Betta prob

Hello,

My usually healthy, happy betta seems to have something wrong. I am not
sure what the problem is, but his back-side seems to be (what I can only
describe as) "rotting away". A little of his tail is missing from around
there and he has what seems to be an injury or chunk taken out of his
back-side. He spends most of the day at the bottom or at the side of the
filter. That being said, when you walk in the room, he's straight up the
top begging for some food. He'll still go after the little pleco when he
sees it move as well. Water quality is fine and the other fish is doing
well. I have been using some anti-fungus/anti-fin rot treatment in the hope
it would get rid of whatever was causing it/help healing, but the situation
doesn't seem to be changing. It's something that appears to be getting
worse rather than better. I don't think he's injured himself on anything in
the tank from what I can see. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

"BaBeL FiSh" wrote in message
.uk...
Hello,

My usually healthy, happy betta seems to have something wrong. I am not
sure what the problem is, but his back-side seems to be (what I can only
describe as) "rotting away". A little of his tail is missing from around
there and he has what seems to be an injury or chunk taken out of his
back-side. He spends most of the day at the bottom or at the side of the
filter. That being said, when you walk in the room, he's straight up the
top begging for some food. He'll still go after the little pleco when he
sees it move as well. Water quality is fine and the other fish is doing
well. I have been using some anti-fungus/anti-fin rot treatment in the
hope it would get rid of whatever was causing it/help healing, but the
situation doesn't seem to be changing. It's something that appears to be
getting worse rather than better. I don't think he's injured himself on
anything in the tank from what I can see. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

can you give a little more information, what size tank, who else is in the
tank, temp, filter, salt no salt those things, it makes a difference.
It sounds like he has a bad case of rot, which I dealt with not long ago
with one of mine, if he is in a community tank and you are able to keep him
by him self for the time being ....it would probably be better, that way you
can change the water often, clean water is the most important thing with
fin/tail rot, any chance some one is nipping at him? I treated mine with
anti fungus applus+, one treatment every 48 hours twice, I ended up doing
two courses, then changed his water every day and treated with melafix to
repair damage, however they also have bettamax and things alone those lines
to help heal after treatment if you don't want to use melafix. Some people
use salt some don't, I use it because I do think it helps, I use 1 tsp per
gl or 1 tbs per 5 gl on my male bettas, (aquarium salt) even with meds or
what ever you decide to treat with the most important thing is to keep their
water very clean....in the time I was treating him I also feed him very
careful as to not leave any food in his water, a couple pieces at a time.
Nik

You didn't mention whether your tank was using carbon as part of the
filtration...Carbon will render alot of meds useless.
Like Nik mentioned..I prefer using a little salt as well. I use 1 tbs per 5
gal myself. I've remember the healing properties it contributed when I kept
piranahs back in the '80s.

"MEAlston" wrote in message
...
You didn't mention whether your tank was using carbon as part of the
filtration...Carbon will render alot of meds useless.
Like Nik mentioned..I prefer using a little salt as well. I use 1 tbs per
5
gal myself. I've remember the healing properties it contributed when I
kept
piranahs back in the '80s.


Tbs or tsp? the packaging says Tbp, that's what I use if I use it.

tsp..sorry...I use 1 tsp per 5 gallons as my salinity balance. 1 Tbs/5
gallons for treatment tanks.

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 20:08:42 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

tsp..sorry...I use 1 tsp per 5 gallons as my salinity balance. 1 Tbs/5
gallons for treatment tanks.

FWIW - precise measurement of chemicals has been an important part of
my life's work. The teaspoonful (5 ml) and the tablespoonful (15 mls)
is probably the most frequent cause of errors, either written
incorrectly or read incorrectly. Another reason we should be using the
metric system world wide - but I would like to suggest that when
anyone mentions one of those two measurements, please be safe and
certain by spelling out teaspoonful or tablespoonful instead of
relying on abbreviations. As you can see, one of them is 3 times the
amount of the other, and a misplaced b or p can have profound effects
on the treatment.

-- Mister Gardener

"Mister Gardener" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 20:08:42 GMT, "MEAlston"
wrote:

tsp..sorry...I use 1 tsp per 5 gallons as my salinity balance. 1 Tbs/5
gallons for treatment tanks.

