# Help!! Sick bettafish!!!



## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

HELP!! I have sick fish I do not know what the conditions are called but i can upload some pics for you all to see the symtops are bloated and raised scales there are also some parts of the scales that are going grey!! Help!! I am a first timer at betta raising.. Note the pics are taken in the "quarentine" tank please ignore the horrible spelling


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## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

o i forgot its also not eating since yesterday and its been like this for 2 days


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

Your betta has dropsy, which is likely resultant from a severe case of SBD or some other internal organ failure. Stop trying to feed your fish, when he's bloated like this food is not going to help him. Unfortunately, most fish do not pull through once they begin exhibiting symptoms like dropsy (that would be the raised scales giving your fish a 'pine cone' like look) so I cannot tell you about some wonder cure to make your fish all better. Many times fish that start looking like this have irreversible damage already done.

Did you just get this fish recently from a store? He may well have been going down hill before you even purchased him. Has he been pooping these past several days? What color is the poo? Look at him very closely (with a magnifying glass if you've got one handy) - are there any parasites or flukes visible under his raised scales or around his gills? (they'll look sort of like little tiny worms attached to your fish)
You could try sticking him on some broadspan antibiotics or penicillin if your local pet store happens to carry some, but these are often expensive meds, and they can only help if it simply a bad case of internal bacteria or parasites. If your fish is already going into organ failure (which is, unfortunately, more likely) or suffering from tuberculosis (another common problem in fish that gives the symptom of dropsy) then these medications will not help, and there is nothing to be done to save the fish.


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## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

well i only had this fish for like 4 days and its been like this since 2 days ago and i have stopped feeding him cause he doesnt feel like eating. until the day before yesterday he has been pooping his poop is usually reddish should be due to the feed i gave him its also the same colour he does not have any of the parasites as far as i can see.. but this few days hes been well not moving around much just staying near the surface of the water as compared to the day i bought him he is still quite active and does flare up against his own reflection when shown with a mirror he stopped flaring up since he has gotten bloated up..o does the parasites get transferred to humans? cause i sort of placed my hand into the tank to remove the food that they nvr finished.. o btw whats SBD???


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

SBD is Swim Bladder Disorder, which is a generically used term which can actually include several different things, including the swim bladder of the fish being too small, too large or misshapen (this is genetic), the swim bladder becoming swollen and distended (usually from overfeeding or bacterial infection) or the swim bladder outright failing and shutting down (and then shrotly thereafter becoming necrotic), which is a precursor to a soon to be dead fish.

Most (emphasis on most and not all) of the parasites found in aquariums are not deadly to humans, but yes, some strains of them can and will attach themselves too you and have the potential to make you sick. Most do not, simply because your hand is not spending most of its time in an aquatic environment, and because your body temperature is higher than they're preferred range. Regardless, you should always wash your hands thoroughly after sticking them in a tank. Just because its not that common for people to catch things from their fish, there are still plenty of strange little microscopic things living in your fish tank, and some of them (for example: fish tank granuloma, aka fish tuberculosis) are indeed transferable to humans. Also, if you have any form of compromised or weakened immune system, it is doubly important for you to take extra precautions and make sure you clean very well after touching anything involving the tank, it's water and it's inhabitants. If you have a cut on your fingers, hands or arms, don't stick it in the tank! This is an easy entry point for bacteria and parasites into your body.


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## MrDarcy (Apr 13, 2009)

Panmyecin (not sure of the spelling, but that's how it sounds) cured my fish's dropsy. He had it full blown, looked like a purple pinecone dropsy, but a few drops a day until he looks back to normal fixed him up. The only problem is that it's only available through a vet, so you might have to call around and see if any of them will be able to get it for you.


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

By 'panmyecin' I am assuming you mean Panmycin? Sorry to point this out, but Panmycin is just a trade name of tetracycline, which you can find at most decent pet stores, you did not need to buy this from a vet (which likely also cost you an arm and a leg). Tetracycline is a broadspan antibiotic that is effective against both gram positive and (to a slightly lesser extent) gram negative bacteria, it is however, not a magic cure. It's just as likely to fail when used to treat dropsy as it is to work, as dropsy itself is a symptom of several different diseases, and not a disease itself. It may have worked for your betta because you caught it early enough MrDarcy (and were lucky enough that the cause of your betta's dropsy was a bacterial infection), and were still able to treat before permanent organ damage was done.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Can dropsy be cured if its caught in the early stages?


