Guide to Betta Disease

Originally Posted by zhiz22

look harder. should be velvet.

Zhiz22,

I seek your humble opinions on Betta sickness and treatments.

My two crown bettas died after one another in a spate of 1.5 months in between.

The causes, swollen stomach and they were at the bottom of the water. They could not eat and could not swim.

Now that both of them are gone, I would like to better equip myself with better knowledge and experience.

I would like to know the followings.

What are the sickness that causes swollen stomach?

What are the proper treatment to administer to such sickness?

Where can I purchase the medicines from?

Your advices would help me to go a long way to ensure that I can be better prepared before I proceed anything further.

Thank you.

chachacha

Originally Posted by ujin27

Dear all,

My hm was v active swimmin here n there until today it didn't eat wat i fed it and then its fins are all clamped up and it just stay motionless at the bottom.

Anyone has any idea wat is wrong w him? and what medication to treat it? i have put aquarium salt but no other medication....is tt enough?

Quite a possible causes, but my first guess will be velvet. Can you check whether it has little gold-ish specks on the body and fins?

Did you do a water change before this? Can you give more information on what happened just before you noticed the fin clamp?

Originally Posted by chachacha

Zhiz22,

I seek your humble opinions on Betta sickness and treatments.

My two crown bettas died after one another in a spate of 1.5 months in between.

The causes, swollen stomach and they were at the bottom of the water. They could not eat and could not swim.

Now that both of them are gone, I would like to better equip myself with better knowledge and experience.

I would like to know the followings.

What are the sickness that causes swollen stomach?

What are the proper treatment to administer to such sickness?

Where can I purchase the medicines from?

Your advices would help me to go a long way to ensure that I can be better prepared before I proceed anything further.

Thank you.

chachacha

Kelvin doesn't come to this part of the forum that often, as he does not keep betta now.

It sounds like you have cases of dropsy. To advise you better on prevention, please give a bit more detail as to what you feed e.g. live tubifex worms, etc. How often you change water, etc.

Originally Posted by CharlieBrown

Kelvin doesn't come to this part of the forum that often, as he does not keep betta now.

It sounds like you have cases of dropsy. To advise you better on prevention, please give a bit more detail as to what you feed e.g. live tubifex worms, etc. How often you change water, etc.

Hi Charlie Brown,

Thank you for your prompt replies.

I used to feed my two Crown with freeze blood worms. The freeze blood worms were pre-packed in pellet type which I purchased it off the place where I got my Crowns. I think there are about 21 pellets in a packet, if I remember correctly.

I changed water almost everyday as they were very active and pass alot of shit out. They would always flare at each other. They are kept individually in their own plastic containers. Hence, it was not possible for them to be contaminated easily. However, I do use the same net to remove them from their containers whenever I chagned their water.

I changed the water this way, one third filled with water direct from the tap and the other two third are filled with overnight water in a big container that was purposely left to remove any chlorine etc.

Subsequently, I start to observe their stomach get bigger as each day passes by. They were alright for the first 4 months, until suddenly they start to flow to the bottom of the water and stayed there forever. However, I noted that their stomach did get bigger as each day passes by as well.

There were no other significant marks or what you had described on the two Crowns.

Please advise what were the probable causes of this sickness and how do I go about in preventing or at least be well prepared to handle such situations should it arises again in future.

Thank you.

chachacha

Originally Posted by CharlieBrown

Quite a possible causes, but my first guess will be velvet. Can you check whether it has little gold-ish specks on the body and fins?

Did you do a water change before this? Can you give more information on what happened just before you noticed the fin clamp?

I did a water change a few days ago using overnight aged water....hmm i put salt into the water it has since recovered a bit of its activeness but i noticed its fins are abit rotted lez....its body seems fine....
anyway is the salt casuing the rotting? what shld i do now?
b4 the fin clamp it was as per normal the next day morn i woke up it became like this

Thanks for your reply =)

Originally Posted by chachacha

Hi Charlie Brown,

Thank you for your prompt replies.

I used to feed my two Crown with freeze blood worms. The freeze blood worms were pre-packed in pellet type which I purchased it off the place where I got my Crowns. I think there are about 21 pellets in a packet, if I remember correctly.

