Good question about PTS fish.....should I do wtih mine?

Question

My betta has what I believe is fin rot. I have been thinking that maybe he needs to be put out of his misery but a previous question here about how to humanely kill a fish got me really thinking about it.

My fish has been treated, and I went thru this once b4 with another betta who went 3 wks like this, pulled out of it for a month but not very well, only to go back into being sick again & died.

My current betta is listless, right now is attempting to float almost upside down, but has been this way for days.

I'm really torn between giving him a chance & putting him out of his misery. What would you do? (and please NO sick jokes)

PS...sorry for lousy spelling....am tired tonight :)

Answer 1

That is really a tough call sometimes. Fin rot by it's self is rarely fatal unless it has gotten into the flesh of the fish. If the flesh of the fish is damaged by the fin rot, I would euthanize the fish personally, but if it's only in the fins it's easily treated and you should expect a full recovery and all the fins to grow back well.

If you want to treat the fish, I would suggest treating rather aggresively. Fin Rot, or peduncle disease is caused by one of several different species of Cytophaga bacteria. Another name for the disease is coldwater disease because it's more often found in coldwater. It does not do well in warm, tanks, so get your heat up to 80 - 82 while you are treating.

You need to treat the entire tank, not just the one sick fish so the first step is to remove the carbon from your filter and do a large (50 - 60%) water change. Then turn the temp up and tret with a gram negative antibiotic. Be sure to use gram negative as a gram positive anitbiotic will have very little effect on the tougher gram negative bacteria. Furanace is a very good treatment option if you can get it. Also Sulfamerazine, Oxytetracycline or Sulfisoxazole. That's not a complete list, just a few good ones. Treat the tank for a full 7-10 days to be sure you have killed off the bacteria in the fishes system, even if you see improvement before then.

Be aware that this treatment will also kill off the good bacteria in your tank and you will get an ammonia spike, so after treating for 3 days begin to do 25-30% water changes every day until the ammonia cycles back down. Yep, you will need a test kit to keep track of it, but you need to keep close track of it and change even more water daily if needed to keep it safe.

Feel free to email me if I can help more.

MM

Answer 2

boiling water, freeze him. or the way i hate, chop his head off.... i have never done that. but seriously those are the best ways i have been advised to do