My Betta Fish Toblu Is Sick. Please Help Me Cure Him.

Hi,

My betta Toblu is about 1.5 years old now. He is a half-moon betta. I had brought him from the pet store on 1st Feb 2018. They had kept him in a small plastic 200ml jar. The water was almost orange. He came home with severe Ich. I used Rid-All's AntI Ich medicine to treat him and he was cured and happy. I kept him in a 2.6-gallon tank. He does not have any tankmate.
But about 2 months ago he I started noticing torn fins. I am from India and where I live, the tap water is very bad. So right from the beginning, I have been keeping him in the drinkable water I buy. It's not mineral distilled water. It's just corporation water. I have always been doing regular water changes of 25% to 50% twice a week and full tank cleanup once a month.
Since the first fin tear I have been more diligent in his water changes, but his condition kept deteriorating. When his fin rot got real serious I got very scared. I moved him to a secondary setup - his hospital (2 gallons, heater, air pump, 2 blunt-edged caves, few smooth large pebbles and his toy tortoise [it has no sharp edges]). I used Taiyo Aquarium Salt (2teaspoons for 2.5 gallon and full water changes every day for 5 days) . But salt seemed to worsen his health. His fin rot remained exactly as it was - neither increased nor decreased. But he became lethargic and hardly swam once a day that too very swiftly. I immediately stopped using the salt. I did 40% water changes for 3 days and removed all the salt in it. Then I gave him a rest of about 4 days. In that duration, he became more lively again.
After the 4 days of rest, I started using Melafix (7 drops i.e. about 0.4 ml for 2 gallons every day with 50% water change every day - I was very scared of overdosing him). The first two days on Melafix was scary. He behaved almost exactly like when he was on salt treatment. Very lethargic, always in his den... but from the third day his coloration started improving and he started swimming for some duration every day. But his fins are as torn as before. It's not deteriorating though. Today is his 5th day on Melafix. Still no improvement in the fin tears. But he seems much much more lively today.

He never stopped eating for the whole duration though. I feed him Taiyo Pluss Discovery Betta Premium micro pellets and Today's Bloodworms occasionally. I feed him food equivalent to 8 micro pellets everyday distributed over at least 2 meals.

I have attached 2 pics - one of when he was healthy and one current pic.
Please help me and give me advice as to if my methods are correct and suggest if my methods need to be changed.

Thanks,
CB

 

The key to curing fin rot is very very clean water. I also have friends who have used seachem stressed guard (promotes slime coat and wound healing) with great success for fin rot. Don't stress him out with all these meds. Also, melafix I don't really think works. It's got tree oil which I see heavily advised against for bettas. Do water changes either everyday or every other day. I really think the lethargy is stress from all the meds.

 

I’m sorry to say this but your tanks are both too small for him... some of that could be stress related... you really need a bigger tank... like 5 gallons... think about it... you are keeping him in 2 gallons of water... with a heater, air pump, cave etc... which sounds like with water displacement the poor fish only has like a gallon of that of water...
also what kind of water are you using (brand) you should check the label because they often add sodium (nestle is one)... and I believe it’s a fair amount... aquarium salt and that salt are very different so it could also be so many water change and the salt (though unlikely it is a possibility) so if it’s store bought water are you sure that it has the correct minerals in it for him? If not you can add a product called equilibrium... usually people who use Ro/DI water use this so their fish still get the minerals...

A list of what I would call acceptable meds would be:
Furan 2, Maracyn II, Kanamycin, and apI fungus cure (not my favorite)
What I would do is instead of dosing it into that small tank is give him a couple baths in it once or twice a day... as long as he will tolerate it... (but not hours and hours) use of an airstone can be helpful...
it’s very hard to dose that small of a tank correctly because you are dosing for 2 gallon (which is hard enough) but he also doesn’t really have 2 gallons of water with all the displacement... if you have a nice clean 5 gallon bucket or something I would use that... it will give him lots of water and then you can just return him to his tank... also is his tank cycled (I’m assuming it is after this long) but what are your parameters?

 

The key to curing fin rot is very very clean water. I also have friends who have used seachem stressed guard (promotes slime coat and wound healing) with great success for fin rot. Don't stress him out with all these meds. Also, melafix I don't really think works. It's got tree oil which I see heavily advised against for bettas. Do water changes either everyday or every other day. I really think the lethargy is stress from all the meds.

