0morrokh

For those of you who are wondering where the original post went...it had been duplicated in the important betta topics sticky, and rather than have the thread in two places someone tried to merge them but they accidentally got deleted in the process. I had most of it written down so I'll retype what I've got, but let me know if there's anything I missed. And additions to the lists are always appreciated. I have not yet come up with the ulcer list but will work on it more after christmas.

Finrot Meds
Maracyn-Two + Maracyn
Maracyn-Plus
Tetracycline
Trisulfa
Triple Sulfa
Fungus Clear (not very strong)
Fungus Eliminator
Furan-2
Furanase
Rid-Fungus
Kanaplex (only for severe cases--extremely strong and may cause liver damage)
Anti-Bacterial Food (may be used in conjunction with above meds)

Finrot Non-Meds
*Clean Water*
Vitachem
Fish Protector
Atison Betta Spa

Dropsy
Kanaplex + Epsom Salt (dose of one tsp per 4 gals to tank, and/or epsom baths)

Tuberculosis
Kanaplex may be effective if caught early-once the fish starts wasting euthanasia should be considered

I'll go back and add more explanation to stuff another time.

GKat250000

What about pimafix?

COBettaCouple

Pimafix and Melafix can be deadly to fish with an air-labyrinth such as Betta or Gourami.

GKat250000

Sorry for all the questions. What about Bettafix and Prime? Gotta know cuz I was starting to use em. Thanks

COBettaCouple

Bettafix is a weaker version of those others and I wouldn't use it.

Prime is a water conditioner and I think it's the best one to use.

lilswimmer

What about pop eye?

COBettaCouple

Maracyn-Two for pop eye.

Arizonagrace

How about ick?

COBettaCouple

For ick, just slowly raise the tank temp to 82-84F and keep it there 2 weeks. Clean the substrate weekly and change 25% of the water every 2-3 days.

An optional thing to add would be an organic, herbal med called ICH-Attack. The warm, clean water is the real treatment though.

AggieYen

I have a question - could you let me know exactly what chemical it is in the 'fix' series that is harmful to bettas? Reason being - and i know this is strange, but of the list above, the only ones I've been able to find in Australia is Tetracycline and Triple Sulfa (both by CPV?). So if my boy falls ill, I may have to substitute the ones above with the ones we have available, and I want to make sure I don't get anything with that particular chemical. Thanks!

chickadee

Tea Tree Oil is the ingredient that seems to cause the problem in the Melafix and Bettafix. The Pimafix contains Clove Oil which is an anesthetic to fish and also is use to put euthanize them. If used over a period of time it can make the fish dopey and overmedicated and lethargic and since it does not evaporate can cause death the same as if you were wanting to put your fish to sleep due to a horrible illness. Any herbal medications which contain an oil would actually be questionable for fish with Labyrinth organs as they need the surface of the water to be clean, and that means oils or other substances that would coat the surface of the water would keep them from being able to use that organ to breathe air which can cause the fish to drown or at the very least to cause the Labyrinth organ to fail. These meds just do not work for any of the fish that are included in the family of fish that the bettas belong to as well as the Pencil fish who is technically not in the family but still for some reason has the same reaction to these meds.

We have had bettas on this forum die from use of these meds and unfortunately one of my favorites was one of them. Natalie also lost a very lovely boy from the use of Melafix. We were unaware of the information about these drugs until our fish were already being treated with Melafix. The Pimafix was added to the list when we became aware of the build up potential for the Clove Oil.

You are fortunate to find Triple Sulfa and Tetracycline. They will treat most things and the Triple Sulfa is my med of choice for finrot and a few other nasty little diseases as it generally makes quick work of them. The bad part of this is it is limited on how many times it will work on one fish so if the little one is particularly unhealthy you are going to need at least two antibiotics as you cannot keep using the Sulfa over and over for different problems. It will stop working.

A lot of things will be treatable with Clean Water and warmth. Ich responds best without meds, just raising the temperature. If you catch finrot or some of the skin disorders as long as they do not involve a fungal infection, clean water and conditions (cleaner than usual and more frequent cleanings) and a slight raise in temperature can and does sometimes do wonders. Tears in fins are done the same way after you find out what they tore the fin on or what did the damage. Some of the parasites will leave the body of the fish just by raising the temperature of the water and stay off with the temperature over a certain level (usually 82 to 84 F or 28 to 30 C) and then you just need to keep it at that level long enough for the lifecycle of the parasite to complete and to make sure no new hatchlings of the parasites are still around to settle back on the fish when the temperature is decreased.

I am making a book here and all you asked about was the ingredients. So sorry. I hope this answered your questions.

Rose

AggieYen

That's exactly what I needed, Rose, thanks so much. My heater does strange things.. the heat fluctuates up to 2 degrees - is this bad? I get home from work, and it's 28 degrees (I think that's because the tank light heats up the water) - goes down to 27 degrees at night, then when I wake up in the morning it's a lovely 26 degrees... is this bad for him?

chickadee

It is staying is acceptable limits for a betta so I do not think it will hurt him a bit. If it was falling to say 24 or 25 degrees I would worry more as this would slow the fish's metabolism down and make him more suseptable to diseases that are sometimes caused by too cool a water temperature or constipation which is usually due as much to lower metabolism as to overfeeding of the high protein or high starch foods that have not been soaked. But a temperature range of 26 to 28 Celsius in the tank is perfect for him so I would not worry at all. I would not go above 28 by much though as you can speed up the metabolism too much also and cause his lifecycle to go by more quickly and shorten his life just because he lives it more quickly by wearing out his internal organs. The only reason we raise it over 28C is to combat diseases that involve parasites that are affected positively by raising the temperature.

But otherwise it sounds like you have him just where he should be. I do agree the lighting is probably the thing that has the temperature higher during the day but that is a problem a lot of us face. There is generally no cure for it but to leave them in the dark all the time and that is not good either. The best is just to live with the slight raise in temperature and be careful to keep the type of lighting that you have so they do not raise it more.

Have fun with the little fellow and love him all you can. They can be such blessings.

Rose

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chickadee

The ONLY thing that we have found that really treats Velvet successfully is Coppersafe or another Copper compound. For some reason it takes Copper to successfully kill off the parasite that causes the Velvet outbreak and this causes a big problem in some tanks due to some fish's absolute intolerance to copper. There are just some of them that cannot take it and will perish in the treatment. It is also a medication that cannot be readily removed from a tank once it is used in there. I spoke to a representitive at Drs. Foster & Smith and they said that it should absolutely only be used in a hospital tank to prevent causing problems with future tank inhabitants. (In case of deciding later to have catfish, sharks or scaleless fish or invertebrates in the tank that would be adversely affected by the copper residual)

Rose

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chickadee

They are both used yet and are also common ingredients in other medication preparations that are used commonly for Ich and other diseases although I do prefer to treat Ich without meds by using the temperature change only method. The only problem you may have with them is if you decide to have a community tank with scaleless fish as I do believe some of them have a problem with the Malachite Green and cannot have it used on them at all. And there are other fish that are having problems with the Methylene Blue but for the life of me right now I cannot name them, perhaps someone else knows. I do know that as long as you have a betta tank that the problem is taken care of as bettas do not seem to have any difficulties with them. Invertebrates may have been the problem with the Methylene Blue. I am sorry but I do not have my books as I am at my Mother's house taking care of her and my references are at my home. My apologies. Anyone else have the info?

Rose