i need help my betta looks really bad and Im out of ideas...any advice will help

**fifi** · 02-19-2013, 08:59 AM

my betta (zero) is not doing to well. The left side of his face is swollen and white. He has these gold spots on him.. Right now his in a 10 gallon hospital tank I just bought for him, With lot of meds but nothing seems to be working. Im treating him for red velvet and only that, but it seems to have no effect now he just sits at the bottom of the tank not eating. Only comes up for air. I had zero for about 5 months he house in a 6 gallon fluvial with a small clown touch and horseface louch and 4 tetras... They are doing fine its just the betta. The ph is 7.2 and the ammonia level is 0.50... Euthanizing him is not a option! I must try to save his life and not give up on him. I have a pic if more needed i can try to get more...thank you from me and zero..lol.. for your help and reply!

**Tiari** · 02-19-2013, 01:03 PM

I am uncertain of the swelling on the head. The picture is quite large and having trouble viewing it from my small screen. The gold appears to be velvet.

**imma24** · 02-19-2013, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by fifi

my betta (zero) is not doing to well. The left side of his face is swollen and white. He has these gold spots on him.. Right now his in a 10 gallon hospital tank I just bought for him, With lot of meds but nothing seems to be working. Im treating him for red velvet and only that, but it seems to have no effect now he just sits at the bottom of the tank not eating. Only comes up for air. I had zero for about 5 months he house in a 6 gallon fluvial with a small clown touch and horseface louch and 4 tetras... They are doing fine its just the betta. The ph is 7.2 and the ammonia level is 0.50... Euthanizing him is not a option! I must try to save his life and not give up on him. I have a pic if more needed i can try to get more...thank you from me and zero..lol.. for your help and reply!

Wow - that's too many fish in that size tank. Your ammonia is also too high - it should be at 0. What are you testing your water with? You should also be able to see how high your nitrites & nitrates are. How long have all these fish been in the tank? How often do you change the water? Do you have another tank you could put the fish in temporarily?

**bethyMT** · 02-19-2013, 02:47 PM

Well, I am not certain about the gold stuff, but I have heard velvet presents that way.

I think the swollen side of his face (maybe) actually a gill problem. If he has spent much time in water with ammonia in it (anything above a trace of it), he probably has some ammonia burns on his gills. This will weaken him and open the door to infection and fungus, not just in his gills, but all over his body.
Perhaps, and this is merely a suggestion, you should give him fresh, clean water, and DON'T MEDICATE right away. Make sure your temp is one the high side...82F maybe. Make sure you add soft fabric plants for cover. See how he does in that environment, and then go from there.

I know from experience that adding too many meds at one time will not help. Honestly, the best thing to start with is simple aquarium salt...fights fungus and can reduce swelling. I can't give you a good dosage though; others will be along to help you with that, hopefully.

There are also problems with your original tank, but we will address that later. Right now, just focus on the betta. He could live in that 10 gallon permanently, you know. Please keep up posted on what's going on so we can help.

Edit: make sure you use water conditioner and acclimate him slowly to the new water. At this point you have to be very careful with him...he looks like he is on the brink.

**Honey Badger 1** · 02-19-2013, 02:58 PM

Here is some good information for curing velvet. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=41178 . A clown loach has no business being housed in a 6 gallon tank, ever, neither does the other loach. I doubt the 6 gallon tank has a filter big enough to deal with the bio-load all those fish are producing. You need to do at least a 50% water change to bring that ammonia down, and find a bigger tank if you plan on keeping all these fish. You say euthing the fish is not an option, but living in those conditions is worse in my opinion because it causes the fish to suffer ammonia burns and cramped conditions. At least euthing the fish is a quick death.

**Cermet** · 02-19-2013, 05:05 PM

If you want to save all the fish, get a 15-20 gal and a better filter (for a twenty gal) and transfer all the fish and the old filter to that tank. Add the new filter and measure the water parameters every day and do 50% water changes when the ammonia climbs over 0.25 ppm. Treat the Betta in the same tank since you do not have QT. Clean water will not only help save the Betta but will save the other fish. Read up on fish based cycling (see my signature.)

**fifi** · 02-19-2013, 10:58 PM

Thank u for your time i started to treat the velvet it looks like it to me to just can't figure out his face.

**fifi** · 02-19-2013, 11:24 PM

Thank u everybody for your reply its much appreciated. Ok today i will try to give him clean water slowly and see what happens. Im new to this and i learned threw time the fluvial was packed. I regret that now because of zero health. How can i get ride of the ammonia the 10 gallon is set to 82 degrees. Im using api test kits but i only have ph and amniona. I order from amazon the nitrate test kits so i will post that as soon as i get it. Yes if he lives he can have the ten gallong for himself and ill buy a other hospital tank. I do 25 percent water change on the fluvial 1 a week. Zero has been in this new tan for.3 days now. Just bought it like 5 days ago for him to heal up. I also just got a 29 gallon today for the louch and clown louch there not big at all there small but that's all i can afford right now. I haven't put them in because the water not ready...is that ok for them? The betta is housed alone right now in a ten gallon. In the 6 gallon fluvil is only the tetra and louch until 29 is ready. Can i keep the tetras in the fluvial and the betta(zero) louch (wolverine) and the horse face louch ill put in the 30. Is that ok? But right now i don't want to move zero from the 10 gallon... Im going to do the water change now for.. I don't know if this helps but when i turn off the tank lights the betta starts to swim around he hasn't ate for one day now. I took out the carbon in the 10 gallon should i put it back in? Due to velvet treatment. oh and i have aquriam salt now to... Thank u everybody for the advise... Im stop treatment now. And i refuse to kill him right now i now he's suffering but Im i have to try to save him. He in his own tank now.... Going to attack the ammonia first

**bethyMT** · 02-20-2013, 02:15 PM

It's OK. Everybody has made mistakes when they are just starting out. It looks like you are trying to make things better, and that's the sign that you will be good at this, in time.

It might be a better plan to take one thing at a time...you want to make a lot of changes, but that can be super confusing. May I suggest you start with Zero's tank, the 10 gallon? The other fish don't need to be moved right away...they will survive in the fluval for a week or so. It sounds like Zero is really important to you, so start there. You will get ammonia out of his tank by taking the old water out and putting fresh water in. Do it gradually, like it sounds like you are. Just adding new water won't really help, you must remove the old water, a bit at a time. You must also use water conditioner that says it neutralizes chlorine/ammonia/chloramines (most good tap water conditioners do this) to the new water you add. You don't need carbon, so it's good you removed it. Carbon will also take out any meds you add (but not salt, salt stays in the water).

Once you have done that, you need to read the articles about fish-in cycling, because you'll have to do that with Zero's tank. Fortunately, if you can get him healthy, cycling a tank with a betta is pretty easy...I have done it twice now. You will need to understand the cycle between ammonia(fish pee essentially), nitrite, and nitrate. And you'll need to get a master test kit (usually include tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and high range pH; you can get those separately if you already have some of them). If you have questions after reading the articles, ask away, and you'll get help.
Hang in there!! Even if Zero doesn't make it, you will be learning how to make the lives of your other fish so much better. And that's great.