# floating nose down???



## ScuitoAmi150 (Nov 19, 2009)

My King betta male is wicked sluggish the past few days, he has stress stripes, and has been swimming with his tail up and nose down to the ground. I've been giving him Betta Revive since it looked like he had some white ick on his sides the other day. The water is good, it just got changed two days before I noticed this (he's in a 5g filtered).

I put a heater in the tank so now he is staying closer to the heater.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

Not to scare or misinform you, but any time that I've had a king do that, they were on their way downhill towards dropsy. I'd start him on epsom salt 1 tsp/gal premixed as a precaution and stock up on maracyn 2, Jungle medicated pellets, and Jungle anti parasitic tabs/general cure. I've always been recommended those for when one of my kings was afflicted with dropsy. Catch it early on enough and it is curable, but usually if their scales are sticking out it's too late.


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## ScuitoAmi150 (Nov 19, 2009)

Pataflafla said:


> Not to scare or misinform you, but any time that I've had a king do that, they were on their way downhill towards dropsy. I'd start him on epsom salt 1 tsp/gal premixed as a precaution and stock up on maracyn 2, Jungle medicated pellets, and Jungle anti parasitic tabs/general cure. I've always been recommended those for when one of my kings was afflicted with dropsy. Catch it early on enough and it is curable, but usually if their scales are sticking out it's too late.


 I was thinking it might be dropsy (my favorite Spade Tail male died on Monday from dropsy =( )...of course I'm going away for a week for work so my mom is taking care of him but I'm going to change his water tonight give him some aquarium salt and MelaFix (I can't find Maracyn 2) and my mom knows how to treat him with the MelaFix.


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## Pataflafla (Jun 2, 2011)

I would hold off on the aquarium salt if he doesn't have anything external going on. It's not really needed on a regular basis and is harmful if used for long term since too much salt can hurt their labrynth. Epsom salt can be used long term however if it's really necessary. I'd put him on a low dose of epsom salt just in case he starts to swell so he isn't bombarded with lots of salt at once. As for the melefix, I don't know anything about it, but if it treats internal bacterial infection or parasites I guess it's worth a shot.


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