VERY bad cut on betta's head

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RandomWiktor

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I woke up this morning to discover that my male betta, who recently recovered from columnaris, has somehow injured himself. His tail fin is ripped in half down the middle, and he has a very deep, wide, ugly gouge on his face; it maybe have even hurt his eye a bit. It has removed all of the scales, and fleshy colored skin is showing underneath. It spreads from the middle of his head, to down under his left eye, and is a few scales wide. He is acting fine, but I am very worried about infection/fungus. What should I do? Would adding bettafix help, or would it hurt too much? Should I just wait and see, or put a mild antibiotic in the water? Salt? Water changes? I'm very, very worried about him.

I don't understand how he did this. His tank is very safe; ceramic, smooth cave; soft silk plants; polished gravel; covered filter in-take. Yet it looks as though he stuck his head in a meat grinder! You don't supposed he jumped up into the hood overnight and got hurt coming out, do you? I really don't know what may have done this, but I need to make sure it doesn't happen again. So if any of you know any potentially harmful parts to an eclipse tank, please tell me! Thankyou.
 
It sounds like maybe he did get hurt in the hood. I would do a water change and add some salt and bettafix right away and keep a very close eye on him. If you see any signs of infection add antibiotics right away.

If you have any Indian Almond Leaf, Colloidial Silver or Black Water Extract I would add that too.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that he gets better. I am sorry I don't own an eclipse tank, so I don't have any advice in that respect.
 
I can get Colloidal silver, a 50ppm bottle; is that good?. I have salt and blackwater, so that wouldn't be an issue. Also, his water was just changed 2 days ago; would it be too much of a stress to do it again? If not, I'll be sure to do that. His head looks like hell =( He is eating well, so that is encouraging, but I am so very worried.
 
I wouldn't add salt. It'll hurt him. And the stress it could cause from the pain might be too much. Bettfix should be ok. Best of is keeping his water utterly clean and maybe putting a drip tray or some such on the tank top so he can't leap into the hood again.
Hugs,
P.
 
for colloidal try to get the highest concentration you can find. i use 1100 ppm. if 50 is the highest you can find, you could probably put in a whole eyedropper full. for the 1100, i use a few drops per gallon.
 
RandomWiktor said:
I woke up this morning to discover that my male betta, who recently recovered from columnaris, has somehow injured himself. His tail fin is ripped in half down the middle, and he has a very deep, wide, ugly gouge on his face; it maybe have even hurt his eye a bit. It has removed all of the scales, and fleshy colored skin is showing underneath. It spreads from the middle of his head, to down under his left eye, and is a few scales wide. He is acting fine, but I am very worried about infection/fungus. What should I do? Would adding bettafix help, or would it hurt too much? Should I just wait and see, or put a mild antibiotic in the water? Salt? Water changes? I'm very, very worried about him.

I don't understand how he did this. His tank is very safe; ceramic, smooth cave; soft silk plants; polished gravel; covered filter in-take. Yet it looks as though he stuck his head in a meat grinder! You don't supposed he jumped up into the hood overnight and got hurt coming out, do you? I really don't know what may have done this, but I need to make sure it doesn't happen again. So if any of you know any potentially harmful parts to an eclipse tank, please tell me! Thankyou.
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Are you absolutely sure you have cured the columnaris?

"The signs of Flexibacter infection run the gamut from fuzzy lesions of the mouth (“Mouth Fungus”) to septicemia (infection in the bloodstream) to white fuzzy patches scattered over the body, sometimes so severe as to cause the skin to look as if it is shedding or peeling, with the fins disintegrating."
"The white patches often have a reddish rim around them and within 24 hours, they can quickly form an ulcer (raw open area in the skin), which is shaped like a circle and then it enlarges. The ulcers may sometimes have a yellow or orange color to them due to the piling of pigmented bacteria upon each other. If an ulcer penetrates into the body deeply, this leads to septicemia. The symptoms of a Flexibacter infection may include sluggish activity and a poor to absent appetite.";

http://www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

Open wounds, torn fins, sores- it sounds like you have not completely rid your betta of columnaris.

http://www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm
 
I personally wouldn't change his water again as you just did it 2 days ago. How big is the tank?

I don't know much about colloidial, only that it works. I just recently started using BWE and I find that the fish respond well to it. I have the kind by Kent, and it has vitamins in it that will aid in the healing process. Keeping his water clean is essential, especially if it isn't filtered.

I don't know if the salt will hurt him, I haven't heard that before. I will leave that up to you to decide.

Make sure you don't do too much to try to help him, it may stress him out to have a lot of additives added to his water.

If I was in your position I would watch him like a hawk after I added anything to see if it stresses him out.

Keep us updated.
 
Tokis - I am pretty sure that I have cured the columnaris; he has been healthy with no signs for over a week now, and there was no white fuzz as a precursor to this injury. Plus, I've seen cuts and ulcers on bettas before, and this looks like a cut; it is long and in the fashion of a slash (a thinner entry point, a widening, and a thinner exit point). That, and it goes over his eye and seems to have damaged that as well; would an ulcer spread over the eye in a long, thin line? However, I will def. keep an eye on it to make sure it is not columnaris coming back. As I said though, I caught the columnaris when it first started, treated agressively for two weeks (he had no syptoms at week one, but I've heard to treat for @ least 10 days), and he has been fine for the week following treatment. I sterilized everything in the tank, so I don't *think* any would be floating around in it.
edit: also, in regards to the torn fin, when he had columnaris, they looked ragged. This is a clean split, right down the middle, almost completely from tip to base. Looks like he snagged it on something and ripped it more than rot. BUT, this is also my self-mutilating betta, so it is possible that the stress of being injured caused him to attack himself again.

Everyone else - Thanks for all of the tips. The tank is a filtered 5 gallon, so I do not think I'll clean the water this soon. I will add Blackwater and Collodial silver to help in the healing process, and if it starts looking a bit off, I will add betta fix and possibly salt. How much silver should I add? It doesn't have a dropper... would 1/8 tsp be good? 1/4? More?
 
Sorry to double post, but I've found the source of the head injury.... he's jumping into his filter output, just like my female. I am so upset. I've blocked off the output holes with filter foam so it doesn't happen again, and am doing the same to my other tank with this kind of filter. I don't know why all of my bettas started doing this out of the blue, but it is VERY frustrating. Now I have a fish with a bad wound and possible lasting eye wound. It makes me want to stop filtering in general, but I don't have time to clean every couple of days bcause of my school schedule. Hopefully with the foam, he'll act as my female did and stop jumping in there.
I hate it when stuff like this happens. I hope he'll be ok :-(
 
It sounds like maybe he did get hurt in the hood. I would do a water change and add some salt and bettafix right away and keep a very close eye on him. If you see any signs of infection add antibiotics right away.

If you have any Indian Almond Leaf, Colloidial Silver or Black Water Extract I would add that too.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that he gets better. I am sorry I don't own an eclipse tank, so I don't have any advice in that respect.
 
I just wanted to share this: my betta had ick at three years old. I got the green - highly toxic if you drink it stuff - which treats ick and other issues. The kid in the pet store said to ignore the amount of days the maker recommended using in a row, perhaps three it was. I used it for two weeks until all signs of fungus had gone. Betta lived another three or four years
 

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