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i came home today to find my male betta in his 2 1/2 on the bottum sideways breathing heavy. The tank is unfiltered but im doin 50% water changes every couple days. The tank has gravel and some anacharis(sp?)
he doesnt look good at all, his color is a little dull too
is there any way to save him?
thanks in advance

its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

Well from the sound of it, it doesn't seem like he has a chance.

Do you notice anything else on his body?
Possibly an internal parasite... Need more information before we can tell what's harming him.

How long have you had the tank?

I've had many fish die the same way... never was able to save 'em...



Last edited by fishnewbie at 05-Aug-2005 21:00

Unfortunetely i cant really help you too much here. the described symptoms really dont tell us anything more than a runny nose would. it tells us something is wrong but not much more than that. normally i would associate heavy breathing with either nitrite build up or lack of oxygen/ excess co2. the water changes and plant should take care of nitrite however and oxygen shouldnt be a problem for a single fish especially with plant (assuming the plant isnt dying). I'm fairly sure that neither breathing or nitrites would be a problem. the only thing i can say is that perhaps you are taking out too much water and causing the fish to stress. i would probably go with 10% every couple of days.

well, alfter looking more, his fins look horible, right now he keeps swimming strait up twords the surface only making it part way then floating back down twords the gravel, i really dont think he has a chance...
thats for everyones help anyways tho..

its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

ok sk8 give us some water parameters...this is the new little red guy you recently got right? (or have i confused who got what betta recently) What size of tank is he in again (hey it's been a long week) If possible set up a ugf on the tank or a small hob that doesn't run strong. If you can't do either of these, then get an airstone and small airpump, and put that in the tank. You could always dose the tank with some bettafix/melafix. It's no guarantee but it might be of some help. or instead of adding the melafix, you might add in a few granuales of aquarium salt, it too might help, but isn't a guarantee. seems kitten's twerp is going to be a salt betta for life Some people swear by the aquarium salt, and a little will go a long way, it might help to decrease the stress. And as long as he has a gallon or so of water I wouldn't do the 50% water change but once a week Hope some of this helps. Get those water parameters for us so we can see what else can be done...it could just be typical silly betta antics Gofish used to do that all the time even when he was young drove me crazy till i learned that it was normal...heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

yeah, its the red one, hes in a 2 1/2 gal tank, i dont have anything of the things u sugested to put with the tank, but maybe tomorow if the worst hasnt happened yet..
ill try to get the parameteres soon but theres ppl downstairs where the test kit is who dont want to b bothered, ill get it soon tho

its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

it is possible to save, him, one of my bettas had a heart attack and stoped breathing, clearly dead, but i did cpr and he came back alive, and is better than ever now. change water but only alittle, add bettamax, and lower water level, ( what i did to help save my guy is lower water to really nothing, just enought to keep his body covered, and tilting his bowl over a cup to keep head close to top.) good luck

ok, heres the water parameters
nitrAtes:around 10 (safe)
nitrItes:0 (safe)
hardness:120ppm (moderate)
alkinity:120ppm (ideal)
ph:7.2 (ideal)

(words in parenthisis are acording to my test kit)

its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

thanks for all ur help..but he died tonight...


its me sk8freak20...i need to get premie so i can change my name back

Sorry for your loss!

I know how it feels...

Last edited by fishnewbie at 06-Aug-2005 00:20

I'm sorry sk8, I know it's hard:#(think of it this way he's with Gofish and they can flair at each other all they want...I'm really sorry:#(it's never easy...he may have been an older boy when you bought him, that is the only problem with buying fish from the lfs, we never know how old they are nor what they've been throughsorry, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle