My betta baby might have TB

[purplemuffin]

Yeah I think so too! I don't want to get my hopes up too much, I know bettas are prone to doing the whole "Oh yay look I'm getting better--oh wait, -dead-" thing after getting sick. They are just so sensitive that a little bit can do serious damage. But it's nice to see his personality shining through.

[purplemuffin]

Seems he also has finrot. I know recently we have had bizarre things happen all over my town(like, recently there was a chemical fire/explosion that spread a terrible gas over the city, people were like saying to not let your dogs out for days in my area) and I wonder if something bad was in our water. All this stuff started to happen after a water change. I never slacked on my water changes, so I wonder if some kind of chemical got through despite dechlorinator that did some damage just as he was also developing SBD. It seems to have appeared on the same day. I wasn't 100% sure before, but now I am.

Anyway, he still seems to be doing better. Still wobbly and falls to the side, but is stronger and looks less depressingly near death!

You'll see the fin rot in the pictures. I can't treat it right now, I'm using epsom salt which does NOT mix with aquarium salt(which treats finrot), so I'm working on getting him back to health before we worry about the fins. The daily water changes should help though!

[Jessica Loesch]

Hope he pulls through,. I would be devastated if my catfish or stingrays started acting that way.

[LaFilleClochette]

how often are you changing his water? (I don't know if its the light or the camera but the water looks murky?) I had a betta that was showing similar symptoms and I just kept doing frequent water changes and he got better eventually.

hes really gorgeous! hope he pulls though for you.

[wwmjkd]

how often are you changing his water? (I don't know if its the light or the camera but the water looks murky?) I had a betta that was showing similar symptoms and I just kept doing frequent water changes and he got better eventually.

hes really gorgeous! hope he pulls though for you.

I'd guess it's just the tannins from the leaves making the water murky.

hope he pulls through. I bred bettas for a bit before law school and found it pretty interesting. never came across anything like you're dealing with though. keep us posted.

[Jessica Loesch]

Yeah its the tannins.. keep up the good work.

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[purplemuffin]

Daily water changes, sometimes twice a day if he chooses not to eat and it makes his water messy. Definitely the tannins making it mucky! (Personally driving me crazy, I love clean water! Lol!)




Actually, I do have some news. After a very long conversation with a few betta breeders we think he may have a back injury. Since the treatment he has improved in every way--except for the way he curves his back down. And despite the fact that he is now eating and pooping regularly and has no swelling, he acts like a 'belly slider'. So, we think that at one point something must have happened. My guy is known for being fiesty. He's tried to jump into his filter before, and is one of the fish that will jump for the food before you even put it in the water. I'm thinking that at one point he might have hurt himself, possibly while constipated he was weaker?

The good news is, he isn't acting like the fish who never recover. He actually attempts to straighten his back and swim and actually moves around--one of the breeders had her male that jumped out of the cup while doing a water change. He missed the table and fell to the floor, and since then has had serious swimming problems related to his injury. He eats fine, still flares and acts normal--just doesn't swim. So he just sits around all day. Like my fish, he tends to rest while 'standing' on his fins, and when he does swim he hunches over.

Finally, the last symptom that didn't fit anything(and was the one reason everyone told me he must have tb) is making sense...


So, he's still improving. Today and yesterday I was able to see his usual blue shine that has been missing during these stressed out moments. Right now I'm discussing with the breeders how much longer to keep up the treatment, and when to start weaning him off the salt so that I can start treating his fins and eventually move him back to his tank.

When he is in his tank I'm going to add a lot more driftwood and plants for him to rest on closer to the surface and just in general have more hiding/resting places for him to get to place to place without long swimming stretches.