Walmart Rescue

[AnotherWoogie]

I also posted this on DFB, but I was wondering what y'all's input would be.

Basically, when I found this pretty little female betta, she was lying on the bottom of the platy tank half dead, barely breathing and missing an eye. I brought her home because she looked like a fighter (she swam to the top of the tank when you opened the lid) and she's been doing pretty well. When I got her, her tail fin was kind of beat up, her gill covers looked a little rough and her pelvic fins were just nubs...not to mention that she's missing one eye. I've treated her with Stress Coat (to help with the fin damage) and Melafix with daily water changes for the first couple of days and then just water changes every other day with doses of stress coat.

Her nubs of pelvic fins are growing and her tail fin is healing as well. And as for her gill covers, well...they kind of look better, but since she doesn't flare (because she can't see the male that's right next to her), I can't really tell. I'm still having an issue with the blindness with the fact that she's flat out missing one eye and the other one seems to point down and she can't really see any food. If I get some on the tip of a Q-tip and put it in front of her face, she'll eat it, but sometimes it sinks off the Q-tip before she gets to it. I've tried just putting the crushed up flake/pellet mixture on top of the water and hoping she'll smell it, but she never does. Should I try some of the frozen brine shrimp I have because it will be more potent?

I want her to be able to eat without me practically shoving it in her face and also dirtying up her water. Of course if this is how it needs to be, that's fine, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to get her to eat on her own.

Here are some pictures...


Here you can see her missing eye and the little bit of tail damage she has


This one you can kind of see how her gill cover is damaged


Her "good" eye and her nubs


Any suggestions?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Looks like a male to me....

Is that red part on his gills missing? on the side with the missing eye?

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Walmart Rescue

It's there, just extremely red, but not as red when I first brought her home. Why do you think it's a male?

[MJY6087]

Re: Walmart Rescue

females fins are alot less long and flowy i believe, i took think its a male

or it could be a gigantic female

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Walmart Rescue

I was saying it was a female because of the rounding of the tail fin made it look like that was the end of the tail and since it was short, it was a female? I dunno...that's interesting...

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Y'all are right...she's a he.

But how do  I get him to eat properly?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Keep the water in pristine condition, try warming the temp up a bit to raise the metabolism and then try feeding it tasty foods like bloodworms.

[loopy119]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Maybe you could try some thawed out bloodworms! They are really bright and big so he might be able to see them better. Maybe you can soak them in some vitamin drops or something while they thaw to kind-of infuse them or something...? Good luck with the betta rehab!!

Rebekah

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Do y'all think it's a possibility that he has internal parasites? My sister told me that it's a possibility I'll need to get some medicated flakes for him, but he's not eating :(


He's in a little betta condo with no filtration or anything right now, so I'll probably move him over to the quarantine tank where there's a heater and everything. I'll do that tonight and let y'all know what happens.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Being a Wal-Mart fish there is a high chance that it might have internal parasites...

Ditch the medicated flake idea since that will just be a waste of money since it's not eating right now. Try some epsom salt and raise the temp to 80-82f...at least that is what I would do.

[djmatthewblack]

Re: Walmart Rescue

I don't know about others, but I bought the medicated food and I can't get guppies to eat it.  You could try using a feeding ring.  Perhaps the fish will learn that is where the food is when it gets hungry...it will help with keeping food from getting all over the tank.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Walmart Rescue

IMO it's a waste of money.

The nutritional value isn't as good as most others available on the market, the med part is close to none and as mentioned...not appetizing. I would rather go with something the fish will eat that has good nutritional value which in turn will help the fish build up their immune system since they will be healthy and eating. Also with the med part the medicated food is worthless if they aren't eating it so go with something that is dosed in the water if needed.

Just my 0.02

[AnotherWoogie]

Re: Walmart Rescue

About how much epsom salt would you say? The quarantine tank is a little one gallon plastic container thing.

[Mzungu]

Re: Walmart Rescue

Not sure about the epsom salt dosage, but I agree with the heater idea. Bettas are amazingly more active when the water is warmer, so he'll probably be a bit happier that way. And I also agree with the bloodworms - that's my foolproof fish food! I have only had 2 fish that wouldn't eat the frozen blood worms, and that only lasted for about a week or so.

And yes, good luck with the betta rehab!

I'd be willing to bet that the redness of his gills is due to the water quality in which he was most likely kept. Ammonia can burn the gills pretty badly. It may get a bit better, but I'm not sure if it will ever completely disappear.

Is there a filter on the quarantine tank?

[Spot86t]

Re: Walmart Rescue

I've had success with the medicated food but only after modifying it a bit.  I crush the pellets on the 2 kinds of medicated food (I use them both together), add enough tetracycline drop food (got it at petco) to make it all stick together, then add just enough garlic guard to make it a bit watery.  then I put it in the fridge for a few hours - the crushed pellets will absorb the watery part, and make it a soft food.  I don't feed the fish for a day or 2 before giving them this, but it's soft enough that even if they spit it back out, I like to think they got something out of it.  Later I go in and it's usually all been eaten.  

Maybe they realize that they aren't getting anything else so they decide to eat it anyway.  I don't usually use  the medicated food unless it's a bug they can't seem to shake.  That's only happened a couple of times but it seems to have gotten them enough 'over the hump' that a few days of this and they're almost back to normal.