HI FrostedFlakes,

Thank you for your kind advice. Reading your reply, I am thinking of removing him from the Melafix treatment. I will do 2 to 3 50% water changes and after 2 to 3 more days one full water change to remove all the med. As you suggested, I do keep him in as clean water as is available here. I was thinking of buying BislerI water for him. Will you please tell me if that will be good for him? I was advised against it by the pet store. Instead, they had asked me to keep him in normal tap water as according to them BislerI is too void of essential minerals found in tap water. They also said that BislerI might contain chemicals added to preserve it which might be harmful to Toblu. You said, "Do water changes either everyday or every other day.". How much water change should I do each time?
Is there anything I can do to cure the finrot other than the water changes you suggested? I am asking because I had done 50% water changes every alternate days in the 1st month of his finrot yet his condition worsened. But back then he was in his original tank. His original tank has some plants in it. Attaching a pic of his original tank here.

Thanks,
CB

 

I’m sorry to say this but your tanks are both too small for him... some of that could be stress related... you really need a bigger tank... like 5 gallons... think about it... you are keeping him in 2 gallons of water... with a heater, air pump, cave etc... which sounds like with water displacement the poor fish only has like a gallon of that of water...
also what kind of water are you using (brand) you should check the label because they often add sodium (nestle is one)... and I believe it’s a fair amount... aquarium salt and that salt are very different so it could also be so many water change and the salt (though unlikely it is a possibility) so if it’s store bought water are you sure that it has the correct minerals in it for him? If not you can add a product called equilibrium... usually people who use Ro/DI water use this so their fish still get the minerals...

A list of what I would call acceptable meds would be:
Furan 2, Maracyn II, Kanamycin, and apI fungus cure (not my favorite)
What I would do is instead of dosing it into that small tank is give him a couple baths in it once or twice a day... as long as he will tolerate it... (but not hours and hours) use of an airstone can be helpful...
it’s very hard to dose that small of a tank correctly because you are dosing for 2 gallon (which is hard enough) but he also doesn’t really have 2 gallons of water with all the displacement... if you have a nice clean 5 gallon bucket or something I would use that... it will give him lots of water and then you can just return him to his tank... also is his tank cycled (I’m assuming it is after this long) but what are your parameters?

I’m sorry to say this but your tanks are both too small for him... some of that could be stress related... you really need a bigger tank... like 5 gallons... think about it... you are keeping him in 2 gallons of water... with a heater, air pump, cave etc... which sounds like with water displacement the poor fish only has like a gallon of that of water...
also what kind of water are you using (brand) you should check the label because they often add sodium (nestle is one)... and I believe it’s a fair amount... aquarium salt and that salt are very different so it could also be so many water change and the salt (though unlikely it is a possibility) so if it’s store bought water are you sure that it has the correct minerals in it for him? If not you can add a product called equilibrium... usually people who use Ro/DI water use this so their fish still get the minerals...

A list of what I would call acceptable meds would be:
Furan 2, Maracyn II, Kanamycin, and apI fungus cure (not my favorite)
What I would do is instead of dosing it into that small tank is give him a couple baths in it once or twice a day... as long as he will tolerate it... (but not hours and hours) use of an airstone can be helpful...
it’s very hard to dose that small of a tank correctly because you are dosing for 2 gallon (which is hard enough) but he also doesn’t really have 2 gallons of water with all the displacement... if you have a nice clean 5 gallon bucket or something I would use that... it will give him lots of water and then you can just return him to his tank... also is his tank cycled (I’m assuming it is after this long) but what are your parameters?

HI Francine,

Thanks for replying. I appreciate all the advice.
I am from India and I don't have so many resources here. :-(
Yes the water is store bought but not pet store. It's from the human-drinkable water store. Here in India, not one pet store has water for fishes. They put them in normal tap water according to the pet stores. But I have always kept Toblu in the human-drinkable water I buy. I approached a local vet asking desperately for help when Toblu became lethargic. He straight away asked me to get a new fish. I know it sounds unbelievable. In India, fish is not a very cared for pet. But I love Toblu very much. I am really worried. :-(
I do have a bucket which I think is about 5 gallon. I will try to follow your advice of keeping him in the bucket for as long as he is not cured then. I don't have the kits to test his water parameters here. :-( Not available in any store :-( I don't know what to do!

