Beta Fish Illnesses

My beta fish Yumi (U-may) died yesterday from Dropsy. He lived very comfortable in a ten gallon tank with a sucker fish named Captain Spot. If i had realized he was sick sooner and not playing games i would have tanking Yumi from the tank. I'm worried now that Captain Spot will transfer the illness to the next fish since he was with Yumi. I've already started cleaning everything in the tank, from the filters to the gravel and his castle. but i don't know what to do with Captain Spot so that he won't cantaminate another fish. i really don't want to watch another one suffer as Yumi did before he final went to fishy heaven.

any help is very much appricated.

 

just have the one fish left in the cycled tank for a little while. chuck up facts o google about diseases and watch for any. then you can cure them and all before you get another fish

 

I think that as long as you clean the tank really well you should be fine. The only problem with that though, is you can't really clean the filter too thoroughly w/o killing your good bacteria and causing the tank to cycle again.

FWIW, I lost a betta (lived in a 10 gallon community tank) to dropsy about a year ago. I didn't do anything to the tank or the other fish and they're all still fine.

-Chelle

 

this might be quite irrelevant, but i heard that if u fed your fishes peas every now and then, it really helps prevent it from getting dropsy since peas active as some sort of laxative...

actually... i was told to fed my goldfishes with peas... i don't think it applies to other fishes... but it might?

 

I don't know, even though I feed my tetras peas as a snack. They don't really like it, but its good for their health, I guess.. :?

 

Dropsy is generally caused by a bacterial infection in the kidneys so I don't think peas would help with that. However, peas do act as a laxative so they can prevent constipation which can lead to an intestinal bacteria infection and swim bladder problems. The swim bladder empties into the intestine so if the fish is constipated, the swim bladder stays full of air and the fish will have buoyancy problems.

I feed all my fish peas (or at least the ones that will eat them) at least once a month just to "clean out their plumbing."

-Chelle

 

yupp, i'm planning to feed my goldfishes peas once a month when i get em =)

 

thank you for your help. i'm have Spot quaratined for about a week or so and have the new betta in a bowl for now. i'm worried about really cleaning the tank good because Spot will loose his dinner. so i'm waiting until i know his not sic too.