Beta illness

[Hally M.]

My poor Beta has been having so many issues lately and I’m not quite sure what to do. He’s about a 2 years old so age can’t be the cause of all this. He had about a month and a half without water changes in the early summer time and ever since he’s been acting different. He’s in a temporary 5 gallon until his 20 gallon is done cycling. I did daily water changes of around 40% and lowered it to 10% since august. The head scrape seems to be new. Not sure how he did it, there’s just plants in there. He struggles to go up to the surface and just lays on the bottom of the tank, or he floats upside down like that.  He’s still eating however he just seems weak when he comes up to the surface for air or food. 

He has a varied diet of foods to make sure all his nutritional needs are met and gets fed a few pellets of some sort or worms daily and than fasts on Sunday’s just to give him a day to digest and not bloat. I’ve tried dosing salt. We’re up to one tablespoon so far. I’ve tried bacterial meds for the fin rot and it keeps coming back. He’s been dosed with salt now for about 2 weeks. Before he got sick we were trying to transition into a black water set up and I used catappa leaves from aquarium co op and alder cones from a tree in my yard. I boiled the cones for a solid 15 minutes before letting any of it in my tank and used the water I boiled into the tank, once it was cooled down of course. I have two thermometers just to always make sure everything is in ship shape and there’s never heat fluctuations. Is there something that I’m missing here? 

Tank parameters

Ph-6.9

Ammonia, Nitrates, nitrites all 0 

general hardness and so on is yet to be determined. 
temperature is at 78 degrees Fahrenheit

 

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Not sure what’s been going wrong I’m out of ideas.

 

[anitstuk]

@Hally M..

I think that it could be some sort of a fungal infection. Is your Betta lethargic and rubbing himself on aquarium plants/decorations?

Anyway, if he/she is, try doing these steps. 

Please make sure to update us as well. 

[Hally M.]

I haven’t noticed any rubbing at all. He only moves when it’s feeding time or for air

 

[BAT]

How much salt are you using? Is that pink spot on his body new?

[Colu]

The injury to the head could have been caused by the gravel it possible he's has swim bladder with some of the symptoms you describe the best treatment for swim bladder is Epsom salt baths 1 table for 2 gallons for no more than 15 minutes for a couple of days as Epsom acts as a muscle relaxant to relieve pressure on the swim bladder and you could do a course of kanaplex in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days to treat the fin rot

Edited September 16, 2022 by Colu

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I’ve heard of an illness called hole-in-head disease. I wonder if that might relate to the head issue your betta is having?

[Hally M.]

Thank you guys I appreciate it! After some reaserch should I consider hole in head disease being a possibility? 

[anitstuk]

On 9/14/2022 at 11:20 AM, Hally M. said:

Thank you guys I appreciate it! After some reaserch should I consider hole in head disease being a possibility? 

I don't know. I think the hole in head disease looks more like a hole than a scrape. Would there be another tank mate that could do that? 

[Colu]

On 9/14/2022 at 2:20 AM, Hally M. said:

Thank you guys I appreciate it! After some reaserch should I consider hole in head disease being a possibility? 

That doesn't look like hole in the head it's most likely scraped it's head on the gravel   when swimming upside down 

[BAT]

Any update @Hally M.?

[Hally M.]

Thankfully his scrape is healing up  pretty quickly.  I ordered some kanaplex and it should be delivered relatively soon and The Epsom salt baths are working well. his buoyancy issues seem to be clearing up. I haven’t seen him upside down lately however he still is less active than he used to be. He seems a little stronger, less weak when he comes up for food and doesn’t look like he’s struggling when he swims much!

[anitstuk]

Good to hear! 👍