So, the second smallest betta female that I have has ich. I first saw 1 spot on Friday or Saturday, and then Sunday night, there were alot more spots. The smallest one I have has really shredded fins, and she looks as if she scraped the top of her body really hard or something because there is a like line of mising color, it looks like missing scales, but I can't tell really. She also has the same thing on one side. She is swimming fine and everything like that. I do have a heater in the tank, and I have raised the salt to .2%, and I will have it at .3% by tonight.

I have never treated ich before, so I don't know exactly what to do or how long it will take. Any advice would be great! Also, what should I do about my smallest with the shredded tail ?

yes up your salt and the temp to at lest 80 to 85 degrees. make sure to keep your water pristine. here is an excellent article on betta disease and meds it advises the same thing with the addition of aqrisol
http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=930

ok, thank you!!
I've never heard of aqrisol, I don't think I can get that cause i've never seen it. Do you think mela fix might help for the little one with the tattered fins?

petco has aqurisol and I believe petsmart does too. also foster and smith website has it. yup melafix will heal tattered fins in combination with salt. I would worry about treating his ich fist and wait till that is cleared up before treating with melafix

ok, that sounds great! thanks for the help

with the salt, how long would you say it usually takes for the ick to be gone? i'll try to get to petsmart, but it is about a 45 minute to an hour drive, so i don't know when i'll be able to get there.

Correct me if I am wrong others, I believe the life cycle of ich( a parasite) is a couple of weeks.

ok, that's what i thought i read somewhere as well, but i wasn't sure.

thanks again

uggg....my male betta has it too!! I know that's MY fault for using the same utensils for their water changes. Anyways, my question is....can ich live outside of water? if so, for how long?
I am super paranoid now about it getting into my 55 gal goldie tank.....i have way too many problems in there as it is. I don't use the same stuff for that tank as I do for the betta's....but...things happen. Can it live on y hands? Like if I touch the betta water and dry and wash my hands, and then do something in my goldie tank, can it be transfered that way?

no idea but I hope it all works out. Leah

Thank you i do too!!
I checked them out this morning before work, and the one with the most ich doesn't have nearly as much on her now, so that is good news. I think (or i hope) that i caught it early enough so it won't turn into a bad infestation.

My littlest one though doesn't look so good, her tail is in really bad shape. I don't remember it looking that bad when I got her. I hope it isn't from the other bigger ones picking on her. I haven't seen them do that though, but then again, I am not there to watch them all day. If I don't see any improvement in her by the weekend, I think I may have to ISO her....which I really didn't want to do because I want her to be able to live in the community, and in a nice tank with a filter. I really have nothing of good quality to iso her in, so it would have to be just a container with no light or filter

Oh Grain,
I am sorry to hear about your problems with ich! I sure hope it all gets better soon! There must be something in the air because it seems that a lot of us are having probs with our fishies fins! Jaws has a broken tail fin and possible fin rot. Shamu's fish, Taco, may have fin rot, and I have read somewhere that someone else's fish is having problems with their fins (Pix, I believe, but she is not sure what it is yet). I have ordered Jaws some Medi-Gold as I can't put anything but salt in the water as I am cycling the tank right now. It is a major PIA! I hope your fish get better soon!!!

thanks nickie!! I have noticed alot of fin problems lately too!! I was just reading about yours....and I know my goldies have been fighting that battle for MONTHS now....and i mean alot of months. It is SO frustrating, so I totally know what you are going through! I do hope your jaws gets better quickly!!

But as for my betta girls, they are seeming better with the ich....the one with the most had at least 15 or so spots last night, and as of right now, i only see about 3 or 4, so hopefully the salt is working already. As for eeny, the littlest one with the messed up tail, I haven't seen her since this morning, so i hope she's ok! I'm sure she's just hiding in a spot that I can't find her....but that's still odd because it's not that big of a tank, and I'm looking really hard for her.

You don't think she got eaten do you??? I sure hope you find her! I'm glad that the ich is getting better for ya! Are you doing vacumes to get the ones that fall off? I'm sure you are! You know what to do! LOL!
Jaws is doing fine, other than his broke tail fin. He really seems to be okay. I'm not sure if it is fin rot or something he did himself, an injury, as he is never still and swims really fast all the time, except for when he finally goes to sleep! Right now, he is trying to get to Hammy thru the divider! I think Hammy just swims right in front of him to tick Jaws off! LOL!

it's really too bad that your guys don't get along better but i think maybe eventually they will...or at least i HOPE they will!!

I found eeny...she came out and tried to eat, but the others really wouldn't let her get any food. I observed some more, and it seems that she was getting picked on a bit, and she was really scared of the other fish, so I had to iso her. I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't leave her in there to get bullied. Plus her tail was looking worse. It is actually almost gone So, I have her in 1 gallon of water with her favorite hidey ornament and plant. She is swimming around more in there than she was in the tank, so that's good....at least now she doesn't have to be scared that someone is gonna pick on her. And of course, I still have her salt at .3% I am going to start her on some melafix for her tail as well.

