My Betta Fish Is Sick, What Do I Do?

If you own a Betta fish, chances are that sooner or later your betta will become sick.

The first thing you should do is to try to treat your betta yourself.

Here are some steps on treating sick bettas.

Steps to Treat a Sick Betta Fish

Preparing for Disease Treatment

Before treating your sick betta, make sure you do the following:

– Get a quarantine tank.

– Get a thermometer for your tank if needed.

– Go to your local pet store and buy the tools below (listed in the next section).

– Buy medicine – never use human medicine on fish; always get medicine from a pet store or veterinarian.

– Grab an extra bag/container that is the same size as your betta’s tank.

– Rinse it out and put water from your betta’s tank in the container, leaving enough room for your betta plus any medicine you will need to add.

– Clean the sick betta’s tank.

– Get a small, clean container to use for treating your betta in.

– Make sure it has air holes so the fish doesn’t suffocate.

Disinfecting the Tank

Once you have set up your quarantine tank, get a sponge or paper towel and soak it in bleach.

Take the sponge/towel and run it all over the inside of your betta’s tank.

If you want to take extra precautions for treating your betta, make this step last about ten minutes.

After treating the tank, wash off all of the bleach.

Let it air dry or wipe it down with a clean paper towel.

If you have a filter in your betta’s tank, remove it and rinse it so no chemicals remain inside.

Put the filter back in when you are finished treating your betta fish in this quarantine tank.

Treating Specific Ailments

After treating the tank of your betta, it is time to make sure you know what sort of illness your betta has.

If you don’t know what your betta’s symptoms indicate, visit your local pet store.

The staff will be able to help you determine if your fish needs medication and point out any treatment methods they recommend.

There are several main types of betta diseases – fungal, bacterial, parasitic, nutritional and also unknown/unspecified diseases.

Depending on the type of disease your betta has, treating it will be different.

Below are some examples for treating specific ailments:

– If your betta is sick and has ich (white spots) on its body, you can buy medicine at any pet store that treats ich; this will be the safest bet.

– If your betta has a bacterial infection and is lethargic or not eating, it may need antibiotics.

– Parasitic infections like flukes and worms can be treated with medicine from a pet store or veterinarian.

– If your betta has an unknown disease, treating it is similar to treating ich – look up brand names for treating bettas and buy that medicine at the store.

– If your betta isn’t eating or swimming properly, you can try placing bloodworms in its tank, treating it with the medicine from a pet store and treating the water with melafix to help it heal faster.

Before treating your betta fish, don’t forget to read up on what you are treating it for so that you can properly administer the medication!

Changing Feeding Habits

If you notice that your betta isn’t eating properly or is lethargic, the first thing that you should do is to change its feeding habits.

Try treating it with Melafix for five days and then slowly introduce less food into its diet.

Bettas are carnivorous fish so they eat meat – if it isn’t eating, you need to adjust its diet.

Try treating it with the medicine from a pet store and try feeding small portions of food directly in front of it so that it can eat when it needs to and not overfeed your betta.

Make sure you do this slowly, too – if you change its feeding habits too quickly, it may become sick again.

You want to make sure that you are doing everything possible to ensure your fish is healthy!

If you notice your betta still isn’t eating after treating it with medicine and changing its feeding habits, take him/her back to the pet store for help.

You can also try treating the water with Jungle Fungus Eliminator to make sure that the betta doesn’t have any more fungus on its body.

When treating your sick betta fish, it is important to remember that you need to take care of the entire tank as well – not just the fish!

Changing the Aquarium Conditions

If treating your tank with Melafix does not seem to be treating the betta properly, it may need different conditions.

The main cause of betta fish diseases is poor water quality, so you want to clean the entire tank and then treat it with Jungle Fungus Eliminator for five days straight.

Do this every day until your betta’s symptoms disappear and the water is clear.

After treating your betta fish for at least five days, it may be a good idea to change its diet as well because that will help prevent further disease from occurring.

Treating Your Betta with Medication

Once you have figured out what sort of betta fish’s illness it is and the cause, treating your sick betta properly will be easier.

There are several different types of medication for treating bettas – some from a pet store that treats specific diseases and also natural medications.

It is important to remember that treating your betta fish with natural medicines will be difficult because you need to figure out what illness it has and treating it.

It is also possible that the medications won’t work at all so don’t rely completely on them!

Be sure to visit a pet store or veterinarian if you aren’t treating your fish with medicine that is treating the specific disease.

Treating a betta fish is a process and it may be a frustrating one but treating your betta properly will guarantee that he or she stays healthy.

You should make sure you only buy medicine from pet stores, not grocery stores, because the medication from grocery stores isn’t designed for bettas and can actually kill them!

Treating your betta fish with natural medicine is difficult but treating it with store bought medication is easier so you should do that first.

Supplies to have: medications from pet stores, food for bettas (such as frozen bloodworms), Jungle Fungus Eliminator, Melafix, a tank for treating the water, a large bowl to put your betta in when treating it with medicine from a pet store that is not safe for the tank.

Natural Betta Fish Medications

If treating your betta fish with store bought medications doesn’t seem to be treating the illness, there are natural medicines that you can use.

Neem oil is a great natural medication – it treats fungal infections and bacterial infections.

Make sure when treating your betta fish with neem oil that you leave the tank in darkness and that you do not feed your betta for 24 hours.

You should also make sure that the neem oil won’t mix with other medications – if it does, speak to a pet store employee and see how best to treat your betta fish with neem oil.

Another natural medication is Melafix, which treats fungal infections in betta fish.

You should make sure when treating your betta with Melafix that you put it in the tank last since treating the tank with Melafix will not always work to treat other diseases or bacterial infections.

Treating a betta fish naturally is difficult because you need to know how to treat it before treating it with neem oil or Melafix.

It is possible that treating your betta fish naturally will not help and you should see a pet store employee about treating it properly instead.

So treating a betta fish naturally is something that should only be done if the other medications don’t work and you know what illness your betta has and how to treat it.

Supplies to have: neem oil, Melafix, pure salt (you can find this at most pet stores), Jungle Fungus Eliminator, a bowl for treating the water.

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Finally, make sure when treating your betta fish with medicine that you do not overdo it!

It is important to remember that treating a betta fish with too much medication can actually kill it so be careful about how much medication you put in the tank.

Treating a betta fish is something that takes time and treating it with medicine is just one way to do it.

Doing any of these steps to treating your betta fish will help it live longer and stay strong so treating a betta is something that should be done.

It may seem difficult, but treating a betta fish with medicine is not as hard as it seems – just make sure you do the research first!

Conclusion

So treating a betta fish is easy in the sense that in most cases it will live if you treat it with medicine.

But treating your sick betta fish with medicine can be difficult because you need to know what illness the fish has and how to properly treat it.

You also need to make sure not to overdo treating your betta with medication or treating it with the wrong kind of medication.

So treating a sick betta fish is not as easy as just plopping some Melafix in there and hoping for the best, but it can be done by following these steps!

And treating your betta fish will make sure that it stays strong and stays alive, so treating a betta is important.

And remember if treating your sick betta fish with medication doesn’t seem to be working, you should speak to a pet store employee about how to properly treat it – don’t try and do it yourself because treating a betta can be difficult!

I hope this article was helpful for treating a sick betta fish and good luck treating your betta!