Betta Doesn't Seem Right

[mel79]

Hi everyone, for the past couple of days I've been worried about my Betta Gilligan, I've had him for a little over a month, he is in a cycled, heated 6.6 gallon tank with pond snails.

Here are my concerns: His colors are not as vibrant as of late, especially around his chin and gills, the color on the top of his head comes and goes sometimes redder, sometimes paler/grayish. The area around his chin seems much whiter. I'm afraid maybe the snails brought something with them since I didn't quarantine them (stupid me but they were just so small) and that he is slowly developing a fungus? It's not fuzzy or anything just white.

Also today I found a hole in his dorsal fin, but I'm thinking it must be a tear because it wasn't there this morning. He is still eating and swimming but I do notice he's staying at the top a lot, floating almost. I even thought he had swim bladder because the other day his belly seemed swollen but went down after he had a big poo. I'm also afraid he's eating the baby snails which have popped up as of late, I'm going to try to get them out today. I feed him nls pellets and some pea once a week.

If he does have a fungus how will I know which one? And what would I treat him with? He's my first fish and I'm afraid he's got something but I won't know what or how to treat him, any advice appreciated, I've been really worried.

Thanks in advance, I'm trying to figure out how to get pictures up, I will have some up soon...

 

[fishtanksmomma]

Hi everyone, for the past couple of days I've been worried about my Betta Gilligan, I've had him for a little over a month, he is in a cycled, heated 6.6 gallon tank with pond snails.

Here are my concerns: His colors are not as vibrant as of late, especially around his chin and gills, the color on the top of his head comes and goes sometimes redder, sometimes paler/grayish. The area around his chin seems much whiter. I'm afraid maybe the snails brought something with them since I didn't quarantine them (stupid me but they were just so small) and that he is slowly developing a fungus? It's not fuzzy or anything just white.

Also today I found a hole in his dorsal fin, but I'm thinking it must be a tear because it wasn't there this morning. He is still eating and swimming but I do notice he's staying at the top a lot, floating almost. I even thought he had swim bladder because the other day his belly seemed swollen but went down after he had a big poo. I'm also afraid he's eating the baby snails which have popped up as of late, I'm going to try to get them out today. I feed him nls pellets and some pea once a week.

If he does have a fungus how will I know which one? And what would I treat him with? He's my first fish and I'm afraid he's got something but I won't know what or how to treat him, any advice appreciated, I've been really worried.

Thanks in advance, I'm trying to figure out how to get pictures up, I will have some up soon...

I'm extremely new to fish keeping and still have a lot to learn but my first thought would be to test the water parameters.

 

[mel79]

Thanks Fishtanks, my ammonia and nitrites were 0 and my nitrates are less than 20. My tank is gunky under the gravel thanks to the snails so I've been doing small water changes trying to clean the gravel, (snails are messy!) I just got a new filter, hopefully it will do a better job than my last one which started leaking, now I just hope I seeded my filter correctly and haven't ruined my cycle , a lot of water testing ahead for me...

 

[fishtanksmomma]

Thanks Fishtanks, my ammonia and nitrites were 0 and my nitrates are less than 20. My tank is gunky under the gravel thanks to the snails so I've been doing small water changes trying to clean the gravel, (snails are messy!) I just got a new filter, hopefully it will do a better job than my last one which started leaking, now I just hope I seeded my filter correctly and haven't ruined my cycle , a lot of water testing ahead for me...

I hope you can figure out what's wrong with him. Every time my daughter's betta paled in color, it was the water.

 

[mel79]

Thanks Fishtanks, my ammonia and nitrites were 0 and my nitrates are less than 20. My tank is gunky under the gravel thanks to the snails so I've been doing small water changes trying to clean the gravel, (snails are messy!) I just got a new filter, hopefully it will do a better job than my last one which started leaking, now I just hope I seeded my filter correctly and haven't ruined my cycle , a lot of water testing ahead for me...

I hope you can figure out what's wrong with him. Every time my daughter's betta paled in color, it was the water.

Thanks, I hope it's just the water too, his behavior is just fine and he's still eating so hopefully I'm just overreacting.