New Betta not eating, floating sideways, was fine

18 years ago

Okay so I've been looking for some help all over the place and I stumbled upon you guys, so I'm really hoping someone can help me. I have a 2.5 gallon divided aquarium with a small carbon filter and a lighted hood. Water's generally stable between 74 and 76 degrees, but the divider tends to restrict filtration of the side that it's not on.

I always like to keep two bettas in it, one in each side. Recently one of them passed away from Dropsy, and after a precautionary treatment the other, Tiger, has been perfectly fine. He's full of his usual piss and vinegar, eating like a glutton, swimming around normally.

Just a few days ago, Friday the 4th to be exact, I brought him home a new playmate, Toby. Fish seemed fine in the store, I checked him over, was moving around and fiesty, no noticeble illnesses, he seemed healthy. He continued to remain healthy after he was introduced to the tank, just didn't want to eat. He'd swim around and flare up at my other fish like nothing was wrong. The first day he nibbled on a few flakes of food. I had offered him the frozen brine shrimp that I feed Tiger, but he wasn't interested. He did get a little cut on his back from going through a hole in the decoration, so I gave him a bit of BettaFix to help with that for maybe 3 days. Injury seems healed and the decoration been changed out so he won't do it again.

But as the days went on he's became more and more lethargic. He would hide down along the rocks, shoved up against his little decoration. Now and then he'd still move around and swim alright, but today he's really bad. He's not eating a thing and he's started to float at the top sideways. His gils are still moving so I know he's not dead, but he's really starting to concern me because it looks like he's got some kind of stringy thing coming out of his bum. It looks like white poop. I thought okay, internal parasite, tried some APPlus+ Aqua-Sol, since the bottle says it's for parasites, yesterday and he's not showing any progress.

Tiger on the other hand still acts perfectly fine. I can't think of anything other than maybe just stress that could be wrong with him, but I'm getting really concerned because I don't want to lose another fish so close to the one I've already lost. Please if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

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Comments (4)

velgthejackal
Original Author
18 years ago
Just a bit of an update, but he passed away yesterday afternoon. Took a really sudden turn for the worse. My only theory is that the white stringy feces had to be internal parasites, and that he was in such an advanced stage of infection when I bought him that the medication came too late. But I picked up some of the Jungle Parasite Clear tablets that I've seen alot of people swear by just as a precaution in case Tiger starts to show similar symptoms, heaven forbid he does.

Took the dearly departed back to the store and they let me replace him, since he obviously wasn't well. Qaurentining the new one in the bowl he came home in, seperated, until I know for sure he's fine. Hopefully there won't be a repeat scenario, but if on the off chance there is, I think I'm just going to pull the divider out and let Tiger have the whole tank to himself.
ccdry
18 years ago
if possible, I'd remove tiger from that container (and decontaminate), since the (now) dead fish may have contaminated the container.
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velgthejackal
Original Author
18 years ago
Well, they were separated before Toby died, but I was considering dropping one of the parasite clear tablets (a piece of one at least, since the box says they're measured for 10 gallon tanks) into the large tank with Tiger just as a precaution. But if I do this, will it hurt him any if he's still healthy? I don't want to risk over-medicating a fish who doesn't need it, but I want to make sure there's nothing left in the tank :/
hamadrys
18 years ago
The white stringy feces is the major sign of bloat. Bettas are very sensitive to it and I would say most of them die from that problem. They tend to be easily constipated. Giving a bite of the flesh of a pea from time to time will help. Pea must be cooked or coming from a frozen bag and thawed. Put some on a tootpick and feed. Don't use canned pea, they have sodium in them. Good luck.