Topic: HELP!! BETTA HAS SOMETHING STRANGE!

[FishyLove]

Any who have read my other post about the 5 betta I got the other day know the background on them. The CT started actign very odd and alarmingly today. 2 times that I've seen it has went baserk. Acting like it was having a very bad nervious breakdown and then after it would calm down it's scales would pop out like the natorious dropsy. But after a while they go back to normal. Is this dropsy or not? Gosh do I ever wish I had stronger meds now. Someone borrowed the methane blue I had the other day and lost it. The only other thing I could get my hands on tomarrow is the green stuff, can't think of the name. would this do anything for it??

[FishyLove]

AW comeon people! Anyone? Anything?? Please??
I've got to get to bed, can't stay up too long waiting for something.

ONe other note, after he goes bonkers, his gills are all puffed out like they are swollen or something, but that also goes away in a little while.

[Holyrowly]

Sounds like he is just agitated.  I wouldn't medicate until you are sure that he is sick.  He might be seeing his reflection or something. If he has clean water I wouldn't worry just yet.  

[Squeek]

It sounds to me like a water quality issue if it happened suddenly.  Just do a 100% change (matching the temperatures of the new water to the old water) and dissolve 1 teaspoon of aquarium/rock/kosher salt per gallon to the tank before you return him in there.  Prevention is better than cure and clean water is the best preventitive

[sukie]

Well you just got these guys and they were put through a lot. . . so I would give them a couple days (maybe a week) to get them back to normal.  But do ck your waters and if any other symptoms arise then treat.  

[FishyLove]

I've been changing the water everyday, can't get much cleaner. And I did a water change the maoment I noticed him acting that way just in case something got in it. I've been keeping salt in there water and a drop of melafix for healing.
It was really wierd though what he was doing. And I've haven't seen this fish act this way. He is the flare champ, you should see him when I remove the peices of papers from between their jars. I just somehow don't think it was his reflection that caused it. It just didn't seem natural the way he acted. Seemed to look like something was attaching his nervious system, maybe more like what would come to mind thinking of someone who had just quite drinking or something. Or maybe I'm the one that is nuts.

[Jessie226]

Did you just quit smoking? Maybe he got used to the second hand smoke and is now going through withdrawals. KIDDING!!
I wish I could offer some advise, but I have no clue what it could be. Does he scratch a lot when he spazzes out? Does he have a gold/copper looking dust on him if you shine a flash light on him?
Good luck! Hope you figure it out!

[FishyLove]

Naw, none of that. (And, no, I don't smoke. Silly.) It is kind of like he suddenly starts breathing hard and starts to bounce around uncontrolably and starts flailing himself all around for a few seconds and almost nocked himeself out of the jar once, I had to very tightly ruberband a piece of cloth on top to make sure he didn't end up on the flore. Then when he stops his gills looks all puffy and his gill fins are quivering very rapidly then his scales start to stick out. This will last for several minutes then slowly go away. Just flat out freaky to watch.
I sure don't want to have anything happen to these fish now. I had planed to use how well they were healing up as a bargening point for being able to keep one of them.

[frogsnbettas]

Could be a nervous system problem.  Did you check for velvet?  The flailing around is what gets me there...

Either that or the Melafix is burning his gills.  Some fish are VERY sensitive to it.  I'd just try and cut it out all together and stick with salt and clean water.  Also, he could be stressed from water chages every day.  This seems like overkill to me... I'd push it back to every couple and let him relax.

[FishyLove]

No velvet. Um, he is in a quart jar, doesn't it need to be changed every day? What I do is suck out all the old water with baster leaving  enough for the fish to comfortably stay in and slowly add the new water to it. Every couple of day I take the fish out and clean the jar with hot water. Would it take a week for him to show an intolerance to melafix?