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Female betta acting strange


mtnmonster
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My female betta is acting weird for the 2nd time in a couple weeks. The first time she seemed terrified of everything.  I kept her lights off the couple days to help calm her down and she went back to normal.. a couple weeks have passed and now she will not leave a hiding spot she found under a piece of driftwood. From what I can see of her she looks healthy. I've had her since November and she has never been like this before.

Everything water parameter wise has been consistent and no signs of ammonia, nitrites or illness. I'm assuming something is stressing her out, but I'm not sure what. Nothing has changed. Well I did start using the 24/7 setting on my hygger light because the plants love it. Could it just be too much for her?

Edited by mtnmonster
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It could be to bright if this is a new light.

her age? Temperature? What type of betta?  Could something be leaking electrical current into the tank?  Do you have an air pump vibrating.  Seasons are changing, November until now is the tank getting more sunlight?  
Is this a dragon scale?  Years ago I had a dragon scale that had scales grow over its eyes.  Was very frustrating,  I believe it was a genetic defect.  Keep us posted Good Luck

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On 5/3/2022 at 9:59 PM, Brian said:

It could be to bright if this is a new light.

her age? Temperature? What type of betta?  Could something be leaking electrical current into the tank?  Do you have an air pump vibrating.  Seasons are changing, November until now is the tank getting more sunlight?  
Is this a dragon scale?  Years ago I had a dragon scale that had scales grow over its eyes.  Was very frustrating,  I believe it was a genetic defect.  Keep us posted Good Luck

I've had the light since December and have used this setting few times and cut it back due to hair algae but now that is balanced out I am trying it again. She is a young veiltail. The tank gets no outside light. Only thing that could possibly leak an electrical current would be the heater nothing else electrical in contact with water. Temps are consistently 78*F +/- a degree 

The light just went to the moonlight setting and she has finally came out. Maybe it's just the duration of the bright light. I'm going to try setting it to the 12 hour at 50% tomorrow and see if that helps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update: I reduced the lighting brightness and duration. She's starting to come out more but still very skittish. She's become most active as soon as the room is dark. The last couple days she has been out with the lights on. Her body and color seems to be just fine, but she looks like her nose is rounding or developing a lump. I do know when she started getting really skittish about mid April she freaked out and tried to get behind the driftwood and had a little gash on her nose. I'm wondering if this might be some scar tissue or something from that. I'm still not able to get good pictures because she won't stay out long but I was able to get a couple while she was chasing a little worm. She does have a small discolored spot that looks like dead skin on the lump but it doesn't show in the pictures. Any suggestions on what to do or what could be going on?

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Does she have any tankmates that could be stressing her out? If not, with the lump update it sounds like she might have an illness of some kind. The hiding, especially when the lights are on, was always how my bettas acted when they were sick. Her chasing that worm and hopefully eating it, and hopefully eating for you in general, is a good sign. 

I would suggest buying some Indian almond leaves and put a few in the tank, and perhaps even boil some and then treat that water then add it to the tank once it's cooled off. IAL extract has great anti-bacterial properties. I would also pick up and dose some Seachem Stress Guard. It's hard to tell from your description if there is an infection or anything, but it she just has a wound that needs healed hopefully that stuff I mentioned would be enough. If she deteriorates and/or the wound starts to get worse I would consider moving on to actual antibiotics. I would also recommend super clean water to help her heal, you may want to increase the frequency of your water changes. 

Her behavior is a good indicator something is wrong, hopefully she can heal up and start to feel better 🙂 

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She decided to go into hiding again the day after being pretty active. I came home from work today and caught a glimpse of her and something was different.  I grabbed a flashlight to see into her dark corner and her left eye has popped out. A large white ball behind he eye.  Unfortunately I cannot get a good picture due to the angle and darkness or her hiding spot. The other eye looks completely normal. I went ahead and dosed her 10gallon with maracyn. Is there anything else I should do?

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