Gerald Bassleer examines a female betta with severe skin necrosis, fin rot, and gill damage caused by Columnaris bacteria and internal lesions. Treatment starts with a large water change, temperature below 23°C, and 3 g/L salt, followed by topical disinfectant and antibiotics like neomycin sulfate or enrofloxacin.
Questions this video answers
Case number 112
Lower the temperature to below 23 °C
3 grams per liter (3 g/L)
Veromor (from Aquarium Münster)
Neomycin sulfate and enrofloxacin (referred to as Bitril)
Chapters
Dear Aquarist, today I want to talk to you about my fish disease. Case number 112 and a bit. It's about a Betta splendens, but a special variety. It's the elephant ear. I know, I don't know if you've seen that Betta before, but it's a beautiful fish with special fins. But this one was in very bad condition. So I will share my screen and show you my findings in my PowerPoint presentation. Because these Betta female elephant ear had very bad skin necrosis and fin rot. Here you see the picture. You see them here, one of them with badly rotten fins. Here another one completely the fins are devoured. Here is one dead, eaten away by his friends in the aquarium putting, well, getting the food out of the belly, so badly damaged, also due to the aggression, the cannibalism between those female Bettas. Here we see them in a video. Here we see one up front. Here you see how bad the tail is falling apart. And you see the aggression of the fish, well, trying to get some food or what else. It's a kind of behavior that can happen between the fish. So you see the losses that appeared. And so we pulled out one of those badly damaged fins. And here is that long, the pectoral finish. And that's why that fish is called the elephant ear, which is very necrotic and damaged. And it's a bacterial infection. And that's what I show here. Then in my slides from the microscope. You see the tail rotting away and here the bacterial colonies that it's devouring the fin tissue. And here we see it in the video. You see the millions of bacteria here in the water. And here we go to a higher magnification. You see the dancing bacteria in the water. Maybe two, three, three different kinds of bacteria that are here attacking the fish and causing the fin rot. And also on this slide here you see a colony of Columnaris bacteria also. So maybe three different kinds of bacterial strains here that have an effect on the necrotic skin and on the fins of that Betta. Also the gills, very serious gill rot. You see here, the gill lamellae are completely gone, devoid by bacterial infection, which is here in progress. And we also found one gill fluke. Well, that can be of course another stress factor. Maybe it's only one that I've found so far. I didn't check on the other Bettas. Maybe the other ones had more, but could be a risk, but only one. That's not the most important thing to treat. The thing important to treat Is that bacterial infection? That's what we found. Inside was a large tubercle. Very strange that we found this kind of tubercle. What is the origin was Mike? Likely a bacterial infection. And also the liver was in very bad condition with holes and some red markings inside. So what can we conclude? Well, the very bad fish, which are very poor shape, like the one here up front. Well, you have to put it to sleep. That fish will not having any chance to be recovered by any treatment. We Recommend to use Narcomore plus from MyCoraminstral which is a gentle treatment to put the fish asleep. As an urgent action that you can do in the case like this is do a very thorough good water change. Lower the temperature, try below 23 because then the bacteria don't grow so fast. And add salt, 3 grams per liter. That's a first aid to control the bacterial growth, particularly with this external infection. In the start of such an outbreak, you can try the medication Veromor from aquarium Munster because it's a kind of disinfecting. It's cleaning the skin, the gills and the fish of the fins of the fish from that bacterial infection. In the case that disease advances like we've seen here. Well, you better talk to your fish doctor. You might need an appropriate antibioticum like neomycin sulfate or endorofloxacin like Bitril. And feed the fish with our Dr. Basler Bages, VOF or professional treat for several weeks. And me, well, do not give other food. As you can see, I have books available. Try to get them. Try to read more about phage diseases. Try to educate yourself. You also can be educated as a professional when you go to my Patreon and become a VIP person to join my classes on fish diseases. So I hope this brings you some extra information on the care of fish. In this case about the Bettas who can suffer from bacterial infections. Thank you for watching.
