# Not sure if Betta has ich



## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Well, I think my Betta may have ich. What can I do to cure it if it is ich cuz I see the white spots. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

first off you will need to treat the entire tank....if one fish has it ; it is all over the tank..
there are a number of meds you can use...i prefer those that do not stain the water...
methylene blue really is not formulated to treat ich..don't use it..
copper sulphate based meds have worked best for me and don't stain...i have been using Aquari-Sol for almost 40 years and it has been my preferred treatment..the only problem is that it can kill inverts...
whatever med you use always remember to increase aeration because the meds reduce oxygen levels...
also make sure you raise the temp to 84-88 degrees F....
make sure to remove any carbon before treatment...
do water changes too...but try to go by the medication recommendations...


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Bettas breath from the air so it less oxygen in the water will effect them little. I personally am methylene blue's biggest fan. IMO, it treats ich. It treats velvet too along with fin rot and many other diseases.


----------



## Guest (Feb 10, 2013)

Betta man: bettas breathe air from the surface of the water. Not from the air.


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

once again......bettas are fish...they have gills...air from the atmosphere is not their primary source of oxygen..it seems betta man that you are almost uneducable...


----------



## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

They do have gills, and will most often breathe through those. But what about the labrynth organ? Doesn't that allow them to take gulps of oxygen from the air, should the need arise, or am I just misled?


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

you have it right trout...the key phrase is "should the need arise"....and that works as angelclown said..they will come to the surface and pull a small gulp of air with barely breaking the surface of the water...
but the fact remains that that is not their primary form of respiration as betta man suggests...
there are many species of fish that can live out of water for a while but they are able to survive long like that..


----------



## Guest (Feb 11, 2013)

Lohachata: I caught Betta man's mistake about the betta's primary source of air. Hopefully he will learn correctly about bettas. Also thank you.


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Actually, my bettas in my fifteen gal always come up to the surface to breath. Bettas can survive with burned gills for months. Bettas will die if they can't get to the surface to breath.


----------



## Guest (Feb 11, 2013)

If the tank is very well filtered and has enough oxygen in the tank, then the betta will not die if it cannot get to the surface. 

Betta man: I would post links as proof of what you are saying. In all the reading that I have done on bettas, I have not found one single bit of information that states that if a betta cannot get to the surface it will die. Another thing, bettas cannot live with burned gills for months. They can live weeks or a month. If the burned gills are not treated then the betta will suffer and die.


----------



## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

I suggest that you never try to put a Betta in a jar or tank without it being able to get air at the surface. You will have a dead Betta. I was looking for a recent article on the suject but the web site is unavailable. That is the reason for a low strength air bubbler in the fry tank. So it breaks the surface and they can get air. Otherwise when they are tiny and can't break the scum on the surface they will drown.


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Chard56 said:


> I suggest that you never try to put a Betta in a jar or tank without it being able to get air at the surface. You will have a dead Betta. I was looking for a recent article on the suject but the web site is unavailable. That is the reason for a low strength air bubbler in the fry tank. So it breaks the surface and they can get air. Otherwise when they are tiny and can't break the scum on the surface they will drown.


+1. 

@angelclown, My tank had three filters, a bunch of plants, and 6 juvenile fish. The bettas went to the surface to breath every two minutes. There was plenty of oxygen in the water. Explain to me why they do that and I will check into your theory.


----------



## Guest (Feb 11, 2013)

I looked up what Chard56 was saying and I hate to admit it but he is right. The labyrinth organ that bettas have is like a lung that needs pure air. So bettas need to gulp air from the surface of the water. Sorry that I was wrong.


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Its okay. I wasn't saying that bettas don't get oxygen from the water. They do, but they need air.


----------



## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

You weren't neccassarily wrong. I thought I was wrong once....but I was only mistaken! Ha ha! I just wonder how many times Bettas have accidently been killed by not having access to the surface like some of those multiple tanks with tubes running between them or topping off a tank so no air is under the lid?


----------



## Guest (Feb 12, 2013)

During my search I found that betta fry for the first 5 weeks don't need to come up to the surface for air because their labyrinth organ isn't developed until 5 weeks old. Is this at all true Chard56? It is something that I never knew about bettas.


----------



## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

Absolutely not true. They develop at a much younger age than that. That's what gets my ire up. Someone reads an article like this person that made that statement and repeats it or misinterprets it and we as inquiring enthusiasts read what the so called "experts" wrote and think it's true. In the mean time we may have killed off some fry or a female in a spawning situation that wouldn't have happened with the right information in the first place. That's what I was getting at before when the two younger members were making sticky's and writing up "articles" from things that they read without the proper explainations or just generalized.


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I wonder who they were......... 

Anyways, eggs won't die if they stay on the bottom. I find that interesting.


----------



## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

A couple of very enthusiastic young lads who in their over exuberance to show off their extensive accumulated book smarts and in an attempt to outdo each other made up some unintentionally misleading and misinformed threads without actually having researched and verifying the results of said information posted in the threads. Ha ha! I have to give you a hard time and keep you on your toes anyway. I find that as long as you keep the water level at 4 inches or less the eggs and fry on the bottom of the tank have a better chance of surviving.


----------



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

HEY! I.....I mean they researched. Just looked in the wrong spots and asked the wrong people.


----------



## Guest (Feb 13, 2013)

Betta man: yes you are one of the ones that made stickies about bettas and their care. There is wrong info out there about bettas. But there are also correct info on them. You just have to know where to look and ask the right people.


----------



## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

Yes you need to .... I mean THEY need to understand that what one persons experience and results are may not work for someone else. Especially when it comes to genetics. Bettas genes are constantly changing and what may have been true 10 years ago or even last year may not hold true now. For an example I was told a Purple Betta was too hard to produce also that Red and Yellow could not exist on the same fish. Well, guess what. That doesn't hold true in my fishrooms!














We need to make a new thread and stop spamming this persons sick Betta thread.


----------



## Guest (Feb 14, 2013)

So true Chard56. BTW: pretty bettas


----------