I changed water almost everyday as they were very active and pass alot of shit out. They would always flare at each other. They are kept individually in their own plastic containers. Hence, it was not possible for them to be contaminated easily. However, I do use the same net to remove them from their containers whenever I chagned their water.

I changed the water this way, one third filled with water direct from the tap and the other two third are filled with overnight water in a big container that was purposely left to remove any chlorine etc.

Subsequently, I start to observe their stomach get bigger as each day passes by. They were alright for the first 4 months, until suddenly they start to flow to the bottom of the water and stayed there forever. However, I noted that their stomach did get bigger as each day passes by as well.

There were no other significant marks or what you had described on the two Crowns.

Please advise what were the probable causes of this sickness and how do I go about in preventing or at least be well prepared to handle such situations should it arises again in future.

Thank you.

chachacha

Using the same net is risky, as you will contaminate the water of multiple tanks. You might want to consider not doing it anymore.

Not familiar with the foods you describe, so no comments there.

Don't use water straight from the tap. Aged water or water treated with anti-chlorine/chloramine is necessary. A little salt is also ok. Use aquarium salt, not table salt. For crowntails and HMs, I would definitely recommend you using some ketapang. It reduces finrot and other problems. Unless the fishes are bred by yourself and you don't use ketapang from young, I would strongly recommend it.

For dropsy (big stomach and raised scales), there's a post on this thread on how to cure it. Not 100% but worth a try. Dropsy is fatal if left untreated for a few days. Internal bacteria will usually lead to dropsy.

Usually the causes of dropsy are due to live foods, and poor water management. The latter results in betta becoming weak, thus susceptible to illness. You might want to read up a bit more on how to optimise your water management skills, and find a routine that works for you.

Originally Posted by ujin27

I did a water change a few days ago using overnight aged water....hmm i put salt into the water it has since recovered a bit of its activeness but i noticed its fins are abit rotted lez....its body seems fine....
anyway is the salt casuing the rotting? what shld i do now?
b4 the fin clamp it was as per normal the next day morn i woke up it became like this

Thanks for your reply =)

No, the salt is not the cause, unless you are not using aquarium salt. Read my previous post.

If you have ketapang, add some. It will help. Change water about 30-40% daily.

On why fin clamp happens, check whether the tank's water is cold. Do you put the tanks near windows? If water is cold, fin clamp and dropsy tends to be more common.

[Aroboy II]

Originally Posted by CharlieBrown

No, the salt is not the cause, unless you are not using aquarium salt. Read my previous post.

If you have ketapang, add some. It will help. Change water about 30-40% daily.

On why fin clamp happens, check whether the tank's water is cold. Do you put the tanks near windows? If water is cold, fin clamp and dropsy tends to be more common.

Good pointers there bro. Thanks.

Originally Posted by CharlieBrown

Using the same net is risky, as you will contaminate the water of multiple tanks. You might want to consider not doing it anymore.

Not familiar with the foods you describe, so no comments there.

Don't use water straight from the tap. Aged water or water treated with anti-chlorine/chloramine is necessary. A little salt is also ok. Use aquarium salt, not table salt. For crowntails and HMs, I would definitely recommend you using some ketapang. It reduces finrot and other problems. Unless the fishes are bred by yourself and you don't use ketapang from young, I would strongly recommend it.

For dropsy (big stomach and raised scales), there's a post on this thread on how to cure it. Not 100% but worth a try. Dropsy is fatal if left untreated for a few days. Internal bacteria will usually lead to dropsy.

Usually the causes of dropsy are due to live foods, and poor water management. The latter results in betta becoming weak, thus susceptible to illness. You might want to read up a bit more on how to optimise your water management skills, and find a routine that works for you.

Hi Charlie Brown,

Thank you for your explanations. Much appreciated.

chachacha

[zhiz22]

i still around leh... hahah

Charliebrown has given very good responses to how to 'treat' the disease you faced

if you see the color of the betta a little pale, not eating well, its always good to use some anti internal bacteria, yellow powder, ketapang, and hope it would improve its condition.

usually it take some days from pale, not eating stage to bloated stage. once bloat, a little advanced liao..hard to treat.