r/BettaClinic

Hello, I need some advice on how to help my betta, Balloon. On Saturday we moved from upstate NY to NYC, on my way out of my dorm I forgot the final bag I was supposed to take with tank water (not great, I know, honest mistake). I left about 2gals in the tank and covered it with a trash bag for the drive, I added (guessing) about 4 more gallons to the tank when I got here. He went in the tank in the morning when the water was settled. He seemed okay at first but now 4 days later he isn't as active, and his fins look slightly clamped but im not sure. He's moving around (not as much, hes at the bottom a bit which isnt typical (hes usually very active or on a plant near the top of the tank) and not refusing food. I noticed him swimming a bit on his side too, he has a small bulge at the back of his tail that I'm not sure what it is as well (circled photo). My tank also developed a film at the top, I removed what was there however I can tell there are small amounts of it on the substrate. Google said biofilm and harmless but its not typical or like anything I've experienced, but it might be worth mentioning. First picture is from just now, the others were 2 days ago.

Info that might help or be relevant:

Tank: 10gal (filled to about 6 rn), sponge filter with adjusted airflow

Age: About 6-8 months

Breed: halfmoon (he is from petsmart, I do not support them and please dont buy fish from there)

Temperature: 72-74° (new heater coming today so I can make that 78-80, currently there are two 25w in opposite sides of the tank)

Products: I use seachem prime (I have stability and flourish as well but neither have been used in a few weeks), fluval stratum, morpani wood, fluval bug bites (abt 8-10 pieces a day), omega one bloodworms (he hasn't had one of these since before the move). I have Kanaplex on hand and I used it previously for him when he had fin rot about 2 months ago, 3 doses.

There are no other fish in the tank.

Parameters:

Gh- 60 (typically 120, before the move)

Kh- 0 (typically 40 before)

Ph- 6.5 (typically 7 before)

Nitrite- 0

Nitrate- 20 (I know this should be 0, but I wanted to ask for advice before doing anything to the tank)

*This is from an API test strip, the tank water bag sadly also contained my master kit so I'm using my back-up while I wait a week (soonest I could deliver) for another API kit.

Please note that any and all advice is welcome and I just want my baby to be okay:( If there's something I need to buy or do please let me know, I've honestly dropped hundreds on this fish and Id do it again. If I can avoid a vet that would be great, looking into the few nearby they seem to have not the greatest reviews.

I have a 5 gallon tank with a heater and sponge filter, and the temperature stays around 80°F. The tank has been cycling for about a week without fish, and I just added my betta tonight. I’ve had the fish for a little over a year. My current parameters using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit are pH 8.0, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0.25 ppm, and nitrate 20 ppm.

I just completed a 30% water change after noticing the nitrite level, now it’s 0 ppm. There are no tankmates. I feed flakes 4 days a week, bloodworms 2 days a week, and do 1 fasting day each week. I’m also getting some floating plants later this week.

Right now he’s sitting at the bottom of the tank a lot and seems to be sinking. Pictures are attached. I’m worried because this behavior started before being moved into the new tank tonight (he was in a 1 gal for a year, yeah ik, problem kind of solved), and I’m trying to figure out if this is stress from the move/cycling process and/ or being in the 1 gal, or if something else could be going on. Any advice would be appreciated.

She's been spending more time on the floor recently for long times and breathing more shallow breaths. She can still swim around just fine. Shes been swimming up quickly for oxygen and resting kn a left near the surface at times. She acts completely normal when the show of food is involved but im not sure if this behavior is due to sickness or change in temperature with summer being near.

Here is the results from the test that I did. The nitrogen is a bit high but its below 40 still. I added some anemone leaves today to see if that helps.

Water is perfect. He gets bug bites and occasional brine shrimp. I’ve had him for about 3 months. Is this a tumor?

My fish has had fin rot for a long time and I’ve tried ESHA 2000 and Baktopur, with almost daily water changes. No matter what I do, his tail gets worse day by day and it’s very close to the body. He’s in good spirits and eating well.

