Oh ye Gods, could this week get any worse. My best friend's funeral, and now this

I got in from London late last night, armed with a new tank for my betta Wonton, finally he can have a filter and heater.

So I went to change him over today, and guess what- he's all sprinkled with little white spots! aaargh.

I thought he seemed a bit off colour this morning when I fed him, but as his old bowl was acrylic, I couldn't see him properly. But now he's in the new tank, it's obvious.

I haven't got a clue how to treat this! So far, I've shifted him to a new tank, put in new washed gravel, planted in his (quarantined) weed and rebuilt his plant pot hidey hole. I also put in a new heater, which is currently set to 25c. How hot should it be to treat ich?

Should I go get some whitespot treatment? (the only one we don't have in the cabinet!) If so it'll be the interpet stuff. Salt? Cover the tank? Uncover the tank?

Help me folks! *gets ready to grovel*

Sorry to hear about your little guy being sick.The first thing that you want to do,is crank that heater up between 80 to 85 degrees. As for which med in England,I'm not familiar with which one is the best.I know there's Whitespot,Protozin etc.I'm sure someoe here can tell you the best one.If the meds have malachite,or formalin in them,light lessens the strength so you will have to keep the tank covered.It is recommended to use Meds a few days after you've seen the spots have disappeared just to make sure. Good Luck!

hi fugly

i would suggest using protozin as its the best one i have found for treating ick.
my own betta had ick and a very stubborn form it was too.

devs has given good advise, raise the temp to 82f - 85f slowly and take any carbon out the filter. keep the filter running and add an extra airstone if you have one as the meds take a lot of oxygen from the water.

keep the lights off during the treatment and cover with a dark blanket or towel to stop any light getting in. you will need to lift the cover each day to feed and add meds etc. try to keep his appetite going by feeding live foods if possible.

as for the meds use as instructed as it may well be the easy form of ick and do a 3 day salt bath for 10 minutes for the fish. one gallon of temp matched water and 1.5% (one and a half level teaspoons) dissolved aquarium salt (i used a bucket). try to leave him in for 10 minutes but if he seems to stop moving or gets distressed then take him out. the salt should get rid of the spots that are on him.

if none of this has worked after around 10 days then you could have the harder form of ick and will need more intensive treatment.

an alternative to the meds is to do 50% gravelvac changes each day to get rid of as many of the cysts in the gravel as possible and do salt dips for a few minutes each day of .2%

bettas arent really that easy to treat when they have ick as they tend to easily fall to secondary infections, but i wish you luck in getting rid of this disease and maybe someone else can give you some more help. or even correct me if i have said anything wrong

i think amy will be able to give some good advice as well as she has battled this as too.

Aaargh, if only I'd spotted it before I moved him- I could have binned all the old gravel.

Right, as soon as the mister gets in we are off to the LFS, though I think all they have is the interpet treatment....hope he gets in soon!

I'm still putting the filter together atm, but it's air powered, so once that's in that should be okay for him.

What secondary infections can I expect?

If I med him tonight, when should i do a salt dip? I don't want to overstress him!

Thanks a lot folks

you can expect anything from dropsy (which got mine) to fungus infections. start the salt dips tomorrow.
as the filter is air powered would it be strong enough for you to get a bit more air pipe a 3 way gang valve and an airstone to get more air in to the tank. how big is the tank by the way.?

Tank is just under 3 gals.

The treatment I got (I arrived just as they were locking up!) is protazin by waterlife- this is eveidently a good thing, plus I got salt- added it as suggested (1 tbsp per 5gal)

I have 4 outlets on my airpump (its huuge) so i'll divert two into the betta tank- I doubt the gf will mind.

Just tried to tempt him out with a bit of FD tubifex (which he seems to like) but he's not having any of it :angry: so i can't even get a proper look at him

Filter is going in as soon as I find the rest of it- there are SO many places in my house where a small bore green pipe could hide

its not advisable to use the meds and salt together. theres a post about it in disease treatments. i dont know how the betta will take to having salt in the tank, as i have only used it as a short term dip. hope someone can help you more.

Oh, ****. Oh well, I've just put the meds in, so it'll have to stay that way until I change the water tomorrow. Fortunately I underdosed slightly on salt due to having no head for maths. I found the salt advice on bettatalk, and the med bottle didnt say not to...ho hum.

In fact the meds bottle is remarkably unuseful! Does it contain malachite? Do I need to black out the tank?

I've just bodged the filter together, using an airstone which has been 'modified to fit'- nothing like impro, and it seems to work, though I have to weight it down as it floats.

Wonton has just come out for a look around- he seems quite happy, just looks like a small blue french fry! He's just devoured the worms I offered, and is now nosing around the filter and airstone.

Well, we'll just have to see how he does in the morning. I hope he makes it, he's really growing on me!

I'd be very careful with the salt treatment period.Betta's are not like most fish,and seem to have more sensitive reactions. I have only used salt once on a betta,and it was down to a do or die situation.Not only was he suffering from Whitespot,he had rotted fins almost down to nothing. I had tried the treatment,& was not getting fast enough results.The betta got to a point where he looked as if he could die any minute,and thats when I tried the salt dip.And I barely left him in there more than a min. or two. He was a 100% better looking by morning-it was almost shocking. I personally avoid salt with bettas-I tried everything else & felt like we had nothing to lose here cause he was going to die. Even with that,I still feel salt & Bettas really shouldn't be together. I wouldnt use it again unless it was a death situation.These of course are only my personal experiences.Someone else may tell you different.

i agree with being VERY careful with salt. my silly angel jumped into the tank with 3% concentration, seemed fine when i took her out but died a few hours later. keep it at a maximum of 1 tsp per 2.5 gals and keep the water topped up. ive lost 3 of my bettas to ich. hope yours do better. looking on the bright side, though! one of mine had had ich 3 times and got through it without her appitite being affected or even going pale so they do recover! i think she may have got through it because of the mix of meds and salt, i dunno but unless its unanimous to do it and its safe then please dont do it. good luck

Okay, I'll skip the salt when I change the water tomorrow.

Can anyone tell me if I need to cover the tank when using protozin??? Having just dosed him I don't want to undo all the good by leaving the light on if I shouldn't.

Oh and many many MANY thanks for all your help!

its best to over the tank if you can. ich cant survive without light, so im told so it will help to keep it in as much dark as possible.

Cool, I've just covered him, and fed the goldfish, who feel they are suffering from lack of attention.

*mwah* you're all angels, thank you