Betta with bacterial infection, not getting better with melafix?

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27emily27

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Jun 19, 2008
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Have I misdiagnosed? or am I not treating it right? it seems to have spread more in the last week (since I've been treating), the water stays at about 80.F
can anyone help out? I do not want to lose this beautiful fish!

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I have only had her for about two weeks and she started to look a bit off the day after we got her home. This is my first time keeping Betta's, I didn't buy her from a chain supply pet store this girl cost me like $50.00 Thailand import.

any help appreciated!

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[/IMG]http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh301/padawon27/046.jpg
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and some healthier befor pics the day I got her
 
Melafix isnt really much of a treatment its more of a preventative, generally once the infection has begun it will not cure it (it says helps to cure... but its too weak to really work.) What you need is Maracyn or Maracyn-two. Maracyn kills gm + and maracyn two kills gm -... you can use them both together but they arnt the cheapest medication so if you can figure out exactly what the disease is and what causes it you could get away with one or the other. What signs are you looking at in the picture?
 
She seems to have a lot of reddening under the skin whereas before she was white opaque, and some sores looked to be developing, I went to my lfs but they didn't have the products you recommended so I went with betta fix to see how it went, which was kind of good because I dont have a huge supply of money to spare. so far it's receded a little, the redness has come down so I think this is doing the trick. if any thing seems to go down hill I will search for the maracyn products. thanks very much for your help, the melafix definitely wasn't doing any thing.
 
Hi emily.
I hate to tell you this, but BettaFix is just a diluted concentration of MelaFix, but if your betta continues to improve, that's great. You may also want to turn down the temperature a bit (around 76*) in order to slow down the bacteria, if your fish is comfortable with that. If it doesn't clear up I'd use Maracyn Plus, Maracyn 2, Kanaplex, or similar antibiotic. Good luck!
 
Get Betta Revive. I am not sure what is in it but it is amazing. I use it with my betta and she is almost 4 years old.
 
betta revive contains neomycin sulfate, methylyne blue, malachite green, and cyanocobalamin (a vitamer of the vitamin b12 family). be very careful when using this stuff, it will stain everything blue! when i medicated with it, i would use a 2 gallon bowl with just plastic decor that i didn't mind getting blue.

IMO I would never use melafix or bettafix with a labyrinth organ fish (bettas, gouramis, etc). these two 'meds' contain oils that can potentially coat the labyrinth organ and cause problems for the fish. I know there are anecdotes of labyrinth fish faring fine with these 'meds', but there are also stories of them passing away during treatment.

(the reason i say 'meds' is because they are not actually medications, but natural treatment options that help with symptoms but don't actually attack any sort of infection)

I personally would use Betta Revive in this instance. it is cheap, less than 5 bucks for each package. one drop per 16 ounces of water is all you need (although i tended to dose a tad more than that when dealing with fin rot cases). lower the tank temperature like Jannika mentioned, because bacterial infections thrive in warmer water. daily 100% water changes with the Betta Revive to keep it 'active' in the tank (meds break down quickly in water, so water changes and re-dosing every day is best IMO).

keep us updated!
 
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