Hahaha brilliant, trust me to get a mutant fish! I was quite drawn to his interesting look (I knew he wasn't natural) so it's my own fault! I've cared for a blind house rabbit before but a blind fish would be new to me! Fingers crossed it doesn't happen but good to know he doesn't look to have fin rot.I think it's a dragon scale Betta or its parents were (it appears to have some dragon scale genes). Dragon scale Bettas have scales that are more prominent than normal fish. It's a man made mutation. The main drawback to dragon scales is they usually get scales growing over their eyes as they get older and eventually they are blinded by this. Whether your fish develops it is unknown but it might. The scales shouldn't cause any issues to the fins. The little bumps on the fin rays are little scales.
As long as the fish is eating well and all the scales don't start to lift up and stick out sideways, I wouldn't worry about it. However, if more scales start to stick out from the body then post more pictures because that could be a problem.
Basically, you have a mutant fish with an interesting set of scales
Redoing my 6 gallon
- Thread starter Lcc86
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If he does get the dragon scale eyes, you will notice scales slowly growing over his eyes. It takes a few months and you can train the fish to take food from a certain spot in the tank. Then if he becomes blind, you can keep feeding him in the same spot.
If he does become blind, keep the aquarium decorations in exactly the same spot and he will get around ok. If you change his decor around he will have trouble moving around.
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Fin rot is caused by poor water quality (generally ammonia) that damages the tissue on the tail and fins. This makes the ends look tatty and if it gets worse, it can become infected and you get red lines and red edging to the fins. If you keep ammonia and nitrite levels at 0ppm, and do regular water changes and gravel cleans, you should never see fin rot on the fish.
If a fish does get fin rot, check the water quality for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Then do a massive water change and gravel clean each day for a week. Clean the filter too. Monitor for a few days and if it gets worse, add salt. if salt doesn't help, then you need antibiotics, but try cleaning the tank (daily water changes) first.
If he does become blind, keep the aquarium decorations in exactly the same spot and he will get around ok. If you change his decor around he will have trouble moving around.
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Fin rot is caused by poor water quality (generally ammonia) that damages the tissue on the tail and fins. This makes the ends look tatty and if it gets worse, it can become infected and you get red lines and red edging to the fins. If you keep ammonia and nitrite levels at 0ppm, and do regular water changes and gravel cleans, you should never see fin rot on the fish.
If a fish does get fin rot, check the water quality for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Then do a massive water change and gravel clean each day for a week. Clean the filter too. Monitor for a few days and if it gets worse, add salt. if salt doesn't help, then you need antibiotics, but try cleaning the tank (daily water changes) first.
Sounds somewhat similar to my rabbit tbh, it's remarkable how they can adapt to being blind with the right support. Hopefully it doesn't come to that of course!
I lost my last betta to fin rot a couple of years back unfortunately (thread on here somewhere), didn't matter what I threw at it, it kept progressing. I think that's why I was a bit paranoid, especially as he is new to me. Thank you for your advice
I had a dragonscale betta several years ago and he did grow scales over his eyes. I did exactly what Colin said about feeding and not moving the decor.
This is what happens to their eyes
This is what happens to their eyes
This is so sad, we humans really do mess animals up... my boy definitely wasn't being sold as a dragonscale, I'd never heard of them until today. I knew I was buying a man made version but didn't realise this was even a thing.
I'd never heard of this happening when I bought him. If I'd known, I would have left him in the shop
When clean water and medications don't work on fin rot it's usually a drug resistant bacteria causing the problem. People have been throwing all sorts of chemicals into aquariums for the last 50 years and the bacteria and other microscopic organisms have adapted and become partially or fully resistant to some things. This makes it harder for people to treat their fish and the fish usually die.I lost my last betta to fin rot a couple of years back unfortunately (thread on here somewhere), didn't matter what I threw at it, it kept progressing. I think that's why I was a bit paranoid, especially as he is new to me. Thank you for your advice
A lot of medications that require a prescription in most countries are freely available in some countries that mass produce aquarium fishes. And many of the people breeding fish really don't know much if anything about medicine or treatments for fish so they just chuck in whatever they can get and try things until one works. It's not a good thing to do but unfortunately it happens a lot and people who get these fish are the ones who have to try and deal with the problem if it occurs. There's not really any way to avoid it either because most fish come from the same farms.
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