First-time betta owner, first disease(?)

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

We gave my son a dark blue crowntail betta on his birthday this year, and so far (two months) everything has been going well.

The betta (Marshmallow) is in a one gallon fish bowl, we do a 100% water change weekly, and use the filtered water from our refrigerator treated with Top Fin Betta Water Conditioner (we let it sit out, covered, to reach room temperature beforehand). He is fed once daily with National Geographic betta flakes.

Last night and today, Marshmallow has been alternately lethargic and frantically darting around. He will float at the top of the water for a while (long enough for my son to burst into tears thinking Marshmallow died), and then suddenly swim around for a few seconds. When fed today, he ate a couple of bites of his food and then lost interest. His eyes are also bulging, one more than the other, and he has some sort of light film around the tail end of his body--not white patches like ich, but more of a sheen. I shone a flashlight on him and couldn't really tell if it might be velvet or just normal slime coat.

So today, I have put him into a smaller bowl while we clean and disinfect his bowl--his bowl, glass rocks, and plants are all air-drying after a thorough wash with antibacterial soap and rubbing alcohol (I don't keep bleach in the house). It's only been five days since his last water change. I've sent my husband out for water test strips, aquarium salt, and a small heater. Since being moved to the smaller bowl with freshly treated water, he's been more lively and flaring his fins and gills out at his reflection. At first I was afraid he was suffocating!

I realize that we have probably been doing quite a few things wrong...when we bought Marshmallow and his little bowl, we were under the impression that bettas are perfectly happy in little bowls with no filters, and the pet store associate assured us we didn't need aquarium salt or a heater down here in sunny Florida. Now after reading (lots) of forum posts online, I'm not so sure all of that is true.

I'd just like to know if we are taking the best steps to improve his environment right now, and what routine care we should really be providing... Should we be adding aquarium salt with each water change? Are there medications or other treatments that we need to add besides the water conditioner? Do we need to do water changes more often?

Thanks in advance, and sorry (to readers and to poor Marshmallow) for being so clueless....!!

(Went back to put in the photos I forgot...the camera really shows more worrisome physical characteristics than I can actually see just looking at him.)

Update: Have placed Marshmallow in his cleaned bowl with BettaFix and half a teaspoon of aquarium salt well-mixed with the filtered water already treated with conditioner. He is still darting around the tank in short bursts of speed.

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Comments (2)

Haider Sakhi
6 years ago
First, rubbing alcohol is very toxic and can kill your fish (clean the tank/bowl with just water). Second, your betta has popeye which is next to impossible to cure. You should get a bigger tank (5g (10g ideally)) with a heater and filter if you can successfully cure him. Hope he makes it.
woodnative
6 years ago
Make sure any disinfectant is thoroughly thoroughly rinsed off everything before returning before using. Best to just use some diluted bleach for cleaning algae off things than rinse rinse thoroughly. Generally just a rinse (no chemicals) is best for most of the changes. How much water volume did you add that 1/2 tea of salt to? Don't want too much salt. Bettas will actually do fine without a filter. Your biggest problem in small volumes of unfiltered water is uneaten food. Food that is not eaten immediately begins to rot and pollute the water. Rather than drastically changing everything once a week it is better if you once a day or so siphon out poop and uneaten food from the bottom and replace with equal water (a small fraction of the total volume.....maybe 10-20%). The advantage of larger volumers of water is that they are more buffered from the pollution of a tiny bit of extra food. OK what does your refrigerator filter do to filter the water? Is this just a carbon filter. That is probably ok. The bigger problem with small bowls in temperate areas is temperature! Bettas really like warmer water, at least in the mid to high 70s (F), and your room temp may not be that warm (probably is not). Stress leads to all sorts of potential diseases. If the fish is healthy and in the right conditions you don't need all the chemicals etc. Get him in a warm spot and maybe even skip feeding for a day or two (he won't starve, but he is probably not eating well anyway with his eyed clouded like that) and see if he improves.
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First-time betta owner, first disease(?)

Comments (2)

Haider Sakhi

woodnative

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