My Sad Fighter:(

[candym0m]

Theres sumin wrong wit my Siamese Fighter. He keeps hiding underneath my filter stand. Iv had him 4 bout 3wks + hes been fine bt suddenly yday i noticed he was acting realy weird. Wot cud b wrong??

[solex69]

Can you post pics of him pls?

Bacterial infections usually creates Bettas to become inactive. They'll lie around and do nothing except eat (that'll come to an end too) until they die if not treated accordingly.

Another very common reason here in SA leading to Betta diseases are overfeeding. Bettas should be fed about 5 out of every 7 days. Considering what I've seen, many people feed their fish a lot of food at any single given time, and Bettas will munch as much as they can. If continues feeding happens, eventually the Betta's digestive system can't cope with getting rid of the food and the fish will most likely start becoming sick. By keeping them off food for 2 alternate days per week, you are actually helping them.

Honestly, it could be anything causing the problem...will need either pics or more specifics from you please :)

Is he in his own dedicated tank or community? Size of tank or total water volume? Other tank inmates (and how many) if applicable?

Cheers
Dale

[candym0m]

Thanks for your reply, Dale.
Unfortunately, I am unable to post any pics, but I think I might have been overfeeding him :(
I have a community tank with 5 neons some snails and then the fighter. So when I feed the others he obviously gets fed too.
What do you suggest I do??
He was perfectly healthy and very lively up until a few days ago.

Oh, and my tank is only a 14L (12L of water) but it's doing quite well otherwise.

[solex69]

Hi

I suggest you do an immediate 50% water change and add aquarium salt to the water. Don't dose the tank with any other meds. Also, dont feed him at all for about 4 days and see if his health returns to normal.

First option would be to move him to his own tank with clean water, but no train smash if you dont have another tank. You will have to feed your other fish, so when it's feeding time, put him in a plastic or glass cup filled half way with the tank's water. Once feeding is done, you can put him back into the tank. OR, just capture him in a net (obviously still submersed) and feed the others...once all the food is out of the tank, release him

Let me know how it goes

Cheers
Dale

[candym0m]

Thanks, Dale!
I don't have another tank, but I'll do the water change and fast. Shame, my poor little guy.
Hopefully he'll be better soon :)

[candym0m]

So i did the water change + i havent fed him @ all since yday morn. I dnt hv aquarium salt tho.. Can i get sum @ any pet/fish shop? I also noticed ths morn dat 1 of my neons has white stuff all ova him! Wots happening? I dnt undastand it. My tank has been set up 4 mnths + iv had this community 4 about a mnth nw + everythn was fine up til nw. :( ?

[solex69]

Most likely, you have an ICH breakout in your tank. Is it white spots on the neons, or biggish white marks that almost takes their colour away? If small white spots, get to your LFS asap, and purchase Marltons' anti-ich/ick (this is the cheapest brand but does the trick as the other more expensive brands) as well as aquarium salt. Dose your tank according to the instructions on the bottle. Also add about 1 or 2 tablespoons aquarium salt. If it is the biggish white chunks on the fish, don't get anti ich but rather does with aquarium salt only. I've seen a bit of my cardinals at one stage with those biggish spots and it isn't ich....it's something else. Suffice to say, they passed on :(

Let me know
D

[candym0m]

I only gt ur msg nw, so il go 2 shop 2moro. Thanx agen. I thnk its definately ich cos its white spots. Do u knw wot causes it??

[solex69]

see this:

http://www.thepetadvantage.com/assets/files/caresheets/Ich.pdf

http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/articles/Ich.html

[Carping]

If you have a betta in a community tank, how do you prevent it from overfeeding?

[solex69]

Only feed your betta 5 out of every 7 days (3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off)
Only feed him the total amount of food that he can consume in approx 2 mins.

If you don't have angels or discus in the tank, you can apply the above to a community tank as well. I do that with females that share a tank with some barbs and I apply the same process here

[Carping]

The tank (400 liter) is still in prepping stage at the moment, but I will have an angel (5 cm), bala shark (7 cm), algea eaters (6 cm & 8 cm) and a glass catfish (4 cm) in it by Sunday.