Disease

Prevention is always easier than the cure when it comes to fish diseases, so there is a reason for keeping tanks meticulously clean and keeping the tanks ihabitants in a low stress environment.
An aquarist can only hold out for so longwithout an outbreak of disease in one way or another. Bettas are renowned for their hardiness, but that can protect them little from poor environmental conditions. In my experience, bettas are most prone to get the deseases: ich, fungus, dropsy, velvet and swim bladder infections.
When raising temperatures, do it slowly, only few degrees an hour. Isolate all sick fish in small quarantine tanks. Be sure to keep them clean. Quarantine tanks can be anywhere from 1-3 gallons. with no gravel and just a few soft plastic plants. Since treatment often calls for high temperatures it is recommended that you have light aeration. At temperatures above 85 F even labyrinth bettas have a hard time breathing. Commercial products usually stain the tank and are toxic to healthy fish and live plants, so quarantine tanks are essential to have.

Velvet- (Oodinium pillaris) is a parrasite that attacks the skin of your fish and feeds of it for nutrients. I've seen it occur in young bettas often. Velvet appears as a dull area, slightly velvety in texture, the collor ranges from yellow to yellowish-brown. Treatment includes complete change of water, one tablespoon of aquarium salt per gallon of water, and a temperature rise to 90 F. Continue heat treatment for 24-36 hours. Absolutely clean water and good aeration are a must at this extreme temperature. Comercial treatments containing: quinine sulfate or copper sulfate are also effective.

Ich- (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) is one of the most common and one of the worst ailments in bettas. Ich ususally takes hold when fish are exposed to stress as in a sudden lowering of temperature or a sudden decline in environmental conditions. I've had an entire tank be wiped out because of this diesase.They first sign of this it is the fish will begin scraping it's body on rocks and plants as to relive an "itch". The will later develope little white or yellow spots on their body, it looks like little grains of sugar, and lethargy and heavy breathing. The problem with treating ich is the extent of treating the environment. The proatazoa attaches itself to the fish, feeding off it's body fluids. The parasite then falls off and encloses itself into a capsule, where it reproduces. The capsule then bursts, forcing thousands of new parasites into the water to look for new hosts. If they do not find a host in 48 hours they will die. The problem with treating ich is that no medicine can harm the parasite while it's in the capsule/ reproducing stage, so treatment must continue for more than two weeks. For bettas, one tablespoon aquarium salt per a gallon, a complete water change, and raising the temperature to 88 F for 10 days should help. Commercial treatments containing: malachite green, acriflavin, or quinine sulfate are also affective.

Fungus- (saprolegnia) usually appears as thin white threads or light gray fuzzy patches on the body of the fish, especially near the gills. Fungi can be controlled by "bathing" the fish in commercial products, which include methylene blue or aquarium salt for mild infections, or Nystatin ointment and/or Fulvicin for heavy infections. I've always used MelaFix and it has done the job well. Outlook for heavy infestations is bleak since the fungus also attacks their inner organs, but mild cases usually come out very good.

Swim Bladder Infections- A common infection occuring most often in fry and older fish, this is one of the hardest things to cure. Many times fry will be seen laying on the bottom until they dart up to the surface take a quick gulp of air and then float back down to the bottom again. Others with swim as though they had a huge weight on their tail, appearing as though they are "walking" perpendicular to the tank floor. Adults with this, depending on how the infection is affecting their swim bladder, will either float just under the surface of the water, many times on their side, unable to right themselves or swim any deeper in the water, or lie on the bottom of the tank unable to get to the suface for air. With fry many times they overcome this ailment with the aid of a little methylene blue and some aquarium salt. Most older bettas cannot handle this and end up dying. I have heard that some adults will live if they use Binox powder by Jungle for 2-3 weeks. Often the cause of this disease is lowering of the temp. suddenly. Sometimes lowering the water level helps the fish get to the surface more easily.

Dropsy- is a bacterial infectionin the abdomen of the fish. The belly of the betta will look extremly bloated. Skin lesions may appear and the scales of the betta lift outward perpendicular to the normal position. The fish often rock back and forth just under they surface of the water and do not respond to a net being put underneath them. Fins clamp together and many times their eyes will swell. Treatment should begin immediately, because the betta's liver and kidneys can become damaged quickly. Any of the following commercial treatments should work: sulfonamides, sulfathiazole, tetracycline HCI, chlortetracyclin, and oxytetracyclin. NOTE: Dropsy is extremely contagious to other of all species and the tank must be thoroughly disinfected afterward.

More detailed descriptions of diseases can be found in almost any fish book. While these treatments should increase the chances of survival, they are not to be over used or used in combination. If a fish has multiple illnesses at the same time, treat the worst looking one first, and when that has cleared up begin treatment for the other illness. I have not tried out all of the treatments; the salt or MelaFix treatments usually work well if you catch the diease early on. Have a great day!