Sick Betta: Ich+columnaris??

I am starting a new five-gallon tank with live plants, a Tetra whisper filter, and heater to 77F. I just introduced him the days ago. Yesterday he displayed clear signs of ich (small white dots all over) but I didn't realize what it was until today, and today he is lying on the bottom, gasping, and has ragged fins with fuzzy fungus on them. Is this columnaris? Should I treat with salt? Copper? Help! I've already done a 20% change and added 1tbsp aquarium salt. My plan is to slowly raise the temp to 85F to kill the ich but not sure if this will just cause more problems.

This betta is the second to get sick: before him, I had a betta in the same tank for about three weeks and in the last five days he contracted what looked like fin rot; black at the ends and ragged. I tried to treat with water changes (50% right away, then 25 daily) but the situation went downhill quickly; before I got him medicine he'd developed fungus on his fins which spread to his body. I treated with a 100% water change and general tank scrub with vinegar and rinsed well, which probably completely reset my nitrogen cycle, gave him a salt bath and NeoPlex but it was too late and the stress from the treatments was too much for him.

I changed the water 50% and put my carbon filter back in, and introduced my current betta about 2 weeks later. Was this a mistake?? What should I have done differently?

 

Don't use salt. Don't use copper. If he has Columnaris he needs pharmaceuticals. The standard recommendation is to use both Kanaplex and Furan 2. I have seen warnings not to increase temperature with Coulmnaris as it speeds progression of the disease (while lowering it doesn't slow it down, but can create other problems so isn't reccomended) so I'm not sure what to suggest with regard to the Ich.

I hope someone with more experience chimes in.

 

Don't use salt. Don't use copper. If he has Columnaris he needs pharmaceuticals. The standard recommendation is to use both Kanaplex and Furan 2. I have seen warnings not to increase temperature with Coulmnaris as it speeds progression of the disease (while lowering it doesn't slow it down, but can create other problems so isn't reccomended) so I'm not sure what to suggest with regard to the Ich.

I hope someone with more experience chimes in.

Thanks, I will be going to the fish store tomorrow to stock up. Before I saw your reply I gave him a salt dip to try to get rid of the fungus on his fins. Hopefully it did not stress him too much and the meds tomorrow will do the trick. I think I am having all of these problems because my tank is cycling and ammonia is likely high; I will have to confirm this tomorrow when I get a test kit. Any other suggestions as to why my fish are struggling so much are welcome!

 

Thanks, I will be going to the fish store tomorrow to stock up. Before I saw your reply I gave him a salt dip to try to get rid of the fungus on his fins. Hopefully it did not stress him too much and the meds tomorrow will do the trick. I think I am having all of these problems because my tank is cycling and ammonia is likely high; I will have to confirm this tomorrow when I get a test kit. Any other suggestions as to why my fish are struggling so much are welcome!

Many diseases are opportunistic, so if you tank isn't cycled this may be part of the problem.

Do a large water change before treating to get the Ammonia and Nitrite levels to 0 before treating. During treatment use Prime to protect the fish from Ammonia Nitrite build up.

 

I am starting a new five-gallon tank with live plants, a Tetra whisper filter, and heater to 77F. I just introduced him the days ago. Yesterday he displayed clear signs of ich (small white dots all over) but I didn't realize what it was until today, and today he is lying on the bottom, gasping, and has ragged fins with fuzzy fungus on them. Is this columnaris? Should I treat with salt? Copper? Help! I've already done a 20% change and added 1tbsp aquarium salt. My plan is to slowly raise the temp to 85F to kill the ich but not sure if this will just cause more problems.

This betta is the second to get sick: before him, I had a betta in the same tank for about three weeks and in the last five days he contracted what looked like fin rot; black at the ends and ragged. I tried to treat with water changes (50% right away, then 25 daily) but the situation went downhill quickly; before I got him medicine he'd developed fungus on his fins which spread to his body. I treated with a 100% water change and general tank scrub with vinegar and rinsed well, which probably completely reset my nitrogen cycle, gave him a salt bath and NeoPlex but it was too late and the stress from the treatments was too much for him.

I changed the water 50% and put my carbon filter back in, and introduced my current betta about 2 weeks later. Was this a mistake?? What should I have done differently?

Update: I gave him a salt dip before bed (1tbsp/g tank water for 6 minutes then .5 tbsp/g tank water for 2 minutes, did a 15% wc during this time, then back in the tank) and he died during the night. After more research I think the suspected columnaris was actually cotton wool fungus that resulted from the ich.
What can I do to make sure this never happens again?

 

I'm sorry for your loss. The best way to prevent this kind of thing is to make sure that the tank is cycled before adding another fish. Ich is an opportunistic disease and non-stressed fish rarely get it, and there's a fair amount of stress being in an uncycled tank which weakens the fish and gives the Ich a chance to take hold.

As a precaution you can turn the heat up to 87 degrees for two weeks. This will make sure that any Ich in the tank is dead before you get another fish. However, the Ich parasites are everywhere, and you'll likely add at least some when you add another fish, which is why you want the tank as 'ideal' as possible when the new guy comes home.

If you do a fish-in cycle make sure to protect him with Prime as it's cycling.