FWIW - precise measurement of chemicals has been an important part of
my life's work. The teaspoonful (5 ml) and the tablespoonful (15 mls)
is probably the most frequent cause of errors, either written
incorrectly or read incorrectly. Another reason we should be using the
metric system world wide - but I would like to suggest that when
anyone mentions one of those two measurements, please be safe and
certain by spelling out teaspoonful or tablespoonful instead of
relying on abbreviations. As you can see, one of them is 3 times the
amount of the other, and a misplaced b or p can have profound effects
on the treatment.

-- Mister Gardener
Your point is well taken, as we speak I'm doing a 50% water change. I added
a new fish to one of my tanks and added some salt for stress. Well I clearly
read Tablespoon on the package, I've read it a hundred times, but for some
reason I added per gallon, not per 5g. Just not paying attention!!! Guess
you will be doing another water change after this one.
Stupid stupid stupid

BaBeL FiSh wrote,
his back-side seems to be (what I can only
describe as) "rotting away". A little of his tail is missing from around
there and he has what seems to be an injury or chunk taken out of his
back-side. ...

If another fish didn't do it, it could be internal parasites or fungus.
Most likely fungus - would treat for that along with an open wound
treatment on the area. Add a fungus treatment to the water after a 20%
gravel vac/water change. When treating an open wound, using a Q-tip
clean the area with peroxide (keeping it away from the eyes and gills)
once a day. Twice a day, rub a little neosporia cream into the area. If
you know a vet, Panalog works a little better/faster than neosporia
cream. Feeding a medicated food wouldn't hurt eather........... Frank

"MEAlston" wrote in message
...
You didn't mention whether your tank was using carbon as part of the
filtration...Carbon will render alot of meds useless.
Like Nik mentioned..I prefer using a little salt as well. I use 1 tbs per
5
gal myself. I've remember the healing properties it contributed when I
kept
piranahs back in the '80s.



Not using carbon. Will give the salt a try.

Thanks.

"Nikki" wrote in message
. ..

"BaBeL FiSh" wrote in message
.uk...
Hello,

My usually healthy, happy betta seems to have something wrong. I am not
sure what the problem is, but his back-side seems to be (what I can only
describe as) "rotting away". A little of his tail is missing from around
there and he has what seems to be an injury or chunk taken out of his
back-side. He spends most of the day at the bottom or at the side of the
filter. That being said, when you walk in the room, he's straight up the
top begging for some food. He'll still go after the little pleco when he
sees it move as well. Water quality is fine and the other fish is doing
well. I have been using some anti-fungus/anti-fin rot treatment in the
hope it would get rid of whatever was causing it/help healing, but the
situation doesn't seem to be changing. It's something that appears to be
getting worse rather than better. I don't think he's injured himself on
anything in the tank from what I can see. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

can you give a little more information, what size tank, who else is in the
tank, temp, filter, salt no salt those things, it makes a difference.
It sounds like he has a bad case of rot, which I dealt with not long ago
with one of mine, if he is in a community tank and you are able to keep
him by him self for the time being ....it would probably be better, that
way you can change the water often, clean water is the most important
thing with fin/tail rot, any chance some one is nipping at him? I treated
mine with anti fungus applus+, one treatment every 48 hours twice, I ended
up doing two courses, then changed his water every day and treated with
melafix to repair damage, however they also have bettamax and things alone
those lines to help heal after treatment if you don't want to use melafix.
Some people use salt some don't, I use it because I do think it helps, I
use 1 tsp per gl or 1 tbs per 5 gl on my male bettas, (aquarium salt) even
with meds or what ever you decide to treat with the most important thing
is to keep their water very clean....in the time I was treating him I also
feed him very careful as to not leave any food in his water, a couple
pieces at a time.
Nik

Sorry, only just seen this post since I've been having trouble with news
servers here.

Not sure if you're UK or US, but I am UK and so will use UK measures! Tank
size is 40L approx. No salt, temp is 80, filter was UG airstone powered,
but added Fluval 1 Plus a while ago as the UG wasn't doing much to keep the
water clean. Only other fish in tank is the tiniest of plecos which I
intend to move to my huge tank when he grows up a bit. However, the size he
is at the moment will make him liable to be the panchax's breakfast if I
moved him now.