 

Well my guess is it could be related to your tank never being cycled properly... probably has ammonia and stuff... the reason why they are trying to tell you to use tap water is because it has the minerals that fish need to live... whereas bottled waters don’t... do you have access to amazon? You can buy everything you need from there

Read up on the nitrogen cycle

 

Imo the tank is not too small. Personally, I do go with 5 gallons, but at least 2.5 is fine if you can't upgrade. Do not do a 100% change that is too stressful. Do 25% changes a day. The tap is fine just make sure you are using a water conditioner. I recommend seachem prime. Stressguard will really help him heal. There are meds to use but I would do that if he gets really bad.

 

Imo the tank is not too small. Personally, I do go with 5 gallons, but at least 2.5 is fine if you can't upgrade. Do not do a 100% change that is too stressful. Do 25% changes a day. The tap is fine just make sure you are using a water conditioner. I recommend seachem prime. Stressguard will really help him heal. There are meds to use but I would do that if he gets really bad.

You shouldn’t advise people to use tap water that don’t have test kits IMO... she has no idea what is in her water... many people have natural ammonia, nitrites and nitrAtes (I recently talked to someone who had all 3 in her water) this could be more harmful especially since the tank is most likely not cycled... and I shouldn’t have but I just assumed she was using tap water conditioner with every water change... that is a MUST but if she can’t get a test kit I don’t know if she’s be able to get prime plus she has been using bottled water from what I understood so not really a need for the water conditioner as the bottled water won’t have any chemicals in it... like the tap water will... but for sure if you start using tap water you will need a water conditioner that treats for chemicals like chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals

 

Well my guess is it could be related to your tank never being cycled properly... probably has ammonia and stuff... the reason why they are trying to tell you to use tap water is because it has the minerals that fish need to live... whereas bottled waters don’t... do you have access to amazon? You can buy everything you need from there

Read up on the nitrogen cycle

HI Francine,

Should I keep him in tap water then? Tap water here has a lot of iron. It stains the washrooms red in a week. Besides the region I live in has traces of Arsenic in it. :-( This is the reason why I had kept him in bottled water. I am so worried. I hope I am not the reason he is suffering so much for. :-(

I have read about the nitrogen cycle and I had brought Toblu only after cycling my tank (without putting any chemical but just a PH balancer from the local store[attached photo]) for about 2 weeks.

Yes I have access to amazon. But I am a student and I live in a hostel. I don't have so much money with me. I get hardly 1000 INR (14 USD) per month as pocket money.
Will you please be so kind as to suggest me some totally necessary things? The things you would definitely do in such a tight budget. I will save all the money I can and buy all those things for Toblu.

 

Imo the tank is not too small. Personally, I do go with 5 gallons, but at least 2.5 is fine if you can't upgrade. Do not do a 100% change that is too stressful. Do 25% changes a day. The tap is fine just make sure you are using a water conditioner. I recommend seachem prime. Stressguard will really help him heal. There are meds to use but I would do that if he gets really bad.

I will try to buy seachem prime then, it's about 50 USD but I have 28 USD savings and I will get this month's 14USD so I'll have 42 USD. But that'll use up all my money. Is there anything else that is more important?

FrostedFlakes, Francine,

Will you please help me make a list of must haves for Toblu's condition please?
If it's just seachem prime and tap water then I will buy seachem prime asap. But I will need more time to afford seachem prime and Furan 2 both.

FrostedFlakes,

You said, "There are meds to use but I would do that if he gets really bad." Don't you think his condition is very bad from his pic that I had posted in the original thread starting message? I have never had a Betta with fin rot before. I am not being able to judge. :-(
Please help out.

 

My Betta is in a 3.5 gallon tank and doing fine. 5 gallons is not the minimum needed. I would say it is more like 2.5. I would even go so far as to say that 5 gallons is the maximum needed.

Melafix should never be used on a Betta. It contains stuff that can damage their breathing. Even the product called BettaFix can be dangerous.

