Please advise, betta fish rapidly losing color in patches.

[Janel R]

Hello fish friends,
Hoping someone here can shed some light on my situation, as I haven’t found anything that completely matches my fish’s symptoms on the internet so far.
I have a female betta fish who’s been with me since I think May of 2022, and she currently lives alone in a 10 gallon tank with several plants. She was full grown when I got her. Health-wise this fish has been very solid for the most part, and I’ve never had a major issue with her up until this point.
So earlier last week, I noticed something might be going on with her as she started out with a silvery look to the edge of her gills. By Friday 01/26 I knew something was up because she had developed pale patches on both sides of her body. I reinstalled a filter output modifier that day because I thought it may be stress from the water moving too fast, but the patches were not improving as of yesterday. I couldn’t find anything online that visually matches her symptoms (except maaayybe graphite disease which I read is incurable?). I caught her flashing once and twitching a few times yesterday, so with that and the pale patches, these are the only symptoms I have observed. She’s still swimming normally, no clamped fins, not laying on the bottom of the tank, coming to the glass when she sees me, and eagerly accepting food. She isn’t exhibiting her stress stripe either which shows up very quickly whenever she’s even a little bit distressed. My best guess was something bacterial given that I have a raging blue green algae problem right now despite months of trying bi-weekly adjustments like reducing light hours, and removing my two nerite snails in an effort to make it stop growing. That said, I used one packet of Erythromycin yesterday, thinking there may be more bacteria given the green algae.
As of today her color loss has not slowed down, and it now covers more than half of her body.
A note: The red splotch at about the center of her anal fin is normal, it has always been there.

Ammonia: Used to have a long-term reader. I need to pick up a test kit tomorrow, but because this tank has been running since 2022, I'm guessing it'll be zero.

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Hardness: 300+ PPM (it has been this way since we got her)

Buffer: 120-180 PPM

pH: 7 ish

Chlorine: 0

Temp: 79 degrees Fahrenheit

Tank Size: 10 gallons

Food: usually frozen blood worms or brine shrimp, once per day

Water changes: a little less than 50% every two weeks

This last one is how she would normally look😥

[Colu]

Doesn't look like typical columnaris doesn't have a fuzzy appearance no Redding possible graphite disease its linked to mycobacteria and untreatable  what I would do is add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons at that level it shouldn't harm your plants and it will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes and i would do a course of maracyn2 just in case there's a bacterial component  @Janel R

[Janel R]

Hi Colu! Thank you for the reply! I put in some salt today and my local fish shop is getting a restock of maracyn 2 tomorrow, so I’ll be picking that up as well. Also I found an ammonia kit and the water did test zero as I’d suspected. 
No updates on Pidge yet, she’s still doing fine other than continuing to turn white. Honestly she seems very pleased about it😅

[Whitecloud09]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:19 PM, Janel R said:

Hi Colu! Thank you for the reply! I put in some salt today and my local fish shop is getting a restock of maracyn 2 tomorrow, so I’ll be picking that up as well. Also I found an ammonia kit and the water did test zero as I’d suspected. 
No updates on Pidge yet, she’s still doing fine other than continuing to turn white. Honestly she seems very pleased about it😅

Hello, I would recommend if u haven’t got the ammonia kit yet the API master test kit. It actually is WAY more accurate then the strips. I am sorry about your fish and hope she feels better soon! I have a lot of experience with bettas, had 2. First one died, the second had TONS AND TONS. of issues with em. Salt is a good option. @Janel R

[Janel R]

@Colu @Bigdog99 Thank you both for the advice, I do have the API ammonia kit and actually just ordered an API Nitrate kit as well for my plants sake as I’m still showing 0 nitrate with the strips even immediately after adding fertilizer🤔 
Anyway, Maracyn 2 is now in as well as the salt. I fear her health is declining however because this afternoon she started darting around frantically, smashing into things and then hiding between outbursts and breathing a little hard. She did this several times over about an hour and is back to behaving normal now. I’ll send updated pics.

[Colu]

On 2/2/2024 at 5:11 AM, Janel R said:

@Colu @Bigdog99 Thank you both for the advice, I do have the API ammonia kit and actually just ordered an API Nitrate kit as well for my plants sake as I’m still showing 0 nitrate with the strips even immediately after adding fertilizer🤔 
Anyway, Maracyn 2 is now in as well as the salt. I fear her health is declining however because this afternoon she started darting around frantically, smashing into things and then hiding between outbursts and breathing a little hard. She did this several times over about an hour and is back to behaving normal now. I’ll send updated pics.

Add an extra air stone as your seeing rapid breathing it's possible graphite disease with the dramatic colour change if its is he will start to go down hill rapidly hopefully if it's not graphite disease salt and maracyn2 will help I would do second course of maracyn2 back to back if your not seeing much improvement 

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/2/2024 at 7:08 AM, Colu said:

Add an extra air stone as your seeing rapid breathing it's possible graphite disease with the dramatic colour change if its is he will start to go down hill rapidly hopefully if it's not graphite disease salt and maracyn2 will help I would do second course of maracyn2 back to back if your not seeing much improvement 

@Janel R, how is she doing? Any improvements or no?

