The small cockerel (Betta splendens) will become a bright decoration of the home aquarium. Keeping the males is easy, even if a novice aquarist can cope with the insignificant conditions.
In order for the fish to please beauty and health for a long time, not only proper care is needed, but also the ability to distinguish the signs of disease in cockerel fish and start treatment on time. Diseases in fish are fast, often counting on the clock. Therefore, the sooner you start treatment for the fish, the greater the chance of recovery.
Types of Aquarium Fish Diseases
If something seemed to be wrong with the fish, you need to pay attention to the symptoms, this will help to cope with the disease. There are three types of problems on which fish can become ill; treatment will depend on this.
- Water quality. Fish stay on the surface of the water, often breathe or even choke. They lose coordination and control of movements, in severe cases, fish fall to the ground and die. Symptoms occur suddenly and can spread rapidly, affecting the entire population of the aquarium. It is necessary to conduct water tests for the content of ammonia and nitrates and make a substitution of at least a third of the volume of the aquarium.
- Infectious diseases. They are provoked by pathogens (bacteria, fungi), cause damage to the fins, impaired coordination of movements, fish are inactive and refuse to feed. Depending on the infection, skin symptoms appear: white spots, redness, death of scales. Symptoms begin in one fish and gradually spread to the entire population. Affected individuals need to be sent to a separate quarantine aquarium and observe the symptoms, trying to determine the disease.
- Invasive disease. They are caused by parasites of animal origin. They can affect the skin of the fish, causing it to itch, gills are also affected, and breathing is disturbed. Or parasites settle in the internal organs of the fish, causing gradual depletion and death of the fish.
Symptoms of fin erosion
One of the common diseases of aquarium fish of males is fin rot, due to which the fins of the fish are gradually destroyed, and it dies. Symptoms are initially invisible: slight whitish clouding of the tips of the fins. Then the ends of the rays of the fins begin to fall away, the edges fall apart. With a severe form of the disease, ulcers appear, at the beginning the tail fin disappears, then the rest are destroyed and the affected fish dies.
The cause of this disease of cockerel fish (and not only them) is a bacterium from the Pseudomonas group. It affects weakened, injured individuals or young fish.
The course of diseases of cockerel fish and their treatment directly depends on the conditions in which the diseased individual was kept. Often fin rot occurs in crowded aquariums where owners forget to change water and monitor ammonia levels.
How to help fish
Until the base of the fins is affected, treatment is possible. It is necessary to put the affected fish in a separate aquarium and treat with medications (use only one method):
- Chloramphenicol. The tablet is designed for 20 liters of water. With this solution, you need to replace 30% of the water in the aquarium once every three days until the symptoms disappear.
- "Bicillin-5." The bottle is designed for 60 liters of water. From this calculation, a solution is made in which the diseased fish is placed for half an hour. The maximum course of treatment is 6 days.
- Potassium permanganate. The solution is made at the rate of 1 gram per 20 liters of water. Pour half of the solution into the quarantine aquarium, run the fish, add the remaining solution in a few minutes. So bathe the fish twice a day for a maximum of 10 minutes. Continue until complete recovery.
If in a few days the fins begin to recover in the fish, the treatment is successful.
Ichthyophthyroidism
The appearance of the disease and the treatment of the cockerel fish is strongly influenced by the parameters of the water in the aquarium. In poor water, fish have reduced immunity, they are more susceptible to disease and more likely to die.
One of the serious diseases is ichthyophthyroidism or "semolina" caused by the ciliary infusoria parasite. The main symptom is the appearance on the fish body of whitish nodules, similar to semolina semolina. The parasite is introduced into the aquarium with new inhabitants or plants that have not been quarantined. Sometimes fish, the carrier of the disease, looks and behaves like an absolutely healthy individual, therefore quarantine is mandatory for new residents.
With this disease of the cockerel fish, symptoms appear gradually. The fish begin to itch strongly on various objects and plants, then the appetite disappears. Unfortunately, white dots that help determine the disease do not appear immediately.
In a neglected form, this disease of cockerel fish is very dangerous, the sooner treatment is started, the more chances there are to save the aquarium population. Unfortunately, for some types of parasite treatment does not work.
Treatment
The development of the disease depends on the rate of transmission of parasites from sick fish to healthy individuals. Each ciliator produces about 2,000 daughter cells, which then look for the next carrier. The infection cycle takes only 3-4 days.
It is better not to plant affected fish, but to treat the entire aquarium immediately. Before applying the drug, you need to replace part of the water, clean the soil and rinse the decorations and plants. This will reduce the level of ammonia in the water and help fish transfer procedures more easily.
For the treatment of ichthyophthyroidism, drugs based on malachite green with formalin and furacilin are used (Antipar, Sera Omnisan + Mikopur, Tetra Contralck).
It is necessary to accurately calculate the dosage of the drug used and in no case mix different drugs. They are quite toxic and strongly affect water parameters. Therefore, before each introduction of the drug, 1/3 of the water must be replaced.
It is necessary to provide additional access to oxygen and limit the feeding of fish. After all the white dots on the pets disappear, you need to remove the remains of the drug. This will help a massive replacement of water: twice a day for 1/3 of the volume.
