Cousin's betta

[babygeige]

My cousin called me this morning with a "fish emergency." She has a pink veiltail named Swimmy. She's had him for at least 2 years. From what she told me over the phone, I kind of thought that maybe it was just that he was getting old. She also emailed me before she called me, and here is what her email says.:

Oh I'm so sad! Swimmy is not doing well. I was changing his water/cleaning out his tank, and his fins are withering away! I
noticed a few days ago that he was being a little weird, but he looked okay, and now he's really pale, and his fins... I think it may be fin rot, which makes me SUPER sad because that means I'm not cleaning his tank often enough, but he's typically pink with red coloring so I just didn't realize until today when I was like "Swimmy, where did all your fins go? I also think he may be constipated. He's looking slightly better since I've cleaned everything, but what can I do about his fins?

I will be meeting her for dinner on Wednesday, so I told her that I would bring some medicine and aquarium salt for her to put in his tank, just in case it is fin rot. I also told her to do some smaller water changes every day and that should help him out.

Does anyone else have any ideas? Water parameters are unknown. Swimmy's her only fish, so she doesn't have any testing stuff.

[eve]

she should definitely not feed him until you get a chance to get a look at him
if he is constipated, he needs to fast

[goldenpuon]

What size tank is he in and how often does your cousin change his water? I hope whatever he has clears up. Best of luck to your cousin.

[corycatwoman]

id suggest giving her step by step bathing treatment and walking her through the process sometimes that helps the worst of scenarios. specially with bettas they seem to be alot more sensitive to bad water conditions and fin rot especially than most other fish.

and if the bath doesnt work then she should take pictures or a video and have you post it on here so everyone can have a look and narrow it down to the different possibilities that it may have.

[Carl]

Stephanie:

Can you test her water, ammonia in particular, as prolonged exposure to moderate to high ammonia levels can cause symptoms of fin rot and loss of color and the use of meds would be counter productive if this is the cause.

A medicated bath with Methylene Blue & Salt would certainly help even if it does not cure, even in the case of ammonia poisoning since it is a hemoglobin transfer agent in the blood.

Otherwise this can be a symptom of many bacterial pathogens and knowing the care that led up to this problem may be helpful since many of these pathogens are opportunistic (such as Aeromonas if there is low oxygen levels and too much decomposing organic mulm)

TB pathogens (which are not common) are more likely to show as a total disintegration of the fish, while Strep pathogens are more likely to show ups as cloudy eyes or a milky appearance and does not fit what you described.

Carl

[babygeige]

She lives almost 2 hours away. We're meeting halfway on Wednesday, so I won't be able to actually look at him in person. Maybe I'll have her bring some water so I can at least test the ammonia for her. I have a medicated wonder shell here, so I'll give her that too.

He's in a 2 gallon hex tank, and I stupidly did not think to ask her how often she cleans the tank. Hopefully I will get a chance to talk to her online sometime this afternoon to get more info.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I will pass this on to her. I'll keep you posted!

[babygeige]

Ok, Autumn told me that she changes 25% of the water every week and then every two weeks she cleans the gravel. It is a filtered tank, so that doesn't sound too bad to me. She also went to the store and bought some medicine and salt.

She said he seemed to be swimming more a little while after she added the medicine, so hopefully she's on the right path.

[cashay]

From my experience that melafix helped my betta with his fin rot, i followed what was said on the bottle, treat daily for i think seven days, I could be wrong on that also. im at work and i dont have the bottle, But im pretty sure that is what it said. But it helped wonders!!!

[babygeige]

Yeah, Melafix is awesome stuff.

Autumn said that he is looking much better. She also thinks she found the problem. She had a rock cave in there. She checked it out before she put it in there months ago, but she took it out the other day and did a pantyhose test on it. Sure enough, in a particular spot that he's just started hanging out in, it snagged, so his fins must have snagged on that spot. She was pretty mad at herself, but at least she figured it out and he's healing.

Obviously, she got rid of that cave and is going to get a new safer cave thing for him.

[corycatwoman]

tell her to try a small taracotta pot used definately used. the new ones arent good for the fish. but used ones are perfect caves. and since it is a betta they dont need anything fancy or expensive.

they come in all sizes aswell.

good luck and tell her shes doing great.

[babygeige]

I think she is going to use a terra cotta pot next time. I have one in my betta tank and Finn has spent just about every night for last couple weeks in it. It's so cute seeing him curled up in there. he looks so comfy!

Sadly, Swimmy died yesterday. Autumn said that he was looking better, then all of a sudden some of his scales turned silvery and he was gulping for breath. She had he had silver streaks on his body...

[eve]

awww, that sucks
sorry to hear that

[goldenpuon]

Sorry to hear your cousin lost her fish Babygeige. I hope she has better luck in the future.

[Suzie Q (Lori)]

I'm Sorry Steph.

[babygeige]

Thanks everybody. I'll pass along your sympathies. She'll appreciate it.
She's going to wait until the summer and then get another. She had Swimmy for over 2 years, and when she bought him, she picked out the most pathetic looking betta Walmart had and nursed him back to health, so she shouldn't feel too guilty about losing him.