Nirites 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates <5
pH 7.6
14 liters
Live plants
No fake decoration

• ⁠Tank Size 5.5
• ⁠Water Temp 80
• ⁠Ammonia / Nitrite / Nitrate readings included in comments.
• ⁠How long the issue has been occurring: maybe a few days ago I noticed

This is atlas🥹I will post when I first got him and water temp and water testing results in the comments. Last I checked there was no ammonia last week. I’m trying to keep my baby healthy and happy but I’m new to this and his poor fins are not as beautiful anymore I check on him daily and the past 3-4 days I notice this change in his fins since being in his new big tank (2weeks tomorrow he will have been in the new tank). I’ve had him for about a month now. I have asked for additional help and since yesterday I got the seachem stress guard. I notice he’s in his reflection a lot may be what is stressing him , I have been trying to cover his tank up not sure what to do . I plan on getting more plants and the proper testing kit as I only have the tetra strips for right now for him when I’m financially able this weekend .

I have had my betta fish for about 5 weeks now and for the past 3 weeks I have noticed his fins deteriorating. When I first got him I was worried it was from the plants so I redid the tank with all real plants and it has just gotten worse. I then thought he could be biting at his own tail but now I am leaning more towards fin rot. I need advise!

I have been treating the water the past week with seachem paraguard and it hasn’t seemed to help and he is only getting worse. I ordered Kanaplex which will be here tomorrow, but I don’t want to keep treating the water if I am treating for the wrong thing.

He is in a 5 gallon tank, the water is between 79-80 degrees, he has maintained his normal energy and is regularly eating.

I have been doing multiple water changes a week now and the water levels were fine when i last checked.

I have attached pictures below of its progression ( I just cleaned the tank and did a water change, please excuse the floating particles in the last two pictures)

I went to Meijer to pick up some groceries and we live in a very rural area. I had no idea they even had fish there. I went to go look and seen this poor guy. He couldn’t swim to the top of his cup for air. There was so much scum at the button of his cup. I rescued him and he is in his hospital tank recovering nicely. Sending these to Meijer as well! Hope they start doing better if they are gonna sell these guys! 1st two pictures are the day I got him. The second two is the next day and the last is a week later.

I am a newbie to fish keeping, this is my first betta and fish, initially I kept my betta in a 10L tank, due to poor water quality, he got a quick progressing fin rot which his dorsal fin melted away quickly in just a few days with ragged fragments as shown in the first pic.

Then, I quickly quarantined the betta (he was alone without other fish) into a smaller tank (4L) with hanged filter (like a small water pump) and a 25W heater constantly at 26°C, and bathed it with nitrofuran class antibiotics, which his fin rot stopped. Afterwards, I notice that the edge of the fin started falling bit by bit, seems to be the necrotised tissue. And the areas circled with yellow and blue colour are the caudal fin and anal fin just after 3 days of antibiotics use.

And after the course of treatment, I gradually diluted the tank with daily 30% of water with 1g/L of aquarium salt and betta H2O conditioner, using 3M filtered water with no chlorine. I ensure that the temperature difference is within 0.5°C every time.

As there’s no effective biological filter, I do manual daily water change of 30% to remove ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are constantly 0, faeces are removed daily.

And during these 2 weeks after diluting the antibiotics, I notice the fin membrane started melting away, and the caudal and anal fin just got shorter and more ragged, with some dark spots appearing(?), and the tail is observably shorten every few days, but not as rapid as that in the first tank. The fish shows high energy level, stays active and have good appetite, which also is responsive to the mirror training.

Just a few days ago the fin loss seems speeded up a bit more so I added Indian almond leave extract and now stepping up the aquarium salt concentration to 3g/L by gradual 30% water change daily. Daily water test strip result shows normal KH and pH, no nitrites or nitrates.

