Beta fish unwell

Hi, I've shared a link of my Beta fish who has been unwell the last 2 days. I suspect he got greedy and ate too many blood worms, but I am not certain. Another possibility is that the rams in the main tank have been stressing him out. The final possibility is that he was impacted by the tank clean I did 2 days ago, where I kicked up a lot of detritus.

I've taken him out of the main tank where he was struggling with the current, and put him in a small tank for now (using water from the big tank). I've also added a half teaspoon of salt.

The water parameters in his main tank measure 0 for ammonia and nitrite.

Any advice on what I can do for the guy; I'm worried he wont make it.

 

If you think hes bloated try giving him an epsom salt bath for 10mins, adding 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt for every 1 gallon of water. After that return him to his tank, this bath will relax the muscles and help him pass the feces.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. He is currently laying on his side at the bottom of the 1 gallon tank and he appears to be breathing heavily. Would bloating cause this?

 

Hi,

So sorry about your pretty boy!!!!!

I don't think that I would not keep any type of cichlid with a betta.

I would lower the water level in the 1 gallon so that he can get some surface air. If he is stuck at the bottom, he may be struggling in that regard. Keep him in low light. Make sure his water temp is appropriate (nice and warm at 78 to 80 degrees or so). If you have an Indian almond leaf, you can add it to his QT tank. That may help with his stress. The tannins are good for him.

I don't see any severe bloat in the youtube that you posted. Bloat can cause breathing issues if the fish is bloated due to dropsy or some form of infection that is affecting the kidneys.

For now, you are doing what you can. The aquarium salt is a good idea. Keep his water pristine with daily water changes.

I am hoping that the breathing issue is just related to stress.

If he does indeed get better, you might want to give him his own tank if you can swing that.

I hope he bounces back!!!! Good luck!

 

Thanks, I just read that they actually need to get to the surfaced to breath, so I made a ledge covering half the tank out of filter floss material for him. Given the small volume of the tank I was worried about reducing the height to 1 inch, which would have been less than a liter of water. His stomach is looking rather bloated now; hopefully he is still kicking in the morning. My backup plan for tank aggression has been to let him live in the sump refugium, but as far as I can tell he has always handled the rams with ease, as he is 4x their size.

 

Thanks, I just read that they actually need to get to the surfaced to breath, so I made a ledge covering half the tank out of filter floss material for him. Given the small volume of the tank I was worried about reducing the height to 1 inch, which would have been less than a liter of water. His stomach is looking rather bloated now; hopefully he is still kicking in the morning. My backup plan for tank aggression has been to let him live in the sump refugium, but as far as I can tell he has always handled the rams with ease, as he is 4x their size.

So sorry!!!!

If he does seem to hang on, then epsom salt baths will reduce some of the fluid build up. It sounds like internal organ/kidney failure.

To do the epsom salt bath, dissolve one tablespoon of pure, unscented epsom salts into a gallon of water. Make sure that the temp of the bath matches the temp of his water. Leave him in the bath for 15 to 20 minutes. You can do this twice a day, but it will probably be stressful for him.

I hate to mention this, but the other alternative is to consider euthanizing him. If he is still breathing the way he was in your youtube post, then he's probably suffering.

Again, so sorry. He is a very pretty betta!!!!

 

Thanks Sharon, sadly he didn't make it through the night. I'm just scratching my head over how fast he degraded. Only 2 days ago he was at the surface begging for food :/ Makes me hesitant to get another betta now.

 

So sorry for your loss!!!!!

It's like that with bettas sometimes. When things go wrong, they really go wrong quickly. And a bad part about it is that there are times where no matter what, you can't figure out why. Something inside of them just goes off. Lots of times it has to do with their genetics. They are so over-bred that they have become genetically inferior or vunerable to any thing that comes along.

You can take this for what its' worth, but I have had bettas with issues like this, and because I didn't know better, I let them hang on for days hoping that they would pull through. Sometimes, it's a mercy that they go quickly.

Again, so sorry he didn't pull through!