[Janel R]

@Bigdog99 Not really so far, today she was a little more timid and maybe sluggish than usual, kind of keeping to calm zones around middle of the water column. I just saw her flashing again as well. I don't have an airstone right now so I just popped in a spare sponge filter I have on hand.

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/2/2024 at 9:51 PM, Janel R said:

@Bigdog99 Not really so far, today she was a little more timid and maybe sluggish than usual, kind of keeping to calm zones around middle of the water column. I just saw her flashing again as well. I don't have an airstone right now so I just popped in a spare sponge filter I have on hand.

She prob will get better with time…sometimes a lot of time but don’t worry u are doing fine.🙂 @Janel R

[Whitecloud09]

How she doing now? @Janel R

Just curious about how her health is doing..

[Janel R]

Hi @Bigdog99 I was literally just writing an update haha😄

So Pidge is doing ok. You can see she’s lost more color, from her fins in particular. The fins have gotten very translucent. She’s been resting a lot and moving generally a little slower than usual I think. She also had some long stringy poop yesterday and today.
The round of Maracyn 2 finished yesterday 2/07, and the water was a bit cloudy, so I checked ammonia again after a water change and I was reading a small amount (less than .25). It’s back to 0 today. Not sure if it was just the meds or the fact that my main filter somehow got partially clogged over the last couple days, or even the new root tabs I’m trying? Probably the meds I guess…

With that said, I kept the same level of salt after the stringy poop, and haven’t started another round of Maracyn 2 yet.

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/7/2024 at 9:56 PM, Janel R said:

Hi @Bigdog99 I was literally just writing an update haha😄

So Pidge is doing ok. You can see she’s lost more color, from her fins in particular. The fins have gotten very translucent. She’s been resting a lot and moving generally a little slower than usual I think. She also had some long stringy poop yesterday and today.
The round of Maracyn 2 finished yesterday 2/07, and the water was a bit cloudy, so I checked ammonia again after a water change and I was reading a small amount (less than .25). It’s back to 0 today. Not sure if it was just the meds or the fact that my main filter somehow got partially clogged over the last couple days, or even the new root tabs I’m trying? Probably the meds I guess…

With that said, I kept the same level of salt after the stringy poop, and haven’t started another round of Maracyn 2 yet.

Yeah it is the meds prob. Well, it isn’t looking great but don’t stress, these bettas are very weird in the sense, why do they always get sick? I know my betta right now might have a tumor…so does she hide a lot or just move slower @Janel R?

[Janel R]

On 2/8/2024 at 5:32 AM, Bigdog99 said:

Yeah it is the meds prob. Well, it isn’t looking great but don’t stress, these bettas are very weird in the sense, why do they always get sick? I know my betta right now might have a tumor…so does she hide a lot or just move slower @Janel R?

@Bigdog99 oof tumors are the worst, I feel for you, my previous betta had one too😥 Hope yours does ok even with the tumor if that’s what it is🙏🏻 

And to answer your question, she’s not hiding, just sitting on the plants a lot and swimming kinda slow.

I may move her to a smaller holding tank so I can increase the salt at least? Don’t want to crash the tank with more Maracyn 2 just yet.

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/8/2024 at 9:35 AM, Janel R said:

@Bigdog99 oof tumors are the worst, I feel for you, my previous betta had one too😥 Hope yours does ok even with the tumor if that’s what it is🙏🏻 

And to answer your question, she’s not hiding, just sitting on the plants a lot and swimming kinda slow.

I may move her to a smaller holding tank so I can increase the salt at least? Don’t want to crash the tank with more Maracyn 2 just yet.

If u have the option ya

[Janel R]

Some good news, her colors are sloooowly starting to come back!😃 

I have her in my small hospital tank with just the low level salt still. Probably not out of the woods yet but it’s so nice to see some noticeable progress in the right direction.

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/10/2024 at 12:35 PM, Janel R said:

Some good news, her colors are sloooowly starting to come back!😃 

I have her in my small hospital tank with just the low level salt still. Probably not out of the woods yet but it’s so nice to see some noticeable progress in the right direction.

Great! I would monitor as much as u can because u never know what might happen with these bettas! 🙂 U are doin great and might have saved this bettas life! A+!

 

[Janel R]

On 2/12/2024 at 2:35 PM, Bigdog99 said:

Great! I would monitor as much as u can because u never know what might happen with these bettas! 🙂 U are doin great and might have saved this bettas life! A+!

 

Thank you!! And absolutely, I’ve been checking on her constantly and continuing to test for ammonia just in case 🙂 She’s continuing to improve, keeps darkening up again little by little. She’s such a trooper!

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/16/2024 at 2:20 AM, Janel R said:

Thank you!! And absolutely, I’ve been checking on her constantly and continuing to test for ammonia just in case 🙂 She’s continuing to improve, keeps darkening up again little by little. She’s such a trooper!

That is awesome! Great job! I think it will heal very soon! 

[Kurt Brutting]

@Janel Rhow did your Betta make out? I am having similar issues with one of my bettas. She started losing her color a few days ago. From everything I researched it appears to be graphite disease.