I agree that without testing the tap water, it's not possible to know if it's safe. I'm lucky since my tap water contains none of those things but other people are not. You can use a bottled water but it has to contain enough of the necessary minerals. Distilled or RO water is unacceptable unless minerals are added into it.

 

My Betta is in a 3.5 gallon tank and doing fine. 5 gallons is not the minimum needed. I would say it is more like 2.5. I would even go so far as to say that 5 gallons is the maximum needed.

Melafix should never be used on a Betta. It contains stuff that can damage their breathing. Even the product called BettaFix can be dangerous.

I agree that without testing the tap water, it's not possible to know if it's safe. I'm lucky since my tap water contains none of those things but other people are not. You can use a bottled water but it has to contain enough of the necessary minerals. Distilled or RO water is unacceptable unless minerals are added into it.

HI Dch48,

Thanks a lot for replying. I am using bottled water currently. Should I put Seachem Prime (thanks FrostedFlakes for suggesting this) then? Is there any cheaper but almost as much effective alternative to it? I am really tight on budget. I feel so horrible. :-(

 

Some brands of bottled water would be suitable. If it says natural spring water it should be okay. I personally think bottled water is one of the biggest scams known to mankind but in this case, it might be needed.

 

HI Dch48,

Thanks a lot for replying. I am using bottled water currently. Should I put Seachem Prime (thanks FrostedFlakes for suggesting this) then? Is there any cheaper but almost as much effective alternative to it? I am really tight on budget. I feel so horrible. :-(

If you're using bottled water, you don't need the Prime. In fact, you might not need any conditioner at all. What you do need is a completed cycle with no toxic ammonia or nitrites in the water. A way to speed up the cycle is to use Tetra Safe Start which will introduce the necessary beneficial bacteria to the system.

 

I was unaware there was no means of testing the water. Sorry about that, my bad

 

Your 2.6 gallon tank should be okay when it is properly cycled.

 

My Betta is in a 3.5 gallon tank and doing fine. 5 gallons is not the minimum needed. I would say it is more like 2.5. I would even go so far as to say that 5 gallons is the maximum needed.

Melafix should never be used on a Betta. It contains stuff that can damage their breathing. Even the product called BettaFix can be dangerous.

I agree that without testing the tap water, it's not possible to know if it's safe. I'm lucky since my tap water contains none of those things but other people are not. You can use a bottled water but it has to contain enough of the necessary minerals. Distilled or RO water is unacceptable unless minerals are added into it.

About Melafix being harmful to Bettas, " I had read this online before. But there was so much controversy and debates online that I wasn't sure. I just had to do something for him. Vets and local pet stores weren't helpful. None of the local meds worked before. And they haven't even heard about Melafix or Maracin or Seachem Prime. I don't know if I am approaching the wrong people offline.

 

You have to remember she is in a place where she can’t get the stuff we can... I gave her a list of good meds that hopefully she can find

Yes I assumed the tap water wouldn’t be great... I would say your 2 main things you need are a water conditioner (it doesn’t have to be prime but prime is the best) then second you need a test kit you could probably get away with strips if you can find them but they are usually not very accurate and the most widely used one is called apI freshwater master kit.... those are 2 MUSTS for having a fish.... as for the tank size yes 2.5 gallons would be sufficient if you don’t have a heater and substrate and decor etc... everything you add in there displaces more water leaving less for the fish... just because a tank is 2.5 gallons does not mean it has 2.5 gallons of water in it... that’s why people recommend a 5 gallon because by the time you add all your stuff you want/need then your still left with enough water for the fish... and they will be less stressed and have room to move around and swim...
but I would stick with the bottled water because if there is arsonic in your tap water I’m not sure there is stuff that will take that out... you would have to do a bit of research as that is not a problem for where I live... so I’m not really sure if you even need the prime... not if you are using bottled water... but then again it depends on what it contains... I would get a test kit first so you at least have the ability to measure amounts of ammonia and such and know when you need to change some of the water...

