My boyfriend's fish is suffering from the worst case of ICK I've ever heard of.

Normally, with my fish cases of Ick, you treat it ~ it goes away.

His is just getting worse. I gave him some Ick-away medicine that he's almost used up
because one treatment just didn't work, and for a bit we thought it was something else
and a treatment of Furan 2 hasn't even worked!

What do we do! Please, help me save his betta - it's one of the most amazing Veiltails I've
ever seen!

Also ~ will his plants be ok after this or will they have to be thrown out? D:

I swear, if his betta doesn't make it through this, I'm boycotting the local fishstore,
because it was their stock that carried this into his tank and their neglagence of proper
fish care that's caused this!

Well, Sauce_Packet, first off I'd like to say it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances.

Before you go for the throat of the slowest clerk at the lfs I have to speak out slightly on their behalf. Many fish stores don't have facilities large enough and make enough of a profit to be able to quarantine and treat incoming fish for every possible thing that they may be harboring. Ick is one of those things that can be on a fish in it's beginning life stage and you wouldn't be able to see it. It's even possible to get a fish that isn't infected (yet) but the little bugger in free swimming in the water.

Understanding ick might help get you guys through this. Lets say that you bought a ick free betta but just by chance there was one itty bitty little tiny critter in the water. We'll even go so far as saying it's in a dormant stage. Not even looking for latching onto a fish. You get your cute betta home. Float the container and slowly get him acclimated to the water. Seeing there's no other fish in the tank you decide to just let him go in the water. He turns out to be a real charmer. He does this cute little wiggle as he begs for food 'Feed me, feed me, I'm starving! A couple week goes by and you and your betta are buddies! You've picked out a name for him already and you're spoiling him rotten! You get more neat stuff to put in his tank, too. You've considered getting a heater, but seeing he's been okay you haven't yet. Then you notice him doing a back scratch on a rock. He only did it a couple times and then quit, so you figured it wasn't a big deal. Over the next couple weeks you continue spoiling him. Lots of water changes and plenty of good food. Then you see 3 or 4 little white spots and wonder if you just hadn't noticed them before. Just in case you get out the medication. You treat it and it goes away! Yah! Unfortunately a few weeks later it's back... but now there's more spots! Okay, that last stuff worked... try it again. Bingo! It goes away! Whew! It had you worried there! A few weeks pass and your baby is doing great! Then... guess what? It's...BACKKKKK! Holy Crap! This time we are thinking we need some serious chemotherapy!

Let me explain. Ick goes through some various life cycles. Part of it is on a fish. Actually, it's safely snug just under the skin. It can be seen, but unless there's several most people don't notice. Even if you treat it it's safe under the skin. When the visual signs go away most people figure the problem is taken care of. It's at this time that the treatment should begin. The little parasite erupts from the fish and drops to the tank bottom. There it goes through another step in it's life cycle. Depending on the temperature of the water (remember, this is a cold blooded organism that's metabolism is based on the temperature of the water). If there's no heater in the tank the life cycles take longer to complete. After anywhere from 3 days to a month the little bugger more or less hatches, only now it's not one. It's hundreds! Now is the crucial time for killing it! It has roughly a day to find a host or it will die. No host - nothing to eat. If it finds a host the cycle continues. Eventually getting worse each time. So you can see, you have to figure out where that 24 hours to treat the water is.

Right now you guys are battling many organisms with overlapping cycles. Sucks, doesn't it! This is what you need to do...

First - if you don't have a heater in there get one! One of the handiest things about bettas is they don't have a hard time dealing with high water temps. Ick has an upper temperature range that doesn't go as high as bettas can handle. Slowly over the course of 2-3 days increase that temp into the mid to upper 80s. You're going to want to keep it there for maybe 3 weeks. Then slowly over several days bring that temp back down.

Now bettas are also cold blooded. They're metabolism will go up also. They will eat more, pee more, poo more, and will be more active. You will also need to do more water changes! Depending on how big the tank is, maybe even avery day! Be sure the water going in is the same temp as the water going out. It would be a shame if you killed him with temperature shocking him! Go ahead and put an IAL in there, He'll love it and it has antibacerial properties. During the course of this temperature treatment be sure to be using salt in the water. It will help your betta osmoregulate and ick doesn't like salt either.

That's it! No sense stressing his system with unneeded chemicals when you don't have to!

A personal word of advice. Quarentine all fish and never ever put the water they came in into your tank. The water in lfs is often a mixture of the water the fish came to them in. The same with plants. I wouldn't even scoff at the idea of rinsing with completely fresh water for fish and plants before they go into their target tank.

Good luck!

dito Nutty. GREAT JOB! :hug:

An absolutely major overdose of Aquarisol works. about 8x the recommended dosage. I've had a very bad case of ick and it was pretty much treated overnight like this..No heating either.

Salt and heat are my recommendations too.
I don't medicate unless I have to and then I usually use Betta Revive.

Thank you everyone. We went out on a shopping spree for fishcare stuff and after only one night, his fish is doing amazingly better!

Also ~ Nutty, I couldn't find the tea spa anywhere even thought I'd swear to you it was once at our Petsmart. One of the LFS owners told me if I could give him a complany name or site or something so he could order, he'd happily carry it. Where do you recomend?

I really like that place, it's like the secret shop. It's a LFS, but the prices are insanely over those of the bigger chain places.

Atison's Betta Spa is one product that is very good. A cheaper alternative is to purchase IAL off the internet. IAL stands for Indian Almond Leaf. The leaves of almond trees are collected after they turn orange and fall to the ground naturally. The leaves actually hold natural antibacterial properties and floating a hunk of it in the water is good for the fish. These leaves have been used for many generations as a secret method in raising betta also. Secrets out now though! If I can find the link to a sight that has info about the almond trees I'll add it into the thread. Raw almonds are even used as a human dietary aid in the treatment of cancer. Amazing plants! Basicly, the Atison's Betta Spa is a concentrated mixture of Indian Almond Leaf. We have a recipe to make your own concentrate in here somewhere. Personally, I just float a hunk of the leaf on the water surface. Bettas seem more secure hanging out under something anyway. That's what they have in their natural environment.

You're very luck to have a great lfs! They are few and far between! Btw, I'm happy your little guy is on the way to recovery! You'll have to keep us posted on how he's doing. We have a tendency to be worry warts. Especially about our finned family members!

I hope that answers your questions. Is there anything else we can help with?

Here's a link to one recipe. http://z7.invisionfree.com/Uniquebettas/in...1075&st=0&#last

Here's some tid bits. http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Betta,%20I...nd%20Leaves.htm

One more. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tea-betta-f...ng-healthy.html