Betta imbelis ' Unknown sickness

[Clo]

Hello everyone!

I am a little worried about my Betta imbelis Yoshi.

I have had Yoshi since January, he is from a breeder in Malaysia and has been pretty active and super social. He is an adorable little fish!

Now he has always been very skinny, with his swim bladder being very visible. I usually feed my fish every other day but Yoshi I fed him a little bit on morning and a little on evening every day for two months when I got him, to no avail. He stayed extremely skinny. He was pretty happy and active so I stop trying. I feed him a rotation of krill, blood worm and bug bite pellets (soaked) every other day. Yoshi is difficult and all others food I tried to give him he spits.

In June I traveled out of the country for 2 weeks and my husband cared for the fish. I came back begging of July. Other than forgetting to top off the tanks with distilled water he did a great job. To my surprise Yoshi ate everything he gave him. And yep now he eats frozen Daphnia, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp. So his diet has slightly changed in the past weeks.

I did a water change last week and since then Yoshi has not been doing great. He start to lose most of his colors and now shows stress marks. Until today his behavior was unchanged, but today he is a little sluggish. Not as active just chilling below the surface, clamped fins. He doesn't show rapid breathing but he is clearly upset.

2 days ago I noticed the stress line and did a water change, added Indian almond leaves and reduced the flow of the sponge filter a tiny bit.

Today I added a tablespoon of aquarium salt and a pack of paracleanse.

I have honestly no idea what's going on.

Maybe he has internal parasite, maybe a little constipation (his belly is definitely rounder and I don't see him poop, it's hard to tell since he is so skinny).

Water parameters from yesterday: ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, phosphate 0, ph7.2, KH 3 degree, GH 5-6degrees. Which is exactly the same since ever in this tank, it never changes. I do a 20% water change every month. 

Tank is a 14  gallon cube, with about 12 gallons of swimming water, running for 2 years. Heavily planted, Stocked with a nerite and neocaridinas (I am pretty sure they have low key vorticella going around- maybe 5% of shrimp). Large sponge filter + small internal filter.  78F.

Here is a picture of Yoshi begging of June:

Here how he looks today:

Anyone have a guess on what's going on?

I really don't want to lose him, please give some input.

Edited July 19 by Clo

[Clo]

His condition has greatly worsen since yesterday.

Now he just struggles to swim and is completely pale. I moved him to an hospital tank.

Upon inspection the only visible thing is sort fuzzy thing at the tip of his left ventral fin.

[Clo]

What would be the best treatment?

I have marcyn, fungus clear , kana Plex and paracleanse.

My maracyn 2 and ich X have past the expiration date of few weeks (June 2024)

Based on aquarium coop website fungus is best treated with a combination of maracyn and ich x. 

Is that what you would recommend too @Colu?

Edited July 19 by Clo

[Colu]

What I would do is a course of jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons at that level most plants will tolerate it fine with symptoms you described i would follow up with paracleanse once every two weeks for three full courses of treatment @Clo

[Clo]

Thanks @Colu! He is in an hospital tank of 6 gallons right now so I can observe him better.

I already put half a tablespoon of salt so I'll add another half and fungus. I'll treat the tank in parallel.

[Colu]

On 7/20/2024 at 12:56 AM, Clo said:

Thanks @Colu! He is in an hospital tank of 6 gallons right now so I can observe him better.

I already put half a tablespoon of salt so I'll add another half and fungus. I'll treat the tank in parallel.

As he's in a quarantine tank I would up the level of salt to 1 table for 3 gallons 

[Clo]

He has worsen. yesterday he refused to eat. He can't swim properly and he is breathing heavily.

I didn't see the fungus until yesterday but he was starting losing colors for a week so I think the fungus is a secondary infection not the cause of the problem.

I can add more salt as you recommend. As of now he seems really far gone and I want to give him antibiotics to deal with whatever primary problem he had. Since his health declined so fast it might be bacterial.

Now he doesn't eat so I can't feed him kanaplex. I didn't find an definite answer about kanaplex or maracyn compatibility with fungus clear. Would you know about that @Colu ?

With the state of things his chances are so slim, I really think I should take a more aggressive approach. If it doesn't work it doesn't, if it does I'd be happy I did something.

[Colu]

You can use kanaplex and jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone following this treatment plan for more severe bacterial infections it will also treat some types of fungal infections @Colu@Clo

Edited July 21 by Colu
Accidentally tag myself

[Clo]

Yeah I found a post where you were recommending kanaplex together with fungus clear for columnaris. So I added kanaplex a couple hours ago, but Yoshi has passed away since.

[Colu]

On 7/20/2024 at 8:27 PM, Clo said:

Yeah I found a post where you were recommending kanaplex together with fungus clear for columnaris. So I added kanaplex a couple hours ago, but Yoshi has passed away since.

Sorry for your loss