And...actually, thank you for mentioning it because i did not know that you're supposed to vaccuum for falling off ich!! I've never had to treat ich before, so this is all new to me. Are you supposed to do that daily?

I don't know about weekly. but I would sterilize my tank oranments and the gravel. Ich has eggs that drop off into the substrate.

all of my tanks are bare bottom, but i do have plants and hidey ornaments. what about the filter? aren't the eggs that fall going to get sucked up into the filter? if i sterilize that, it will obviously kill the cycle.....so...if i keep the salt at .3 for a month or so, should that do the trick?

I would not worry about it. The salt and heat should do it o.k. if you are really worried I would wait till after treatment and replace the filter cartridge

The way ich works is that the parasite will attach itself to a fish that is in stress. It then feeds off the fish for a few days then drops off. After that, it lays its eggs in gravel, prolly ornaments, too, then the cycle starts all over. I would prolly just wash the ornaments really good and then vacume the bottom of the tank once a day to get all the other possible eggs in there. As far as the filter, I agree with BQ, the salt will kill most of the parasites; I would just change the filter pad once the ich is gone.

thanks guys! as of this morning, i have seen no ich on any of the fish, so that is great news! i will be doing a cleaning of the bottom and of the ornaments tonight to get any eggs, etc...

I am also going to go check out a tank for my tiny girl that i had to seperate. Do you think that I will be able to eventually add her back into the main tank once she gets bigger and stronger, or will she probably have to remain seperated for good?

She was the same size as one of the other girls when I bought them, but the other one totall surpassed her and is now almost the same size as the other two. I'm guessing that is because they wouldn't let her get enough food and whatnot. I hope she does well by herself.

This is my own oppinion but I would leave her by herself and feed twice a day and beef her up and get her tail healed and get grown up more before I added her back in. It may work it may not. you will just have to see if she adopts and they get along with her

yeah, that is what i was thinking as well. I will just buy a little tank, and if she doesn't do well in the main tank when she is bigger, then she will have her own little home.
Thanks again

Hey Grain,
Sorry to hear that you had to iso your little one, but I am sure she will do much better w/out all the stress from being picked on. Also, I am glad you found her! LOL! Good thing that she didn't make a snack for the other fish!
I tried to let Hammy and Jaws interact today by taking out the divider. It went well for about an hr, then Jaws started in again, so I had to put the divider back in. (Sigh)

Thanks Nickie! The little girl in iso isn't looking too good....she is bottom sitting now and is clamped. When she does swim around, she is only using one of her pectoral fins. It's kinda sad....I went to get her the tank today after work, but they were out of them...I'm gonna try again tomorrow. I sure hope she can pull through!
I'm sorry your guys won't get along, that's sad I had some troubles with my shubunkin bullying my ryukin....but it was only happening during feedings. I had to seperate him with the divider when it was feeding time. But eventually, he stopped, and they all get along now. Funny thing is that my black moor was very small at the time this was going on...like 2 inches, and shubunkin is about 8 inches, and my ryukin about 7 inches....well, whenever blackie would see shubunkin chasing gill(ryukin) away from the from the food, HE would start to chase shubunkin....it was just so funny to see this tiny 2 inch fish chasing this 8 inch monster fish around the tank

how i eventually got shubunkin to stop was...at feeding time, i would stand by with the net, and every time i'd see him going after gill, i'd trap him in the net for a minute(still keeping him in the water of course, just keeping him from going after the other fish), then i'd let him go, and i'd just repeat that...eventually i just had to put the net by him and he'd stop...now, it is VERY rare for him to do it at all anymore. That worked for me, but i don't think i'd recomend it, as it can definately stress out the fish...but for my fish, it stressed him alot less than being divided, and it didn't bother the other two fish at all as the divider did.

Bad news.....I checked on little Eeeny this morning, and she had passed during the night. Poor little thing. I hope it wasn't something that I did

I am so so sorry to hear about you losing little Eeny. I do not think you did anything wrong. The ich may have just progressed to a point that it overpowered her. Sorry

Thank you, i really hope it was something like that. I actually didnt see any ich on her at all, but yesterday, she was bottom sitting, and not eating. Then I noticed that she was clamping her fins and only using the one fin when she did move. I was really hoping i could save her but I guess at least she is not suffering now.

Poor Eeny and poor Grain! I am sure it wasn't anything you did! After all, just think of the conditions those poor fish were in when you got them! She may have just been too sick to help. You did all you could for her and at least she didn't suffer too much. You tried to give her a good home and that is what counts! BIG HUGS!!!!

Yes, you are right. They were in very bad conditions. Thank you Nickie

I am so sorry, you did everything you could. If you had of left them in the pet shop they probably all would have passed by now. Keep your chin up. I bought another betta the other day, so we have three now. he was in a divided tank they would have been lucky to have 1/4 gal each, he one next to him was dead and looked like he had mould growing on him. Our new boy seems good at the moment. fingers crossed Leah

awwww, i'm glad you got him Leah! I'm sure he will have a very good home with you

My other 3 girls seem to be doing just fine. I am fasting them for now because they are all eggy!

good luck with them grain, I am sure that they will all be fine now because you take such good care of them. Leah