 

Hello! Welcome to Fishlore! Your betta does have a bad case of fin rot I recommend to stop all medications and do a 50% water change to remove the medications. To help cure him I suggest 25% water changes everyday. Or since you have bottled water 50% every other day

 

You have to remember she is in a place where she can’t get the stuff we can... I gave her a list of good meds that hopefully she can find

Yes I assumed the tap water wouldn’t be great... I would say your 2 main things you need are a water conditioner (it doesn’t have to be prime but prime is the best) then second you need a test kit you could probably get away with strips if you can find them but they are usually not very accurate and the most widely used one is called apI freshwater master kit.... those are 2 MUSTS for having a fish.... as for the tank size yes 2.5 gallons would be sufficient if you don’t have a heater and substrate and decor etc... everything you add in there displaces more water leaving less for the fish... just because a tank is 2.5 gallons does not mean it has 2.5 gallons of water in it... that’s why people recommend a 5 gallon because by the time you add all your stuff you want/need then your still left with enough water for the fish... and they will be less stressed and have room to move around and swim...
but I would stick with the bottled water because if there is arsonic in your tap water I’m not sure there is stuff that will take that out... you would have to do a bit of research as that is not a problem for where I live... so I’m not really sure if you even need the prime... not if you are using bottled water... but then again it depends on what it contains... I would get a test kit first so you at least have the ability to measure amounts of ammonia and such and know when you need to change some of the water...

Thanks Francine. I will try to buy the 2 things. Thanks a lot.

 

Hello! Welcome to Fishlore! Your betta does have a bad case of fin rot I recommend to stop all medications and do a 50% water change to remove the medications. To help cure him I suggest 25% water changes everyday. Or since you have bottled water 50% every other day

Thank you Iverg1, I will do that. In fact I did the 50% water change right now. Thanks a lot.

 

Hello! Welcome to Fishlore! Your betta does have a bad case of fin rot I recommend to stop all medications and do a 50% water change to remove the medications. To help cure him I suggest 25% water changes everyday. Or since you have bottled water 50% every other day

Thanks Iverg1, I joined today for Toblu. I will do water changes just as you said. I just replaced 50% water as you recommended and weirdly, immediately Toblu started swimming around nicely, as in not the swift bursts of swimming he was doing earlier.

 

That's a good sign!

 

Have you tried using hydrogen peroxide

 

HI Francine, FrostedFlakes, Dch48 and Iverg1 ,

I searched online and found a 50ml bottle of Seachem Prime on Amazon India for 15.5 USD. I have already ordered it. The seller is going to import it from USA and so it's going to take them 6 to 10 days just to ship the product. Till then I am going to keep Toblu in the bottled water with the old water conditioner that I was using. I have removed atleast half the Melafix by 50% water change from the tank. I will keep you posted on how Toblu is improving.
Francine, I will also order for the test kit soon.
I am really grateful to all of you for helping me and Toblu. If not for your advice I would have continued to use Melafix with my fingers crossed and would probably have killed Toblu myself.

 

Have you tried using hydrogen peroxide

HI AZrodeo92 ,

No, I have not tried hydrogen peroxide. I don't know how to.

 

I’m not too familiar with how things work where you are. The water that you buy at the store - the drinkable water for people that you have been keeping Toblu in - is that water that has been processed or treated in a certain way to make it safe for drinking? Is it possible to find a description of how it has been treated, or an analysis? The more information we have, the easier it is to know what the right thing to do is.
I’m glad to hear that Toblu is doing better. Well done to you for helping him.

 

I’m not too familiar with how things work where you are. The water that you buy at the store - the drinkable water for people that you have been keeping Toblu in - is that water that has been processed or treated in a certain way to make it safe for drinking? Is it possible to find a description of how it has been treated, or an analysis? The more information we have, the easier it is to know what the right thing to do is.
I’m glad to hear that Toblu is doing better. Well done to you for helping him.

HI Fishcat,

Since the tap water available here is almost useless with all the arsenic and iron, many homes in our area have brought the water I buy from the corporation in bottles, directly to their homes as tap water. So the bottled water I buy is basically good quality tap water. Other than that there's no information available to me from the store I buy from. They have a connection of tap water from the corporation. They just bottle up that water and sell to homes where the corporation water is still not available as tap water.
People here use this corporation water for shampooing hair, washing costly, fancy clothes. Some like me and my hostel mates even drink the water. You can consider it as tap water I think.