BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Sick Bettas

I have had my first betta for 2 months. He was thriving, blowing little bubble nests and all. I then got 2 additional bettas from Walmart. One of them is a crown tail betta. He had popeye when I bought him and he still has it. I am treating him with Marcyl 2. I noticed that my second betta had red marks. I on his front 2 fins (under the gills). I couldn't remember if they were there when I bought him or not. I have only had him for a couple of days. I checked the ammonia level on all 3 tanks. It was at .50, I did a water change and can not get it to get under .25, even with ammonia neutralizer

Here are my questions:

What can I do to get the ammonia level down?
Is too much ammonia neutralizer bad for bettas?
What is causing the high ammonia levels? Is it the size of my tanks? I know I need to get bigger ones. I will after the first of the year.
How do I get rid of the popeye? The Marcel does not seem to be working.
Also the betta with the popeye has a large stomach. I can post pics if needed.

Tank Specifics:
Each Betta is in a 1 gallon set up, with 1 snail, and a small live plant. Temp is kept between 70 and 75. 50% water changes every 3 days with a complete water change every 10 days.

Diet: Alternate between betta flakes, pellets, and freeze dried shrimp

Thanks for any help!

Hi there,

I really do think that the high ammonia levels are from over crowding. I realize you only have 1 fish, 1 snail and 1 plant. All of those living things create waste and you need enough space to handle it. Also be sure you are only feeding each beta up to 5 small pellets a day total. Access food creates tons of ammonia.

I think they would do well to an upgrade to a 2 1/2 gallon tank per beta. I personally use an ammonia neutralizer from Jungle called Ammonia Clear Tank Buddies. It works well with my fantail goldfish (and we all know how messy they are!) It is also safe to use up to 2 times the dosage - which is great for approximating the amount of meds - since you will have to break up the tablets to get the dosage down to 1 gallon from 10 gallons per tablet.

For popeye, fin and tail rot and gill disease I treat them first with TriSulfa (a medicean by Mardel). Usually these symptoms are created by "dirty tank water" - though you are doing a good job of changing their water. When you are treating with meds though you CANNOT do water changes - because it removes the meds you are trying to get to help your fish.

Your one betas big belly could be one of two things depending on what the circumstances are. To rull out constipation I would fast them for 1 day only. The swelling should o down ... if not it could be swim bladdar disease - but I do not believe there is a cure for this and eventually they will pas away if that is the case. (Sorry to say!)

The red marks under your other fishes fins... are they red lines like veins? swollen spots? I would need to know more about it before I can give you sound advice.

Hope this helped. Good luck! Let us know if they get better or worse!

Hi, Yes, I agree - overcrowding is the culprit - or at least one them for sure. Yes, would you please send us some photos? Have you had a chance to upgrade your fish tanks, yet? Yes, gradual upgrade in amount of water is the best advice for starters and for something as serious as popeye you definitely want the specific medicine and put your fish by himself for the best care in his own hospital tank where there will be no others and not decorations and you can keep the water a couple degrees warmer so the medication can take effect more efficiently. How is it going so far? Please give us an update.