Well just today I noticed some white stuff on Aquarius this morning. its not turning up to well on the camera. But its not contany stuff... any ideas?

Plato had some white type spots when he was getting old... might just be an age thing. Aquarius looks kinda skinny. Is he eating well for you???
Might give him a bit of salt to see if he looks a bit better.

I have added the salt. Hes still eating like he normaly does so that should not be a problem. But like you said he is geting older :(

Hi Leaf! I haven't been on for a while. If I'm remembering right, I don't think Aquarius is all that old, but I may be wrong. Looks like it might be velvet to me. It looks like he is a bit under weight to me too. I wonder if he has an intestinal parasite problem thats got him eating just enough to sustain him. I could see you not noticing a change in his eating in that case. If he has something chewing holes in his insides I could see how he might not eat as much and start getting stressed to the point of being more susceptible to things like velvet, which bettas are prone to.

I had received a betta from Yeevs way back that came down with velvet a couple of days after I got him. I didn't treat it and he died. (One of those learn the hard way things.) He lived for a couple weeks and ate most of that time. When he stopped eating it was only a couple days and he died. It's the only experience I've had with velvet. I've heard it's very contagious, but none of my other betta got it. Then again this betta from Yeevs was still in quarantine status.

At any rate treating with a broad spectrum antiparasite treatment should do the trick. Salt is probably only going to work if you use the high concentration as a dip to cut through the slime coat the Oodinium are hanging out under. 10-30 minutes in a 3% salt solution is what my Fish Health Management book from college recommends. That would translate to about 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Don't leave him in it for more than 30 minutes or he will go into kidney failure. Keep in mind that the salt won't get rid of any parasites that might be inside of him. You could start out with the salt dip and see if you can persuade him to start eating more each time you feed him. If he doesn't you might have to try the internal parasite treatment anyway.

Keep us posted! I like Aquarius! I'd hate to see you loose him!

Thanks nutty. I have had aquarius for 2 years now (got him at the LFS).

I tested the tank that he is in a week or so ago with a general paricite med. Ill look it up later. I thought the other guy in the tank had something. So if its an internal parisite it may be tacken care of.

Hes looking good. I no longer see the white stuff.

I'm going to try and introduce some new foods. Any ideas?

I am feeding the Vts:
Pellets
freeze-dried blood worms
frozen shrimp
frozen bloodworms
peas

My Girls will not eat the pellets so....

Sounds like a nice variety of foods already. How about spiralina? It comes in a variety of forms and is very healthy. I just happen to have it in flakes that I got for my other fish. With my bettas I feed meaty based proteins for about 4-5 days and on the next day they get something veggy. I didn't think they would go for flakes, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. At first most of them looked at me like 'Is that food or did you accidentally drop something in here?', but they all ate it. Now that they recognize it they gobble it up just as fast as the other stuff. I never seem to get around to doing the peas. I can't even remember how many years old my oldest betta I have right now is so it must be working. Here's a few other treats that aren't on your list that mine get. Frozen and/or freeze dried daphnia, bugs I catch for treats like mosquito larvae, swatted mosquitoes, worms from the compost pile or wax worms (which should just be occasional treats) left over from fishing, and baby guppies (which are great for exercise!) Things I've found they don't like are flies, box elder bugs, and the Japanese beetles that look like ladybugs. You mentioned they don't care for the pellets. You could also try baby cichlid food. The diets are quite similar for the carnivorous cichlids as with bettas. It's a prepared food that will give them the extra vitamins and minerals they might be missing by limiting their protein to brine shrimp and bloodworms. Come summer you can drive your mom crazy by going outside and catching bugs that hang out by lights or the outsides of windows! My neighbors have been wondering about me for years!

Plain old worms? Did not know that lol. And well I am not going to do the mosquitoes as im alergic to them.....

I have tried my fish on the flakes and well no one took them... I think i just have pickey fish what can I say I am a pickey eater also.

You said you're allergic to mosquitoes? Just something to think about here. Some people are allergic to bloodworms. I'm one of them. It doesn't matter what form either. I first started having reactions with the freeze dried and then it moved to the frozen also. My hands and arms would break out in a rash if I had even the teenyist contact with even the water the bloodworm were in. I accidentally touched my eye once and it swelled up to the point my eyelid was unable to close. For the past year I've had to take allergy medicine just so I could feed the bloodworm. That's even with absolutely no contact with them. Well, this last Friday my body said enough is enough. Even after my normal routine of taking the allergy medicine before hand I developed difficulty breathing which got worse on Saturday to the point that I went into the ER. As soon as I walked into the fish room (which unfortunately is also my bedroom at the moment) the reaction started right back up. I had to vent out the room for a day before I could go back in there. I'm not even one of those people that's allergic to everything. Just something to think about.

And here I am one of those people that is allergic to everything and yet no problem with bloodworms. Best allergy I have is to banana skins. Not the banana itself, just the skin. Also, I'm allergic to lavender. Do you have any idea how much stuff has lavender in it?
And of course, bees...
and yet not bloodworms, that must really suck.

Wow just stop feeding them that! Its not worth it. Im glad your ok though. No reaction with the bloodworms for the thankfully. I have actualy heard a lot of people are though... At least in the fish keeping population ^_^.

Ya no way Im going near the mosquitoes....

davenia like you am am also alergic to bees... The Dr said if Im stung again I have to go in for thoes monthly shots :( Last time my leg was swolen for a month...

Yeah nutty thats a pretty serious reaction. I'm not allergic to anything alive... just the change i keep in my pockets lol. Since nickle is in money it breaks me out. So does most jewelry, unless i coat it with clear coat nail polish... hehe

Last time I got stung by a yellowjacket, I was told that if my neighbor, who's a nurse, hadn't reacted so quickly, they would have had to amputated my leg. As it was, it swelled 3 times its normal size and turned plum and I spent over a month on crutches.
She nailed me with epi, made me take a benadryl and turniqueted my leg right away.

Turniqueted ??

OMG your so luckey!!! Fast thinking on her part.


Did the benadryl do anythign for you? Benadryl does absolutely nothign for me...

Yeah you are really lucky. I was gonna ask you the same thing leaf girl did, actually. I've never had luck with benadryl. It just makes me sleepy.

Honestly, I wasn't with it enough to know if it was the Epi or the benedryl or the turniquet.