# 2 New Rescues



## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

So I figured I'd share the story of my 2 new rescues. These were actually planned rescues, as I've been away from fishkeeping for 3 long years and I finally decided there's no time like the present to get a fish again. Of course I decided on a betta, and being a biomedical science student, I felt compelled to get a rescue.

Notice that I said "a" rescue....ok, so that was doomed from the beginning :roll:. After visiting my local Petco and noticing 3 _very_ sad looking bettas from among the dozens of sad looking bettas in cups, I contacted the manager and was told I could receive a 75% discount for the sick fish. I only had one tank set up, so after talking to the woman working in the fish department and realizing she had such little knowledge about fish and medications that any fish I left at the store was pretty much guaranteed to die, I made a very analytical decision to take the fish that I thought had the best chance of survival - a little doubletail male that was sinking to the bottom of his cup but otherwise looked fine. Honestly, even after I explained that the little female with the popeye and very obvious velvet needed an antiparasitic treatment, she dumped in some antifungals....umm...definitely not the same thing, as evident by the label :-?. She then dumped some clout into the cups of the other two (the sinking fish that I ended up bringing home with me and another DT male who was floating on the surface of the cup). Of course, she never changed the water at all, just dumped some inappropriate medication into the filth :-?.

Well, the little DT male perked up quite considerably (he looked dead in the car on the way home) when he got into some clean, heated water. He was constipated, but a nice bit of pea fixed that pretty quickly and seemed to help immensely with the sinking issue. He's now doing pretty well, although he is being treated for a bit of fin rot and I'm preparing to treat him for internal parasites as he has the white stringy poops characteristic of such an infection and appears a bit thin despite good nutrition. His buoyancy issues are MUCH better (he now roams the whole 5 gallon QT tank with little issue), but I think the antiparasitic should help a bit more as he is still not pooping normally, listing a bit while swimming, and not gaining weight as well as I would like.

So as for the other two....well, I just couldn't live with that decision to leave them, and ended up going back the next day. Unfortunately, the little female with velvet was already gone (what happened I don't know), so I took home the floating DT male and another very sickly female. Unfortunately, the female died the next morning, but at least she lived out her remaining hours in a clean, warm tank. RIP little unnamed girl.

The male is still hanging on, although the prognosis is probably grim. He is definitely bloated, extremely pale, and he is still floating helplessly on the top of the water. He has slight popeye in both eyes and deterioration of his fins, and from all these signs I believe it is an internal infection of bacterial or origin (although parasites could also be a cause). After it was evident that warm water and epsom salt were not going to solve the problem (and I was loosing time that this fish did not have), I first treated with tetracycline (easiest to find around here and has a relatively broad spectrum of activity), but since gram-negative infections are most common in fish, I switched to kanamycin when it was evident that the TC was not working. Kanamycin is apparently very hard to find in stores, but I was able to locate some about an hour away from where I live, and I made the drive immediately (anything ordered online would take too long to arrive). Kanamycin is easily absorbed through the gills (good when the fish isn't eating), and is very effective against common gram-negative pathogens, making it the drug of choice for internal bacterial infections, so I was very happy to locate some. I've also given him some epsom salt for the bloating. So now, almost 2 weeks later he is still looking pretty bad and has not eaten a thing. I'm trying some metronidazole in the event that the problem is parasitic, but there is still little change in his condition. Of course, usually I would not recommend such an aggressive course of treatment, but it is obvious that doing nothing is not going to work, and I truly believe this is his only chance. The treatments certainly can't make anything worse, as I'm certain he will die if whatever pathogen has infected him is not eradicated. One thing for sure is that he is a fighter - he is still remarkably alert for his condition and frankly I am surprised he is still hanging on. Hopefully the metro will work....if I could just get him to eat I'd be a bit more hopeful.

So, that's their story to date. I'm very confident that the first betta will pull through, and I guess only time will tell regarding the other. I'll post some pics of the healthier betta boy tomorrow - he really is a cutie, and I think he'll love his new 10 gallon tank once he's all healthy (it's cycling now).

All in all, it was definitely worth all the money and time to have saved at least one, maybe two, lives.....and although it occurred to me while contemplating this last statement that I may be a bit insane, I think I'll just embrace the insanity ;-).


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## BerryBlue256 (Apr 25, 2014)

You did a good thing by saving them. I hope they become healthy again and have a nice life.


