Please help!!! Betta Fish with facial swelling/injury (?)

The April FOTM Contest Poll is open!
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆

lilypawter_fishlady

New Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Rhode Island
Please help! My female betta, Lady Fish, has what appears to be some swelling/roughed up area of scaled and whitish discoloration to the left side of her face. I just noticed this tonight, she looked perfectly fine yesterday. I'm not sure if this is an injury or some sort of infection/parasite/fungus. She seems maybe slightly less active but is still swimming around quite a bit and eating her normal amount. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0026.jpeg
    IMG_0026.jpeg
    198.5 KB · Views: 101
  • IMG_0029.jpeg
    IMG_0029.jpeg
    157 KB · Views: 98
  • IMG_0028-1.jpeg
    IMG_0028-1.jpeg
    222.9 KB · Views: 94
It looks like the start of a bacterial infection.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank,

----------------------
Add salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

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, 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 or plants.

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.

If 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 couple of days of salt, post more pictures and you might need to use chemical medications. But try salt first.
 
It looks like the start of a bacterial infection.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank,

----------------------
Add salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

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, 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 or plants.

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.

If 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 couple of days of salt, post more pictures and you might need to use chemical medications. But try salt first.

Now I get why they call you the fish doctor! Lol literally a fountain of knowledge! Please accept my apologies in advance when I start to tag you in any questions I possible have Colin! Lol
 
Thank you all for the advice. Unfortunately by the time I got home with supplies Lady Fish had deteriorated quickly and passed away. I appreciate all of the input!
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top