BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Betta Revive overdose? Please help!

My betta is sick and I'm not sure what to do about it. He had fin rot and the pet store recommended something called Betta Revive, which turned his whole tank the colour of blue kool aid. He didn't really like it when I put it in, and within half an hour he'd gotten much worse. He sits down at the bottom and only comes up a few times for air. He's barely eaten anything. Before the Betta Revive, when he just had fin rot, he looked pretty bad but seemed happy enough. I've stopped giving him the Betta Revive and changed half the water in his tank, but he's still lying face down in the gravel barely able to move. It's possible that I gave him too much medicine (my tank is larger than the ones they gave measurments for on the package and I might have messed up the math). The top 2 ingredients are neomycin sulfate (10%) and methylene blue (<0.5%). Is there anything I can do to help him? He's only getting worse.

Betta medicines like Betta Revive do turn the water blue and that's actually ok. I doubt that the problem is an over-dose. Can you give us an idea of what kind of water you're using? What kind of tank set-up do you have and what is the temp of the water? What and how much are you feeding your betta?

When you bring a new betta home from the pet store, lots of them will have fin rot. It takes some time to cure them, fin rot is caused by bad water and cured with good water. But fin rot doesn't cause bettas to behave the way you're describing. What you're describing sounds like swim bladder disease as well as the fin rot. With some TLC, you'll probably be able to bring your fishie back to good health.

One of the biggest mistakes made with new bettas is pouring them into their home bowl or tank after maybe floating them for 15 mins or so. Bettas can live in a wide variety of water types, but they need to be oh so slowly acclimated to their new environment - like 8 to even 24 hours! Floating them and adding very tiny amounts of the new water every 30 minutes or so over a number of hours makes the transition more successful.

First off, check the temp of the water - it should be about 78 degrees. If it's too cold, use a lamp above the tank. Next, be sure you're not using tap water straight from the tap - you need to fill some water jugs with tap water and let them sit with no cover for about 24 hours. Then add the water conditioners to the water. You'll want to change your bettas water about every third day while he's sick at the very least. Be sure the temp is the same - the changes in temp are stressful to bettas.

A good water recipie is 8 drops AquaSafe, 1 drop Aquarisol, and 1 small pinch of aquarium salt to one gallon of water.

If your betta is in a bowl, if you can swing it, I'd recommend upgrading to at least a 2.5 gal acrylic aquarium with a hood and built in light. You should also get a heater made for small tanks like the hydor mini heater (7.5 watts) to use if your room temp is below 75 degrees. The light adds some heat to the water, but you shouldn't leave the light on 24 hrs a day - bettas like their beauty rest!

The other issue may be caused by overfeeding. Package directions aren't very good - in fact, if you followed most directions, you'd have a sick fish in no time! I give my betta tiny amounts of food twice a day, and he has one day a week to fast. You may need to feed your betta a small piece of a thawed frozen pea with the skin removed. Sometimes bettas not swimming well is caused by constipation, and the pea helps that.

While this is a long post, making it sound like bettas are complicated to care for, once you have a good set up in place, it's a breeze! Please also read the articles here on the Bella site - they're excellent!

I hope your fishie feels better real soon - be sure to post more info and let us know what's happening.

Thanks for your help. I've had the fish since October and until this Christmas never had any problems. The fin rot developed while he was staying with friends and the power went out for three days. It got really cold in the house and according to my friend, it looked like he went into hibernation.

I don't have a thermometer, but he is living in a 2.5 gallon tank that has a hood with a light. I usually change 1/3 to 1/2 the water at a time and treat it with Betta Basics and let it sit for at least half an hour.

I have been feeding him 4 pellets twice a day (it's what the package says) but he hasn't eaten much of anything the past few days.

I really do think this was caused by the Betta Revive. Before, his fins didn't look great but he was active and happy and eating. Less than half an hour after I put the Betta Revive in his tank he'd sunk to the bottom and was obviously sick. Now he can barely move.

I guess the best advice I can give is to do really frequent water changes - 100% daily would be great - but every other day at least, so he can de-tox his system. Be sure to change the filter as well, and put in a filter with carbon since that will out the methylene blue.

Keep us posted on how he does.

Best wishes

Yes, this is all good advice - would you please give us an update on your dear little Betta's condition? As you can see on this thread of the Fish forum, although only 2 people have replied to you so far, dozens of fish enthusiasts have read your post with apparent interest!

Did you get a thermometer, yet? It's important to keep his temperature at the appropriate temperature for Betta fish on a consistant basis. The water temperature will be different from the air temperature in the room. It will also depend on the amount of water in his tank because of the size of the tank you provide him with. The 3 cold days certainly could have effected him negatively, but he should be able to recover from fin rot nicely with a little special attention. Fin rot can be cured with frequent complete water changes. Betta Fix can help, too. Ich can also appear in Betta fish sometimes when they have been subjected to temperatures that are too cold for them since they are tropical fish.

First, you should let your little guy get some strength back, though. Yes, clearing the water of the chemicals should be done first, too. This can be accomplished using a Poly Filter and/or an activated carbon filter to help remove what might be left of the medication. This does sound worse than just common fin rot, though. I wonder what else your fish sitters might have done - even if they're not aware of it. If you get a chance, you could read the article on the Fish Site here at BellaOnline.com about how to care for your fish when you are away. Maybe it's safer without the fish babysitters. Sometimes, it's even better to take them with you if possible. They can have a "vacation home" to transport them in.

What kind of pellets are you feeding him? There are various kinds of Betta foods.

How cold exactly did it actually get in the house for 3 days for your little fishy?

Please update us on your Betta. What's his name? What color is he and what does he look like? Is he a solid color or various colors and does he have a pattern on his body and/or fins? I sure do hope he is feeling better.

Please tell us more and we will give you more suggestions.

Hoping someone will read this. This exact thing is napping to my betta. He was getting a bit of fin rot, something I've been battling with him for months now. Partial water changes every other day. Aquarium salt treatments. Decided to give Betta Revive a try. Within an hour he started to lay on his side on the bottom of his tank. This was about 24 hours ago. I did a 100% water change about 9 hours ago, so afraid he was dying. Did not put any Betta revive back in. Just went back to his normal water. No improvement. He seems to be breathing heavy and his eyes are closed a lot. He is in a 3 quart bowl. pH level is good. Temp is at 78 as per usual. Put a little aquarium salt in. About 1/4 of the recommended dose. Not sure what else to do. I just don't want him to die.

I'm sorry about your Betta. If he was battling fin rot for months, the fin rot could have worked its way up to his body and made him more sick. If you're adding Betta Revive, you'd need to do complete water changes instead of partial water changes because with the partial water change, and still adding more Betta Revive, you'd be putting too much Betta Revive in the amount of water you have in the bowl. It's just one drop of Betta Revive to 16 ounces of water. If he's laying on his side, it's a sign of his swim bladder being effected, so it's progressed to much more than fin rot. When you give your fish a salt treatment, you want the water to be 80 degrees (a little warmer than usual) to facilitate the ingestion of the medicine. Did you check the ammonia level? Usually, the cause of fin rot is because the water needs to be changed more often so it's clean because otherwise, a lot of ammonia can build up in the water and be toxic. What happened with your little Betta?