BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Fish Journal - BETTAS ONLY

I hope I don't ever have to deal with velvet...sounds like a pain...

My fish has been looking kinda bloated for the past few days, and I'm fasting him to see if that helps, but I get the sinking feeling it's dropsy. His fins aren't sticking out yet though, so I'm hoping it's not. I'm just trying to keep his water clean and warm. Even if I lose him, I know I gave him a good home.

Ah [censored]. I just read that you *shouldn't* use aquarium salt when treating dropsy, since it draws fluid out of the body, which is already happening inside the fish. I've been using salt all along since he has fin rot and ich. Soooo I set out some new water and I'm going to do another water change without salt as soon as possible.

Another change...now he's having trouble swimming...could it be constipation after all? I sure hope so...

Emg - yeah, keep the lights off, unless that is how you plan to raise temps. if you are using light to raise temps, make sure the cup has a dark, opaque cover. Maybe use black construction paper over the lid?

I have not had to deal with betta velvet. Poor little dude, all clamped. I hate seeing that. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> it's for sure due to poor water conditions. betta water should NEVER smell. Blech.

LOL - I would not let him on MY tanks either!!!!

Emg, you can say anything here, this is our betta journal thread! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Elisea, If he has ich and fin rot and dropsy and constipation then you can't win. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> Just keep him comfy - maybe he will pull through on his own. It may not be dropsy. But yes, he's had a GREAT home.

ps to everyone - velvet is pretty rare in a betta. water and tank conditions have to get really, really bad.

Just so everyone doesn't run to their fish and start lookng to hard. if you look at your betta too hard, you will start imagining diseases. I am NOT kidding. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well...lost the fish....lol....I think I may have inadvertantly overdoesed him with the ich med. It was really hard trying to get a proper dose in there for him, since the directions were for 10 gallons..did the best I could and really thought he was going to make....oh well...

Since I have so many betta...lol...I gave her one of mine..a very nice purple/blue fella. I also have her some extra gravel I had sitting around..because what she had in there is what smelled so bad...had an ugly chemical smell...mixed with dirty water smell...blah ! So, she got her tank back all cleaned up and tidy....a new fish and a few fake plants that I also had and would probably never use again.

I'll be dropping by her class from time to time to check him out....hope this one fares better....

EMG - you did what you could for the fish, and at least he had clean water for the last few days, which I'm sure he was very grateful for. I hope now knows how to better care for a betta, I wouldn't want to see you send one of your own off to it's death! It would be a great teaching experience for the class too. I read about one teacher who had the class share in their weekly water change and let one child feed the fish each day, so that it didn't get overfed.

As for my fish, he's still looking more active, so I'm starting to be more optomistic. Last night he looked terrible, he was lying on the bottom with his fins clamped around him, so I covered his tank entirely with a towel to give him some shade. Still no protruding scales, and the ich looks like it's off the fish anyway. Fins are still ragged, but I'll take that over dropsy if it comes to it, lol! Keeping my fingers crossed...I changed about 75% of the water to reduce the salt, and I kicked the MelaFix because he had a really weird reaction last night when I added it to the water...started flailing and hovering at the bottom and gasping for air...I did the water change almost immediately after that, even though the water wasn't fully aged yet. He seems happier. I think he got a good sleep :P

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in to see how all of you betta fanatics are doing. Our Sugar II is still doing swimmingly and got over a minor spell with fin rot a few weeks ago. I'm finally back online so I look forward to catching up. Hope everyone is doing well!

Hey...Welcome back FW !! Good to read from you again ! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm having some issues with one of my bettas. His been sorta on his side the past week, which I admit is bad for me to be trying to figure out /now/ what's wrong with him but I didn't have a choice dealing with school. An personally i didn't think he would live this long if it was a serious problem. -.- All I've ever treated was fin rot, an that was with some melafix in there water an so forth.

Along with him on his side he has a popeye, which I thought the melafix might help but it seems that's not for popeye even though it says so.. darn thing -.-

He swims around when ever I tap the tank an when its feeding time. I'm going to not feed him for a few days an see if that has something to do, which I hope it will seeing how his only four months old! an surived a trip from VA to FL with four other fishy friends..

Point is I'll take any infomation that I can get to try an save him seeing how he seems to be a real fighter..

suhuba -

Popeye is generally a condition brought on by bad water conditions. It is likely you missed a water change when he needed it or didn't change enough water at one time, causing bad bacteria to build up. Sometimes, like all diseases, it just happens, probably due to an injury to the eye, but in general it means you need to change the water more often. Swimming on his side sounds like a swim bladder problem caused by overfeeding, so you are right to fast him for a few days. On the second or third day, give him a peice of thawed frozen pea (make sure it isn't too big that he might choke on it) and see if he looks better.

Keep his water very clean. Do a water change every few days, and be sure to clean any uneaten food and poo out of the gravel at least daily, using a turkey baster or something similar, because the popeye could have been brought on by leftover food rotting in the bottom, plus an excess of waste production caused by overfeeding. Another website says to try the antibiotic Ampicilex (Aquatronics) in his water, but I don't know anything about this med, and the first thing I would try would be the clean water routine. Perhaps add a little aquarium salt to his water change too, if you have it.

I'm just about to sit down and read to my boys before bed so I'm hoping that someone will be lurking around and have some advice until I can get back and do some research. I just noticed that our betta looks a little pinkier on his sides (close to his tail) and when I got a good look at him it seemed like some of his scales were sticking out slightly. I do remember hearing about something like this, but I cannot remember what to do about it... or worse if you just have to sit back and let it happen. Please if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, FW.