ah. In other words, it's a gradual add versus dosing everything all at once in the tank (I think articles say 1 tsp per gal then drop it all in at once). That sounds like it would be far less stressful. 

At the end of the day, I'm not too worried about the plants. It's a small tank and most of the plants are covered with red algae. So either way they're not going to thrive. 

[Torrey]

 

Gianne keeps salt in her betta tanks, like always.

 

[Cbass]

On 5/19/2022 at 9:05 PM, Torrey said:

 

Gianne keeps salt in her betta tanks, like always.

 

@Torreysuper helpful. And Corey brings up great points about the internet as always. 

[Cbass]

Hi all. I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone here. After 4 days, our betta is finally starting to feel better. She's out and about during the day and a little more active. Still gulps a bunch of air in the early morning right before the lights come off and gets tired in the late afternoon, but is more responsive when we come up to the tank. I switched to Erythromycin as I noticed that her rear fin was not that great looking. I also dosed aquarium salt (thanks @BAT and @Torrey!!!) and got her a betta hammock to make her feel more comfortable and not have to swim as hard to get to the surface. 

After reading a bunch of posts on the forums, I think I may know what might have happened. I over cleaned the tank. I saw that I had cyanobacteria growing but didn't think twice about it actually being cyano. Right before she got sick, I scrubbed the hardscape and glass down and did a sizable water change. So yeah. One of my many smh moments in this hobby. 

She's not at 100 percent, so I'm finishing up the dosing. When this is all said and done I plan on re-scaping (slowly) the tank. Again, many thanks to you all!

 

[BAT]

@Cbassdo you think you that you reset the nitrogen cycle?