I cannot differentiate between:

1. the fin rot is coming back, bacterial
2. It’s “burnt tail” due to inappropriate pH or water quality, or stress due to frequent water change and possible osmotic shock

Or

3. it’s just a normal phase where the necrotised tissue without blood supply shreds off bit by bit before tissue regeneration

as there are some transparent membrane and edges seen at the dorsal fin on top now, just the caudal fin and anal fin are melting away. I asked AI while it said the water pump is a huge source of stress to the betta even with the smallest flow, so I turned that off now.

I am truly worried that if I don’t take the right step my betta may lost his life, what should I do now?

This is Vienna. Her birthday is next month she will be turning one. I have some photos on my account of when she was a baby. Im making this post as an update for the previous ones because everything feels like a mess because there's a couple posts.

This is mine and my boyfriend fish and usually he cares for her but the past month he's been in jail. I had an emergency and had to move her tank and sell her stand for financial reasons so now she is on the floor please do not judge I am working on getting her something new.

Because of me selling her stand i had to do a big water change basically 75% because I couldn't move that tank by myself and thankfully she needed a waterchange anyways.

Her sponge filter broke two days ago but I just fixed it today!!

She is in a 20gal tank, water temp is 76f (a bit cold but I read some fish diseases or sicknesses love cold or hot water so I don't know what to set it right now. She has no tank mates and looks stressed and we think it's because she didn't have a lamp for a long while but she just got a new LED lamp a couple days ago so hopefully the stress goes away.

Yesterday I noticed two white spots on her. One on each side. There are no other spots. I was told since it's too early to see what it is I'll have to wait a bit to see more sypthoms/ spots.

Someone else pointed out some fin rot (which wasn't there about two weeks ago which I found out by looking at photos and time stamps)

First I thought it was ich but everyone thinks it is not. Most are saying epistylis and some said it might be some sort of bacteria or fungal infection.

Im not sure what it is.

I was told get seachem kanaplex, aquarium salt,

seachem metroplex or fritz metroclease because those two are the same drug.

People messaged me saying aquarium salt won't do anything and I don't know what to do.

So now, what is it is should do? I want to order whatever treatment I need online ASAP because stores here basically do not carry anything in store. Since I have to wait a bit to see what is it that's truly wrong with her I think its best to order something asap.

So the question is? What is it that I order? What do I start with? What is the first treatment and first step? Do i put her in a hospital tank and if yes what do i put in there with her? I need someone to walk me through this like I just stepped onto this world. I don't want to shock her or kill whatever plants survived when she didn't have a lamp. And I don't want to dump a million chemicals and medicine in her tank and kill her. What is the first step please walk me through it. Thank you.

This is Koy, my betta fish. He seems like he’s having a lot of problems lately. He has a swollen swim bladder and Google had been saying that he is pine coning. I’ve given him 3 epsom salt baths and his swim bladder still hasn’t been going down. His fins are always clamped and he stays at the bottom of his tank unless he needs air. I provide 2 betta leaf hammocks at the top and he sometimes uses them but he’s usually at the bottom. I can’t tell what is happening. His stomach isn’t bloated and he eats just fine. I’ve been fasting him for a day so far hoping maybe he’s just constipated. I don’t think the epsom salt is doing anything because he’s had these problems for a long time. His tank is fully cycled and there’s no spike of ammonia or anything. I want to give him the best life that I can but i genuinely don’t know what’s wrong.

My betta has been suffering from pin rot he has ulcers in his body he is sleeping down rarely coming up to take air he is eating properly but struggling to reach the surface i used kanaplex yesterday and added methylene blue and tannins to the tabk today he looks better as he’s trying to swim around . Will he heal i love him i dont want to lose him i have reduced the water lvl as it’s difficult for him to reach the surface

my girlfriend and I are worried that her betta might be malnourished and we'd appreciate some opinions.

Hello everyone!

I am in desperate need of some help asap.

Recently (last week) I stumbled upon a post explaining why bettas need larger set ups and decided to upgrade my baby sister’s betta from his 2gal prison cell.

