meg1220

Against my better judgement, I bought betta on Friday, completely on impulse. Well, to be fair, I did go to the LFS planning on getting a 5 gallon setup to *eventually* put a betta into, when it was all cycled. But, while perusing the fish, I fell in fishy love (isn't that always how these things work?). I bought a wee baby betta that I called I.B. for a while (for "Impulse Buy"), but I've now named Abe. I put him in a breeder net in my 10 gallon set up that has 6 neon tetras until I could get his tank cycled. I noticed Tuesday that he has a white-ish patch on his gill on one side. It doesn't look fuzzy, but it does look a bit swollen. He is eating like a pig, and still quite active and curious. I did a water change yesterday (last one before that was Friday), even though my water parameters were 0 ammonia, 0 -ites, 5 -ates, making sure to vacuum out the breeder net.

I bought some Maracyn yesterday, but I am hesitant to use it because of modern issues with super disease-resistant bacteria. I've also been reading about the use of salt to treat disease. I've read posts from members here saying not to use salt except in "extreme" cases of disease. But what does "extreme" mean? I've read that single-celled organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are more suseptible to the effects of salt than multi-celled ones, which is what makes it effective in treating disease.

Right now, my plan is to keep the water in the 10 gallon pristine, esp. in the breeder net, by doing small daily water changes, until the 5 gallon is cycled (it almost is-.5 ammonia, 2 -ites, 5 -ates). Then, I want to add a small amount of salt, but I'm not sure what the smallest effective concentration would be- 1 tsp/5 gal? 2 tsp/5 gallons? I've also read conflicting info on temperature. I turned the heater in the 5 gal down from 80f because I thought that would be less hospitable to whatever is growing on my fish (and I don't even know for sure if it is fugus or bacteria!)

Any input? I'm also considering doing a salt water bath instead of putting salt in the aquarium, in case he has a bad reaction to the salt, but I'm not sure if this would be more stressful. I really want to save meds as a last resort. I know this has been long- anyone who's still with me have any ideas?

Lucy

Sorry Abe is is worrying you. Salt baths can be very stressful to Bettas. Maybe in an extreme emergency it would be beneficial but the stress from it could do more harm than good.
I think I'd go with Maracyn combined with Maracyn-two. Together they would treat gram positive and gram negative infections.

However, I wouldn't treat the whole tank if no one else is sick. Abe should be moved to a warm Q tank if you decide to treat.

Good luck, I hope he improves soon.

agabr123

i'd go ahead and move him to your 5 gallon tank and do daily 50% water changes in that. it will be better for him to have more room and you don't want to treat your entire 10 gallon that has other fish in it when you can treat the five with just him.

80F isn't a problem because it sounds like a bacteria infection (which would be treated by the maracyn and maracyn II that lucy suggested)