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

It depends upon what caused the dropsy. As I said, dropsy is a symptom, not a disease itself. It is a sign that something else is going drastically wrong with your fish. It's like a runny nose and a cold. The runny nose is not a disease, it is a symptom of your cold. You just normally don't die when you have a runny nose.

Dropsy is caused by several things. The most common being overfeeding which leads to bloat, and then progresses into organ failure. This takes several paths. One being the stomach and intestinal tract becoming kinked and pinched off because of too much food, which then causes the digestive tract to become necrotic (aka dead tissue). They can also simply become bloated, and will display SBD symptoms, primarily because the swim bladder is being pushed over to one side of the body because of the bloated stomach, and can also sometimes become inflamed because of the rubbing of the stomach against the swim bladder (organs are sensitive, they do not appreciate being rubbed against each other). Occasionally this even progresses so far as to cause a tear in the stomach or intestinal tract. Once that happens, unfortunately, your fish is screwed, and will be dead in a day or less.
This cause can be easily prevented: don't overfeed your fish! A proper diet will prevent this from happening.

Kidney failure as well as liver failure is know to cause dropsy, and the kidney failure is generally caused by a bacterial infection. A bacterial infection often caused because of the diet. Certain live foods could have been carrying the bacteria (I hear tubifex worms are notorious for this, I don't feed them to my fish myself, so can't say from personal experience), or sometimes (this is notorious for happening in pet stores) the pellets become wet when being stored, and rot, growing a whole host of bacteria and fungus. Instead of being thrown out, they continue to feed this to the betta. Basically, it's food poisoning, fishy style. They kidneys try to filter this out, become overwhelmed, shut down, and die (remember that necrotic thing I mentioned earlier?). And dead kidneys = dead fish. So does dead liver.
This can sometimes be cured: If you catch this early enough, and treat it aggressively, you can cure the bacterial infection. However, the key is catching it EARLY, because it doesn't matter if you've killed every last one of the bacteria if the fish has already lost its kidneys or liver. You can't live without them, neither can your fish. Generally by the time you spot the dropsy, sorry, you're out of luck, it's too late, the fish is already in organ failure.

Parasites can function similarly, in time overwhelming the betta's immune system, weakening them to a point where various organs start failing, and they eventually succumb to the parasites, which have generally by this time colonized inside the fish's organs. They often attach themselves in the gill arches or to the heart as these are sources of high blood flow, which mean easy nutrients for the parasite. 
This can sometimes be cured: Catch the parasites early and treat aggressively and you may get lucky and save your fish before they are irreparably damaged. Careful though, parasites are stubborn things, and even if the betta survives this brush with death, they will generally always be much weaker and much more susceptible to diseases of any sort in the future.

Tuberculosis is also a known killer of fish and a cause of dropsy (though you'll also generally notice these fish will develop popeye too). Unfortunately, this is 100% fatal. Why? Because we can't cure tuberculosis. It will kill the fish every time, no exceptions.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks for the info.


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## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

well thx for all the information but unforutunately the fish died when i was alseep i think its cause of over feeding as the person in charge of the fish shop told me to feed the fish 2-3 times per day... after that on the second day the fish the fish started to display the symtopms of all those things and finally died haizz there goes my fish..T.T and it has only been with me for 4 days... well thx for all the advice i have learned a lot about having to care for the fish in this forum and i hope that 1 day i will be able to keep a betta for long and not just days.. thx for the advice nataku and well this is a truely friendly forum i been to some forums and they can ignore u..this is a good forum keep it up guys!


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm so sorry to hear about your fish.


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## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

haizz after the fish died i went crazy and went on a spree to get more bettas...and in a moment of crazyiness i bought 6....i gonna upload the pics so u all can tell me if the fishes are nice or not lols


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## fanditsin (Apr 13, 2009)

these are the fishes i bought on impulse...and i dun have enough tanks for all of them..so i gonna save before buying tanks for them.. o forgive the blurry pics my phone dun work well at close range..


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