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

So here's a quick update:

The little DT male who has been doing fairly well except for some bloating and constipation definitely had internal parasites. How do I know? Well, I made a nice concoction of bloodworms, brine shrimp, betta pellets, fenbendazole, metronidazole, and seachem focus and have been feeding it to him for the past several days. As it turns out, my diagnosis of internal parasites was confirmed when he passed a HUGE mass of gunk yesterday. I actually only found the big pile of gunk because I noticed that the little guy looked completely deflated when I returned from work (all the bloating must have been parasites and trapped feces). After examining said mass under a microscope, I found some very nasty looking protozoan (I think) parasites. And if you're wondering - of course I took pictures of the gross little buggers, and I will definitely post them soon!

There has also been some development regarding the other male who unfortunately is still floating on his side. Basically, I have ruled out internal bacterial infection for the following reasons. First, I do believe a bacterial infection would have killed him by now, as septicemia generally progresses very quickly due to the short generation time of bacteria. The fact that the poor little guy is still hanging on suggests to me that his condition may be caused by internal parasites rather than bacteria. Second, it must be considered that both of these bettas likely arrived in the same shipment, and perhaps came from the same distributor. Since both present similar symptoms, it is likely that they may both be infected with the same parasites that I observed in the feces of the first male. That being said, I've been treating with metronidazole (for protozoans) and praziquantel (for cestodes), both being administered as a bath because he was not eating.

However, I am still concerned that he may not be getting the treatment that he needs if nematodes are an issue (which could very well be the case since metro and fenbendazole did the trick for the other betta). The problem is that fenbendazole must be administered orally and its counterpart, levamisole, which can be administered as a bath, is no longer readily available. So, I figured I'd give him another shot at eating some medicated food, except this time I tried while he was in his cup after a 100% water change.....and he ate some!! I basically had to place the food right onto his mouth, but he did a good job biting off little chunks and after a few minutes of trying, I believe he managed to eat a decent amount. This gives me a little hope that at he at least has a shot at recovering, although this prognosis is guarded at best.


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## BlueLacee (Dec 8, 2013)

I'm so glad that you saved them and am happy the first boy is doing well. As for the second boy, my best wishes to him and I hope he gets better soon. I know he is in good hands


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

Aghh, pictures are coming soon. For some reason they are too large to load, and my computer doesn't seem to have the software to resize them....


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

Here are the pics of the parasites for your viewing pleasure ;-).


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## BerryBlue256 (Apr 25, 2014)

Yuck! Those things look nasty! I hope you get rid of them!


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## mobius981 (Apr 27, 2014)

I like photorazor for resizing!!! http://download.cnet.com/PhotoRazor/3000-12511_4-10796936.html

hope that helps!!


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

Well, after I had exhausted all treatment options (including just good old clean water and heat), I finally made the hard decision to euthanize the second betta boy. It has been a month since I rescued the 3 bettas, and I just didn't feel right letting him suffer anymore. Unfortunately his condition was just deteriorating, with no sign of any improvement on the horizon. The only food he would ever eat for me was brine shrimp, so I gave him a few and then used clove oil to anesthetize him. It was very quick (within a few seconds) and after 10 minutes had passed and I was sure he could not feel a thing, I administered a lethal dose of clove oil. So that was my first euthanasia, and even though I have only had this poor little guy for 1 month, it was still incredibly hard to see his little body go still. RIP little guy  I didn't name him to avoid making it harder on myself if he didn't make it, but now I have decided to name all of my rescues right away as it just didn't seem right for the poor little guy to die without a name. Perhaps I should name him now so that I can bury him with a name.

I did do an autopsy and was unable to find any macroscopic or microscopic parasites. I did notice many patches of black tissue in the stomach/intestines. What was most odd was the appearance of the stomach/intestines: I could not differentiate the two organs. Instead, they appeared as a homogenous gelatinous mass lacking any internal structure, even under the microscope. Perhaps this was an advanced stage bacterial infection with massive tissue destruction? Of course, I don't know what effect the clove oil had on the tissue either, which makes this pure speculation. He also defecated as he was anesthetized, but the matter did not appear like feces under the microscope. Rather, it looked like some sort of tissue :/ Oh what I would give for better/more lab equipment - I was hoping to get a better diagnosis.

On a brighter note, the first betta is doing well. In fact, he is begging me for food as I type this. He's still having some constipation/swim bladder issues, but this may be because he is a somewhat short-bodied doubletail. He seems happy enough though, so I will just keep monitoring his condition. Hopefully he is parasite-free now since he just completed his treatment.


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