I tried reading as much as I could before setting up the tank but honestly it doesn’t feel like I did enough research and the LFS employees seemingly kinda steered me wrong :/

Shortly after introducing the tetras and pleco (they were from the same store), the betta started acting sick and the white spots were visible maybe three days later. He now has a tiny wound on the top of his body and is turning increasingly pale :( It is totally on me for not knowing to quarantine new fish but I just wanted to upgrade him to a lush tank so he could be happier with some ‘friends’ but it seems I’ve just caused him a lot of suffering instead.

What can I do to immediately help him and his tank mates in the longterm?
I’ve attached photos of the male betta!

Setup: 29gal community tank. Fluorite black substrate with black gravel capping it. One piece of Caspian wood and another larger hide while I wait to purchase more driftwood (who knew it was so expensive?!) also a betta log. I had a java fern, anubias, red root floaters, and alternantha planted in the tank but they are currently in the quarantine space with the snail while I perform my ich treatment. I also had Indian almond leaves in the tank before.
The water has been treated with Seachem Prime and Stability.

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 7.4

Tank Occupants: Male Veilteil Betta, a dwarf clown pleco, 6 neon tetras

Treatment: API Super Ick Cure + API Freshwater Aquarium Salt

A friend of a friend also gave me some used filter media to help kickstart my cycle (sadly, I wasn’t aware before putting the fish in that I needed to do more than just add water conditioner).

Thank you in advance.

I woke him up this morning he ate end I watched him swim around until time to get ready for an appt. His tank is on a table by the tv so I can watch him and the tube. He’s been active and happy!! I got home from the appt and it looked like he had been eaten by something. His fins were all gone and he had a chunk out of his head. I have no cats and my dogs can’t get up there. This is his tank nothing was disturbed!!! Help!!!

As the title says, I think my half moon has dropsy. I got him from PetSmart on December 29th. I gave myself a second betta as a bday gift lol. I also noticed fin rot as well. His tank parameters are fine.
Ph is 8.0(stable). Ammonia is at 0. Nitrite is at 0. Nitrate is at 0-5. I’ve had him for 5 months. At first for about a week or two I thought he was just bloated, so I started feeding him every few days. But it’s not changing nor getting smaller.

How do I navigate this? Is it too late? I really don’t want to euthanize. I just got a 10g to upgrade him too from his 5.5g.

My mom recently got a betta. She did a 25% water change and ever since, he has been sitting vertically in the top corner of the tank and his color is super dull.

Hes in a 10 gallon tank with 2 snails, a water filter, and a heater set to 80°F. The water test strips (picture of brand attached) say all the water stats are normal. This is my mom's first fish and im also clueless. Any help would be appreciated. (If more info is needed just comment and ill provide. Not sure what's needed)

My beautiful boy seems to just be suffering. Like he's so depressed or too sick to move.

He was "rescued" (see my last post, linked below) a month ago because of a bit of bloat but just when the bloat starts to get better, something else gets worse, and the cycle continues. He's been in a hospital tank for a month being continuously treated, but I don't want him to live his last days in this tiny little inhumane tank. It was only meant to be temporary. I don't know what else to do.

Long story short, I've tried everything that has been suggested to me, ive been maintaining water parameters, doing water changes as necessary, we've done kanaplex, maracyn 2, even Jessiel's dropsy protocol (though he has never pineconed, aside from around the tummy bloat), fasts, epsom baths, I put a heater guard in and his scales are healing really well from heater burns, but im just stumped.

Im so confused and disheartened. I don't want to euthanize him, i want him to get better. But is it time to consider it? Is it inhumane to keep him alive like this? I have a giant beautiful planted tank that I created for him while in his in hospital tank, but im not sure he will ever get to see it, or if its even safe for him to see it. Im just sad.

Any suggestions are so so so welcome and GREATLY appreciated. I'm willing to do anything.

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BettaClinic/s/YuxxABVXle

I tried cutting it but normal scissors are not working. Omg help