 |
FISH HEALTH
Bettas are very hardy fish. If you order a fish and it comes in clean then it will not likely develop any diseases. It will live for several years, if you feed it a nutritious diet and keep it warm.
However, no matter what the supplier says, sooner or later a fish will come in to your set-up with something extra and when the conditions are right... BOOM!...a diseased state will be the result.
Suppliers who raise their fish in a CIRCULATING system which recycles the waste-filled water after filtration are most likely to send you something extra that you don't want.
I'm telling you this, not to get them into trouble, but to keep you from setting up a re-circulating system for bettas.
DO NOT DO IT !!!
If clean, healthy fish were always put into the system…no problem. Sooner or later, however, you will buy a fish that is carrying something and that something spreads throughout their entire system. It is very difficult to treat or disinfect a system and even ultra-violet sterilizers are only around 95% effective in killing disease agents.
THIS MEANS THAT 5% OF PATHOGENIC BACTERIA ARE STILL GETTING PAST THESE BULBS!!!!
I AM VERY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS... IF YOU WANT TO REDUCE YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING DISEASED FISH INTO YOUR FISH ROOM... DO NOT BUY YOUR FISH FROM ANY SUPPLIER THAT HAS A DRIP OR FLOW SYSTEM WITH A MAIN FILTER ON IT !!!
The 5 most common pathogens that will be brought to you along with the fish are:
1. Ich and 2. Velvet: – are microscopic parasites that are very infectious.
3. Fin Rot Bacteria: – as the name suggests they literally eat off or dissolve the nice fin-edges of your fish.
4. Little White Jobbies: - that colonize your entire tank…little white things gliding on the glass just at the water line driving the fish crazy. They are only a pest to adult fish, but they can kill fry. Fry are especially vulnerable at the stage where they are just starting to breath air.
Number 1. and 2. are cured best with Aquarisol found at the pet-store.
Number 3. is cured with antibiotics dissolved in the water (also at the pet store).
Both Number 1. and 2. will clear quicker if you raise the temperature of the water and add some un-iodized salt (1 teaspoon per gallon).
Number 4. will BE REDUCED with daily water changes and glass scrubbing.
5. Tuberculosis(Mycobacterium): this is the one you DO NOT WANT!
For many, many reasons you want to be sure that you never bring any fish with this bacteria in them or on them. Sometimes it breaks out into a terrible disaster with fish dying all throughout your operation but other times it hides in seemingly healthy fish only to cause low level mortalities in other fish from time-to-time. You think that you have gotten rid of it and then the next day you see some of its' signs once again:
SIGNS OF MYCOBACTERIUM in your fish include:
1. dropsy and bloat: the belly starts to swell for no apparent reason to the point that the scales of the fish stick straight out. This can best be seen looking from above.
2. fin rot: aggressive fin rot is usually caused by Mycobacterium. There is usually a red edge to the infected area.
THERE IS NO EASY CURE FOR THIS DISEASE... AND IT ALSO AFFECTS HUMANS...
I HAVE CONTRACTED IT TWICE... it produces painful lumps anywhere on your body where there is a lymph node. My first infection formed 3 lumps on my thumb. The second formed a big lump on my knee.
... BOTH TIMES I CAUGHT IT FROM MY GUPPY TANKS as I was cleaning them. Wearing rubber gloves would have avoided these infections...
GUPPIES ARE THE WORST CARRIERS OF THIS DISEASE!
In both cases, the infection went away without any treatment, but the lump on my knee persists to this day. However, it is not painful any more.
At ALPHABETTAS, we make every effort to provide you with the healthiest of fish!!!
We commit to treating them with appropriate medications and if they show any sign of infection, delaying shipment until they are cleared.
SANITATION:
Although I have suggested some chemical treatment for some of the diseases listed above, generally they are not a good idea. In young fish especially, these chemicals can cause damage to the liver and other major organs which will impair the fishes' health later in life. The fish survive the disease and the treatment but later on they become lethargic and may have trouble breeding.
What I suggest is that you institute a protocol of daily disease monitoring and sanitation practices. This would include looking for signs of disease in your fish every day and then culling those that look ill, RIGHT AWAY. These sick looking fish should be netted into a container with high sides being careful not to drip any water from the fish or the net into any other fish container. This sounds easy but it is NOT. Watch yourself closely and you will see how often you drip or spray water from one fish tank or jar into another.
Any nets or containers that you use should be disinfected with a Chlorine Bleach solution about the same strength as is recommended on the label for disinfecting diapers. Leave the nets and containers soak for at least an hour. The jar or aquarium that this fish was in should also be emptied (without spilling any water) and then it should also be soaked in bleach for an hour or so. Rinse them thoroughly with tap water before using them again.
The next part of this sanitation protocol is to have many syphoning hoses available when you are cleaning the wastes from your fry and spawning tanks. Use a different hose and pail for each tank or jar so if you suck some fish into the pail they can be returned to the tank without getting water from another tank into the one that you are cleaning. Also, you should disinfect these hoses and pails in the chlorine bleach bath too.