How to Treat a Sick Betta Fish

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Chris with aquatic central here in San Francisco and on the web at aquatic hyphen central dot com. And I'd like to tell you how to treat a sick Betta fish. The first step in treating a sick Betta fish is identifying what the actual ailment is. There are lots of different ailments, there can be fungal, bacterial, or parasitic. Typically Bettas are afflicted with fungal afflictions. These can be identified by a white cottony growth on the bottom. Rotting or decaying fins. Or cloudy or protruding eyes. One common fungal treatment is Fungus Cure. It is important to follow the actual directions of whichever product you are using as they will vary. The key thing is to keep clean water regardless of the treatment or medicine. Keep the water clean, keep it filtered, remove any carbon from the filtration system as it will absorb the chemical media that you are using. Another common ailment that afflicts Bettas is calamaris, it's actually a bacterial disease although it appears to be fungal. It appears as a white coat covering the whole body. A broad spectrum anti bacterial will be just fine for that. Erythromycin for example will treat gram negative and gram positive bacteria. Be sure to keep an eye on your water quality, do plenty of water changes as this will also effect your beneficial bacteria in your filtration. A third common ailment for Bettas and other fishes is Ich which can be identified by small white spotting on the body. It's important to treat this quite rapidly as it progresses rapidly as well. Malachite green is a very common remedy for this to be found as the active ingredient in here in NOX-ICH. Usually the treatments on this product will require at least eight to ten day treatments as there is a three stage life cycle of ICH. Again regardless of the ailment or the medication, be sure to follow the directions, keep the water clean, remove carbon from the filtration and your fish can be back to health in a short period of time. In addition to medicating it is also key to feed your Betta regularly so that it's metabolism stays up and it's immune system is boosted. Again this is how you can treat a sick Betta fish. My name is Chris with aquatic central here in San Francisco and on the web at aquatic hyphen central dot com."