Exophthalmia in fish
With poor care, the fish may develop a disease such as exophthalmia, or buccal eye. First, the surface of the eye becomes cloudy or becomes covered with a white film. One or even both eyes swell and crawl out of their sockets. In severe cases, the fish may lose their organ of vision, which simply falls out of the orbit.
When the eye of a fish cockerel is swollen, treatment of the disease should begin with an improvement in water parameters. Several times make a substitution, use the preparation "Ammonium-minus" and reduce the feeding of fish.
If the fish disease was caused by improper containment conditions, blurred and bloated eyes will soon pass. However, these symptoms of cockerel fish disease can be a sign of a serious bacterial infection, and the treatment will be different.
Systemic infections
If the water changes do not help and other infected individuals begin to appear, the cause of the glomeruli will be found in systemic bacterial infections, such as columnariosis or vibriosis. In addition to goggle-eyed, fish can be covered with a grayish coating, even affecting the oral cavity. It is difficult for fish to breathe, it sways at the surface, fins begin to decay. These symptoms are visible in the photo of a rooster fish, the disease of which has taken a severe form. If such diseases are suspected, treatment should be started as early as possible, they are quickly transmitted and can be the reason for the mass death of fish.
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, which are added to water or applied directly to the affected parts of the fish. Treatment should be carried out in a common aquarium, it is useless to plant affected fish, the disease spreads too quickly.
To prevent bacterial infections, you can use an aquarium UV sterilizer, the radiation of which kills most harmful bacteria, as well as parasites and unicellular algae. Of course, this does not cancel the regular water changes and soil care in the aquarium.
Cockostiasis in males
One of the diseases that often affects cockerel fish is bone disease caused by the parasite Ichthyobodo necatrix. The disease develops in stages, so only an experienced aquarist can notice the first manifestations.
At first, the attached parasites infect the skin, the fish begins to itch actively. A gray coating appears, consisting of frozen fish cells and numerous parasites. They like to settle in gills, gradually destroying their structure. Due to the enhanced separation of mucus, dense lumps are formed that protrude the gill covers and cause the fish to suffocate. When a cockerel is inflated near the gills of a fish, the treatment of the disease becomes very difficult.
The affected individual should be planted as soon as possible. The treatment is considered effective combination of drugs "Furazalidona" and malachite green. The dosage recommended in the instructions must be observed; for a greater effect, iodine can be added to water in a proportion of 2 drops per 10 liters of water.
In severe cases, you will need antibiotic treatment, such as "Bitselin-5" or "Rivanol". Overdose of drugs is unacceptable, all the time of treatment you need to carefully monitor the level of ammonia and nitrates in the aquarium.
Dropsy
One of the complex diseases in aquarium fish is dropsy, caused by a viral or bacterial infection. Usually it affects fish with a weakened immune system and can occur even in a successful aquarium.
With this disease, the fish’s stomach swells evenly, the skin on the enlarging abdominal cavity is very stretched, this causes the raising of scales. The appetite completely disappears in the fish, reddish ulcers appear on the body.
The disease occurs due to bacteria of the genus Nocardia, Mycobacterium and Aeromonas and very quickly infects other inhabitants of the aquarium. Treatment will be effective only at the initial stage of the disease, seriously ill fish die.
Treatment is carried out with drugs containing antibiotics, nitrofurans and sulfonamides, which can be purchased at the pet store.
If a fish’s stomach is inflated, the treatment of the disease does not have to start with antibiotics. If only one fish is affected, it may be a tumor that can occur in older fish. And in young animals this can be a symptom of overeating, because their digestive system can not yet digest large amounts of food.
Tuberculosis in fish
One of the fastest growing diseases of cockerel fish is mycobacteriosis (tuberculosis). The cause of this terrible disease is a tiny rod-shaped bacterium. Until now, aquarists have not been able to find a tool to help cure fish from this disease.
Symptoms of the disease intersect with the manifestations of many other diseases, so it is difficult to identify at the initial stage. Symptoms can be many:
- refusal of food;
- discoloration of the color;
- depletion and inhibition;
- eyes darken and become bulging;
- scales come off from certain parts of the body.
At the initial stage of fish disease, you can try to be treated with the antibiotic Isoniazid in a proportion of 300 mg per 60 liters of water. Cockerel fish disease is treated every day after a partial water change.
Unfortunately, often the treatment does not bring results and the fish die. It must be remembered that this disease is dangerous not only for fish, but also for humans. All manipulations with the aquarium should be carried out with gloves, protecting the skin from contact with contaminated water and fish.
What to do so that the fish do not hurt
Cockerel fish disease is much easier to prevent than to treat. More often, individuals with weakened immune systems living in an aquarium with inappropriate conditions suffer. Observing the minimum rules, you can protect pets from infection and death:
- Regularly carry out water changes, remove food debris from the ground and monitor the condition of the filter.
- Feed the fish only with high-quality feeds and avoid overeating.
- Newly acquired fish and plants must be quarantined for several weeks. For prevention, you can add a little salt to them in water.
- Diseases such as tuberculosis can be transmitted with live food. Therefore, all live food must be pre-disinfected.