My betta has an eye issue?

[helena.lovesbettas]

I’ve never used a forum like this before, but I really need some help. My betta has something up with his eye. I got him with it, so I don’t really know the cause. I think it might be severe popeye but I do not know. Help?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I need a better picture to be certain but it looks like an airbubble in the eye. The fish might have bumped into something and has damaged the eye.

The best treatment for eye conditions in fish is clean water and a bit of salt.

-------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least one week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

-------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

If there's no improvement after a few days with clean water and salt, post some more pictures.

 

[helena.lovesbettas]

Thank you so much! I previously had done an 100% clean on his whole tank just to try to get rid of any bad bacteria out of there and i’m pretty sure that helped. I always dechlorinate his water before putting him in it so I don’t think it has to do anything with that. I think he had popeye before i got him and when he got into a clean tank it went away naturally ( like he had an injury case of popeye). I’ve had bettas for maybe 2-3 years and i’ve never seen anything like what he has. Thank you for the treatment as well, i’ll try and find some rock salt.

Here’s a better picture..

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to the forum.

Do you know about the nitrogen cycle in fish tanks, and is your tank cycled?....that's most important in regards to water quality.

 

[helena.lovesbettas]

Thank you!

Yes I do, but not very well. My tank is cycled and his water quality is pretty good. His water is sitting at 0 ammonia, nitrite at 0, and nitrate at about 5. However I did only get him two weeks ago and he came with this. I don’t really know how to treat it besides salt so i’m going to hope for the best.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Thank you!

Yes I do, but not very well. My tank is cycled and his water quality is pretty good. His water is sitting at 0 ammonia, nitrite at 0, and nitrate at about 5. However I did only get him two weeks ago and he came with this. I don’t really know how to treat it besides salt so i’m going to hope for the best.

What kind of test kit do you use?

 

[helena.lovesbettas]

I don’t really remember the brand but I can try and figure it out.

 

[PorshaF]

Sometimes we think were doing fish favors by buying the sick ones, I reccomend just buying the healthy ones in the future, itll save you time and heartbreak. Hope your betta gets better!

 

[helena.lovesbettas]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I need a better picture to be certain but it looks like an airbubble in the eye. The fish might have bumped into something and has damaged the eye.

The best treatment for eye conditions in fish is clean water and a bit of salt.

-------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least one week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

-------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

When you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

If there's no improvement after a few days with clean water and salt, post some more pictures.

Here’s a better picture for you.

Sometimes we think were doing fish favors by buying the sick ones, I reccomend just buying the healthy ones in the future, itll save you time and heartbreak. Hope your betta gets better!

That’s the thing! i thought i could cure him of whatever it was but i hadn’t had any success and still don’t. There’s nothing really wrong with his behavior however he’s as active as possible and otherwise healthy so i’m happy to have him for however long he’ll live.