My betta baby might have TB

[purplemuffin]

This has been a horrible horrible two days.

Dionysus, my first and only betta, has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. It started out looking like swim bladder disorder. He had trouble swimming. But then it got different--instead of floating, he would sink. His body remained vertical, when he did lay on the ground(most of the time) it was on his side. When he did swim, it was clear his fins were clamped and his back was horribly curved downwards and making it hard for him to swim.

So I started treatment with indian almond leaves and epsom salt. Just in the time it took to prepare the water he already looked worse and had started to lose color. It's hard to tell if he has any injuries, his scales are a vibrant purple red that already look the color of a normal inflamed area on a different color fish.

By this morning he could barely make it to the surface of the water. His eyes are now protruding out like popeye and he suddenly looks like he has lost a ton of weight and is looking malnourished.

I'm at a loss. His water parameters were fine. I didn't feed live foods--I don't know where a parasite could have come from unless something was just in our water. This all happened so fast. Ugh.

I've heard tuberculosis will often mimic other diseases since it affects the organs. I know it causes a bent spine. I also know it's fatal.

I want to wait it out, because part of me hopes it's just swim bladder disorder and he'll get better. He's just a year and two months old, you know? He could have bounced back and had a few more years with me. But with how bad he is this morning I don't know if I should let him suffer longer.

But he's my first pet fish ever. He is my little prince!

Such a sad, sad day.



Dionysus in his prime.