Help! my Betta is not eating

[palepinkvase]

Cat - I am so sorry about Ashley. It is good to hear that your daughter is handling his loss well. I hope she can find another Betta to give her love to.

As for previously-occupied bowls, I have always run bowls (made of glass) thru the dishwasher without detergent. The high temp of the water should sterilize the bowl pretty well. Not sure if I would run plastic thru the dishwasher. I have discarded everything else, plants, gravel, etc. The porus nature of the gravel, in particular, could provide protection to some bacteria despite boiling. Keep in touch and let us know how tings are going.

[Cat]

Hi everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since I replied -- I got in for knee surgery unexpectedly and was unable to get down the stairs for a long period of time.

We did get Brianna a new Betta. He is another lovely red one. She calls him High Jumper as he jumped out of his tank once. Thankfully he was fine.

My son's fish, Bruce Jumper, is not doing so well right now. He has a greyish kind of slime on him, he's very lethargic and has been swimming fast and bumping into things. I'm wondering if it could be a fungus after reading about the different illnesses on this site. I did a complete water change and I'm going to warm up his tank to 78 degrees. (normally at 75 he seems fine) He ate this morning but not this evening. He was sitting at the bottom of the tank (1 gallon) looking very sluggish. I'm off to the pet store to see if I can find something for fungus but if anyone out there has any ideas I would appreciate the help/advice. I will check my post before I do anything more.

Thanks for all your support and help in the past.

Cat

[mandymarie]

First off I noticed it has been a few days since your post, so to begin with have you been treating him with anything? and does he seem any better?

[Cat]

HI
I have been treating him with Jungle fungus eliminator because at first I thought he had a body fungus -- there was the grey slime and that seemed to change to a white fuzzy substance. But after treating him iit seems to me that I misdiagnosed him and I'm feeling awful. I need someone to let me know what they think.

On Sunday I did a complete water change and I moved him to a warmer room in the house -- his temp is now 77 degrees. I know this is low but I'm not sure how to raise it more without a heater -- he is in a gallon tank. (I heard that a heating pad may help underneath but I will still need to go out and buy one. ) At this time I added the Jungle Fungus Eliminator. However, the betta has gone from bad to worse. He is still not eating and the white fuzz is there but he is also breathing heavily and his fins are very weird looking. Almost like he has been scrunched up and released but the fins are remaining bent and together -- is this clamped fins?
After reading more on the illness section I am beginning to wonder if he has parasites (I have been feeding him live food). But I am hesitant to change medications as I read that it is stressful on them -- so I want to make sure that I'm changing it correctly this time. If I should change meds what should I use to treat for parasites? I am such a novice at this and I do appreciate any feedback you could give me.

Thanks,
Cat

[Cat]

I just wanted to let you know that there is no need to respond to my last email as High Jumper died while I was typing it.

Cat

[Rachel]

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that you lost High Jumper.

From the brief description, it does sound like true fungus rather than parasites. Illnesses can be tricky because often times the same symptoms can be seen for completely different ones. Being lethargic, heavy breathing, seeming a bit out of it and bumping into things can occur for any betta that is not feeling well. Fungus in particular is a fast moving illness once it strikes. Sometimes it may be the result of a lowered immune system or another illness, so it is possible that something else may have caused it. Usually one of the common causes of fungus is a higher level of stress and/or dirty water, although certainly not always the case.

Yes, what you described was clamped fins when they are all scrunched up. This can be another common symptom of illness, too cold of water, etc.

[mandymarie]

So sorry to hear about high jumper