Sarinaobrien24
Hello, can someone help me identify what my betta is sick with and how to help him!! I've had my betta for a couple months now in an established 5 gallon tank that's been set up for at least 6 months. It is a cycled, planted aquarium that has a sponge filter and a heater that stays around 80 degrees F. I regularly test my parameters around every 2 months and they never really change much. PH is around 6.8 , ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is 5ppm.
About 3 months after I got him he developed 2 weird white patches on his scales but they were small and didn't seem to effect his behavior and he still seemed happy and healthy. It didn't look fluffy like columnaris but I was still concerned so I started giving him aquarium salt baths about every other day but it never really did anything. I stopped the salt baths and was looking into what it might be and how to medicate him but he still seemed fine. Eventually before I was able to figure out what it was I was dealing with, it just went away on it's own and I stopped worrying about it. About 2 months later he developed fin-rot and i started giving him salt baths again to help but it only seemed to slow it down. I had been busy with school and haven't had time to properly do enough research where I'm comfortable medicating him for his fin-rot and since it wasn't progressing I wasn't that worried.
About two weeks ago he looses a lot of his fins. Then about 9 days ago he comes down with dropsy. I've experienced this before and I was prepared for it. As soon as I noticed his pineconing I set him up in a 4 gallon hospital tank in a bucket with a heater and added kanaplex and water conditioner. I gave him an epsom salt bath to help with the bloating and pineconing. He honestly wasn't pineconing that bad and was still eating but he was a little lethargic and slow. The next morning he seemed a lot less lethargic but he had about the same amount of pineconing.
While giving him his salt bath I noticed little white hair like fluff on different parts of his body (not his fins, mouth or gills) it was only a little bit and must have developed that night. I did one 100% water change after 48 hours on kanaplex, redosed and then did another 100% water changed and I changed his medication. I figured what I saw was fungal (now I think it may be columnaris) and started him on Jungle Fungal clear tablets. The next 2 days the little white spots cleared up a whole bunch but after more research I thought that what he had was bacterial and not fungal so I switched back to kanaplex after 48 hours on the fungal medication. He's had a total of 4 days on kanaplex, then I changed him to jungle fungal clear for 2 days and then back to kanaplex for 2 days. I've also been doing an epsom salt bath everyday since I noticed he's been pineconing. I also added API stresscoat plus to help his slimecoat because of all the recent salt baths.
Over the span of the last week he's improved a lot and I honestly thought I was going to lose him the first couple days. The pineconing is very minimal but still noticeable which concerns me but he's eating, swimming and not acting lethargic but is still kind of slow (not sure if that's just because he's recovering or if he's just uncomfortable being out of his usual tank). He swims with the bottom half of his body more angled towards the ground and doesn't really swim with his tail. I can tell he's uncomfortable and definitely not back to his normal happy self and still has clamped fins. You can barely see but there are some tiny, tiny white spots.
I honestly don't know what to do at this point. He's acting a lot better but the minimal pineconing really concerns me because I know dropsy can advance and be fatal very quickly. I did a complete water change on his usual tank about 4 days ago and added his usual filter back and I just tested it today and it's cycled and ready for him. I'm not sure if I want to keep medicating him because he's already been through about 9 days on meds and If he's looking better I don't want to make it worse, but I don't want any of his symptoms to bounce back either. I think he would be much happier in his usual home though. I'm wondering if his warm, clean tank with some stresscoat plus and tannins would be better then pumping him full of any more meds. I don't even know what medications I should use next because he's already been on kanaplex for about 6 days total and I'm not totally sure what he's suffering from. Can someone help me figure out what he has and what my next step should be? I added some pictures but you can only see the severity of his fins and his pineconing. The white spots won't show up on camera and honestly I don't think many people could see it with their eyes either because it's so small.
About 3 months after I got him he developed 2 weird white patches on his scales but they were small and didn't seem to effect his behavior and he still seemed happy and healthy. It didn't look fluffy like columnaris but I was still concerned so I started giving him aquarium salt baths about every other day but it never really did anything. I stopped the salt baths and was looking into what it might be and how to medicate him but he still seemed fine. Eventually before I was able to figure out what it was I was dealing with, it just went away on it's own and I stopped worrying about it. About 2 months later he developed fin-rot and i started giving him salt baths again to help but it only seemed to slow it down. I had been busy with school and haven't had time to properly do enough research where I'm comfortable medicating him for his fin-rot and since it wasn't progressing I wasn't that worried.
About two weeks ago he looses a lot of his fins. Then about 9 days ago he comes down with dropsy. I've experienced this before and I was prepared for it. As soon as I noticed his pineconing I set him up in a 4 gallon hospital tank in a bucket with a heater and added kanaplex and water conditioner. I gave him an epsom salt bath to help with the bloating and pineconing. He honestly wasn't pineconing that bad and was still eating but he was a little lethargic and slow. The next morning he seemed a lot less lethargic but he had about the same amount of pineconing.
While giving him his salt bath I noticed little white hair like fluff on different parts of his body (not his fins, mouth or gills) it was only a little bit and must have developed that night. I did one 100% water change after 48 hours on kanaplex, redosed and then did another 100% water changed and I changed his medication. I figured what I saw was fungal (now I think it may be columnaris) and started him on Jungle Fungal clear tablets. The next 2 days the little white spots cleared up a whole bunch but after more research I thought that what he had was bacterial and not fungal so I switched back to kanaplex after 48 hours on the fungal medication. He's had a total of 4 days on kanaplex, then I changed him to jungle fungal clear for 2 days and then back to kanaplex for 2 days. I've also been doing an epsom salt bath everyday since I noticed he's been pineconing. I also added API stresscoat plus to help his slimecoat because of all the recent salt baths.
Over the span of the last week he's improved a lot and I honestly thought I was going to lose him the first couple days. The pineconing is very minimal but still noticeable which concerns me but he's eating, swimming and not acting lethargic but is still kind of slow (not sure if that's just because he's recovering or if he's just uncomfortable being out of his usual tank). He swims with the bottom half of his body more angled towards the ground and doesn't really swim with his tail. I can tell he's uncomfortable and definitely not back to his normal happy self and still has clamped fins. You can barely see but there are some tiny, tiny white spots.
I honestly don't know what to do at this point. He's acting a lot better but the minimal pineconing really concerns me because I know dropsy can advance and be fatal very quickly. I did a complete water change on his usual tank about 4 days ago and added his usual filter back and I just tested it today and it's cycled and ready for him. I'm not sure if I want to keep medicating him because he's already been through about 9 days on meds and If he's looking better I don't want to make it worse, but I don't want any of his symptoms to bounce back either. I think he would be much happier in his usual home though. I'm wondering if his warm, clean tank with some stresscoat plus and tannins would be better then pumping him full of any more meds. I don't even know what medications I should use next because he's already been on kanaplex for about 6 days total and I'm not totally sure what he's suffering from. Can someone help me figure out what he has and what my next step should be? I added some pictures but you can only see the severity of his fins and his pineconing. The white spots won't show up on camera and honestly I don't think many people could see it with their eyes either because it's so small.
