Female Betta Injury, Lips Appear To Have Been Bitten

[Channti]

Hi all.

The tank is 15 gallons, fairly heavily planted, female betta sorority tank.

There are 7 female bettas in the tank, 2 otocinclus affinis, and 6 corydora catfish (peppered and panda)

Only new addition was one female betta Friday night who came from a breeder I know and was well socialized with other bettas and described to me as very very placid and not to be put in with scrappy bettas.

One of my more placid females, Sunny, who I've had for about four months now and who is almost always by herself (she avoids the conflict at the top for food, and avoids all fights, so her fins are in perfect condition), appears to have had her lips bitten off in a fight within the last 20 hours or so while I was away. Her mouth is a little "fuzzy" looking. She is still able to eat, though the opening to her mouth is MUCH smaller than it should be due to what appears to be some swelling. I've got her isolated for the night until I decide how to procede, and have fed her a little crushed flake.

I have never had any experience with any injury like this to the face-area of a betta (excluding the gill tumour one of my bettas had last year). Is this an injury she may recover from, or would she and I be fighting a losing battle, and would we be better off to eliminate her suffering and euthanize? Obviously, I'd prefer to treat her and see her recover from her injury, but I also don't want her to suffer needlessly if this isn't something she can recover from.

I have Jungle Fungus Eliminator Powder, as well as a variety of other meds in a drawer in my closet. I'll post water stats tomorrow if necessary.

 

[lilfishie]

i do hope its not the fungal infection my females gott, it wiped out 3 of them in a few hours it literally ate away at there faces starting with the lips, i would definately get some fungal meds in there

 

[Channti]

I've added Jungle Fungus Eliminator Powder to the tank. I've also sectioned off Sunny from the rest of the tank so that she doesn't get bullied. I did a scan of my other ladies last night, and none of them are showing any symptoms, just Sunny, which is what led me to believe it was from a fight. But just to be certain, I'm treating the entire tank with the Powder, at a slightly reduced level due to the corys and otos in the tank.

 

[Channti]

Overnight, Sunny's condition has gotten much worse. Whatever this fungus is, it's limited only to Sunny, and moves at a rapid pace. While the other girls are completely unaffected and showing absolutely no symptoms or signs of disease, most of Sunny's face is covered with the fungus now, and her mouth looks as though it's rotted away, with the better part of her face gone now. She can't even open her mouth up enough to eat. As much as I hate to do it, I can't stand watching her suffer, and plan to euthanize her later this evening... She always was my favourite girl too.

Thank you for your help.