So I was a bad puppy and bought ANOTHER fish. A yellow and green CT that has no tail (I’m assuming he bit it off because his dorsal and anal are very much CT, but his tail is just this dinky little thing). Moving off of that now.

He’s done this several times since I got him yesterday, but it looks like he’s having a seizure in the water. He actually looks like he coughing or gagging or choking, jerking his head up and down and expanding his gills in an erratic fashion. He does it for a few seconds, not even a minute, then stops. And when he stops, he gets a breath of air and swims around as if nothing happened.

What’s your take?

Just a guess - but could it be parasites in his gills? Could it be flukes?

I don't know if bettas can get them... I'd think they could.

OF SO - you need some Prazi.

I checked- nothing on gills. They look fine. He flares too and breathes fine.

You won't be able to see flukes... I don't know - but it sounds parasitic, and fish with gill flukes will dart around like that, and try to expel them by exhibiting the kind of behavior you're describing.

I've never had it with bettas, so I'm not sure that's what you're dealing with. HOWEVER, if you can get some Prazi, it's a good medication and won't hurt your water paramaters.

It's what I would do... JMHO.

Hm. *Nods* It's just weird because he doesn't act like the typical fish infected with flukes would.

I'd be willing to bet my left arm that he has parasites (or it could be flukes too) and they're infesting his gills. It's also very possible that they can get ick internally also - you just never see them on the outside. They can infest the gills from the inside.

The issue you run into is that you can give it a try treating him for just parasites - using like maracide or something, but in the case that it's gill flukes - you will most likely need to use coppersafe.

Keep in mind that if you decide to add some salt (which I'd recommend) the salt won't affect the flukes - only the parasites. They operate differently, flukes can survive in salt - parasites can't.

You'll need to decide how to treat him - Maracide will take care of the parasites, coppersafe will take care of parasites AND the flukes. Coppersafe will kill live plants - maracide won't. Copper based meds are generally more harsh on fish and some fish don't tolerate it that well - but i've used it on a couple of occasions and it worked fine.

Hope that helps you - congrats on the rescue :)

I'm sitting on it and not doing anything for the time being. If he gets worse, I'll go get meds. But I haven't seen him do that at all today.

Excellent!
It absolutely amazes me on a regular basis what some good clean water, a good diet and some TLC can do for a fish that's not quite as healthy as he should be.

Do keep us updated on him :)

glad his doing better


maybe he justed like rock n roll....... :rockon:

Another option - a little 'Quick Cure' won't hurt as long as he's not in a filtered aquarium with an established bio-load. If he has any parasites it should knock them down.

Or a some salt...

It could be parasites, but then again, sometimes they just gotta cough :dunno:
On rare occasion I've seen my bettas go up for a breath of air and then immediately begin coughing, like they've accidentally inhaled a bit of water too :P

That might have been it. Either way, haven't seen him do it anymore still. And boy does he flare all the time. He is just nutty about flaring. ^^ He's perking up. Maybe he was just traumatized by something. Each days he's more perky and happy to see me, and each day he flare more and is more active. I bought a new tank for him, and I'll see if he likes it.

I bet he'll love it :)
Has his tail started to grow back at all yet?
I have a ct boy who keeps his tail trimmed up nice and short ALWAYS.
I have yet to ever see a ray on his tail and I"ve had him for months.

Any pictures of him for us? :pics:

Tail hasn't started to regrow yet.

I tried to take some, turned out really crappy. I'm going to try to take some more later. Maybe they'll turn out better this time. >_>