Betta with issues

[Tikibirds]

First up - I am no stranger to fish illness and medications but this guy has me stumped.

He is an orange Veiltale betta that I had for several months.

The only sympthoms he has is extreamly clamped fins and weight loss.
I figured maybe he wasnt happy with his tank so I moved him into a divided 10 gallon. That didnt work, so I moved him into a 3 gallon and added aquarium salt. That did nothing. In the past month and a half I have tried fungus cure, general cure, furan 2 and now metrodozinal. Nothing has changed in his appearence.

He eats and swims around and isn't really lethargic. I don't know what else to do and it worries me because I lost a guy last month who had the same symptoms but way more severe.

Pretty crappy pic but this is after I moved him from the 10 gallon due to fin bitting.

you can see what he did to his tail

Tail bitting is pretty common in bettas but the worrysome part is - it never healed.

He is supposed to look like this

not this

 

[Brengun]

Have you thought he may have camalanus worms?

 

[Tikibirds]

I suppose it's possible but would't I see them half hanging out?

 

[bigbird]

have you gone to our LFS and bought the special Betta conditioner for water ? What are your water values and PH etc. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[PlecoMM]

tail clamping comes down to mainly poor water quality. what are you parameters? i had the same with my favouritr fighter fernando he lost his colour (red) and his fins were clamped tight. then i moved him to a thriving 18" tank and kept the wayer tip top anyway as its a 333 tank and ive had him for a good 4 years and hes glowing til this day!

 

[Tikibirds]

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
ph 7.8

I though water issue too but even after I moved him into a 10 gallon, he stayed clamped. I took him out and put him into the 3 gallon.

For conditioner, I have been using API stress coat with a splash of prime as I have ammonia in the tap.

Currently he just has some epsom salt and a weco wonder shell. If I were to guess, I would say internal parasite BUT I have not seen anything that indicates that - other then loosing weight.

A while back I had a betta that kinda had a smiliar issue - no idea what was wrong but made my own anti parasite food with pellets and jungle anti parasite fish fizzy tabs. I'm trying that with him but instead of jungle's meds - which I can not find anymore - I am using metrodozinal.

I know they sell medicated fish food but bettas dont really eat it.

 

[PlecoMM]

right, try lowering your ph too to 7. i found this makes a good difference.
also, great idea with the food!

 

[Tikibirds]

I ordered a small bag of wonder shells and put one of the shells into this little tank. Not sure if it is doing anything for him, but I also put one in with another betta who was acting a bit off and he really perked right up after adding it.
I got it from ebay but this is what they are - It's the regular one, not the medicated one --->http://americanaquariumproducts.com/MedicatedWonderShell.html
I also have indian almond leaves, I can stick one on there

He looks like he might finally be unclamping. His tail fin is still the same but the one on the top and the one on the bottom look to be opening up a bit :clap:
Does this mean he has internal parasites?

 

[PlecoMM]

not neccasarily, unless youve noticed any symptoms. i had found high ph has caused fins to clamp, and frequent wc's. keep up the good work!

 

[Tikibirds]

He seems a bit skinnier then when I got him but other then that, no symptoms of parasites. He seems to be putting some weight back on. The tail fin is still pretty clamped but the dorasl and anal fin are deffidently more opened :clap:

As long as the PH is stable, bettas should be able to adapt. My test only goes up to 7.8 but I wonder if it's actually higher.

What do plecos like?

 

[Tikibirds]

well, he does look a little better then he did a few weeks ago. Fins are more open now at least:clap:

 

[Tikibirds]

well he is looking much better but his tail is still clamped.

 

[Tikibirds]

:clap: fins are unclamping