anna0219
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello everyone,
I have a very mysterious ailment appearing on one of my female bettas. I have had her for almost eight months now, and she lives in a 5.5 gallon tank with two other female bettas. They are divided because as they aged, they became less and less agreeable with each other.
My lovely red female, Piper, seems to have developed a strange hole in her head, but it doesn't seem to resemble the images I saw when reading about HITH online. A couple months ago I noticed that she began to have a white "milk mustache," if you will, that appeared above her mouth, right along the top of her upper lip. Her mouth began to appear distended because of the white "blob" that appeared above it.
Now she still appears to have a distended mouth, but there seems to be daylight that is visible through a hole that has formed between her lip and the strange white blob. I spent a good ten minutes today looking at her with a flashlight (much to her distaste) trying to see if this really was the case, and I seem to be able to see some of the green plants in her tank through her mouth when she swims along. The white, risen "mustache" blob is still there (and looks a bit bigger than before), but there is a hole beneath it. It's difficult to describe and even more difficult to photograph, so I hope you are with me.
At first her behavior seemed unaffected, but now she seems a little more lethargic than before. She still eats and seems perfectly capable of consuming food, but she eats much more slowly than before. She will take breaths at the surface as well, but it seems to me that this pit against her mouth has developed so much that water (and tiny air bubbles) can pass through it without her opening her mouth.
I'm not sure what to do! It doesn't look anything like the HITH pictures, but it is, quite literally, a hole in Piper's head - only it seems to be more like a hole that goes straight through her flesh from either side against her upper lip. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Is it some sort of tumor that has grown on her "forehead" and split the flesh above her upper lip?
I'm not sure how to treat her, or even if I can do anything about it. The other two fish appear to be fine and very healthy.
Also - this may be related - a couple months ago, Piper managed to jump over her divider and visit her neighboring betta - this encounter did not go well. I woke in the morning to find Piper at the top of the tank and Aquaneesha, the other female betta, hiding down at the bottom. Piper's fins were in total disarray - Aqua clearly stood her ground. Aqua developed a fungal infection on what appeared to be a wound from this encounter, which I treated with medication apparently successfully - the white "cottony" material completely disappeared and Aqua seems totally healthy and happy.
I am unable to remember if this fight came before or after Piper's developed white mustache, and I'm wondering if this began as some sort of injury from the fight with the other fish. However, it has taken a long time to grow to appear this way. Also, the white lump on Piper (I TRIED to take pictures but I couldn't seem to get it to come out, sorry) looks nothing like the fungus on Aqua. It looks more like a white lump of flesh than cottony material. I would think that if it were a fungus-like infection or something along those lines, the medication that treated Aqua would have also treated Piper, since I distributed it evenly throughout the divisions of the tank and the water filters throughout.
I change about 25% of the water every two weeks, which is perhaps less than I should, but when I have the water tested, the levels come out "perfect" (the last time I tested the water was about two weeks ago - I don't have my own test kit but I took water in to the LFS). The tank has a heater that I keep at about 79-80 degrees, and I have a whisper filter for up to a ten-gallon tank.
Piper is still a bright, rich red color and does not appear too sickly... other than the fact that she has become very slow to eat in the last week or so.
I feel sad because I'm sure this condition is painful for her, but I have no idea what to do... please help!
(Sorry for the obnoxiously long post... I wanted to explain thoroughly).
I have a very mysterious ailment appearing on one of my female bettas. I have had her for almost eight months now, and she lives in a 5.5 gallon tank with two other female bettas. They are divided because as they aged, they became less and less agreeable with each other.
My lovely red female, Piper, seems to have developed a strange hole in her head, but it doesn't seem to resemble the images I saw when reading about HITH online. A couple months ago I noticed that she began to have a white "milk mustache," if you will, that appeared above her mouth, right along the top of her upper lip. Her mouth began to appear distended because of the white "blob" that appeared above it.
Now she still appears to have a distended mouth, but there seems to be daylight that is visible through a hole that has formed between her lip and the strange white blob. I spent a good ten minutes today looking at her with a flashlight (much to her distaste) trying to see if this really was the case, and I seem to be able to see some of the green plants in her tank through her mouth when she swims along. The white, risen "mustache" blob is still there (and looks a bit bigger than before), but there is a hole beneath it. It's difficult to describe and even more difficult to photograph, so I hope you are with me.
At first her behavior seemed unaffected, but now she seems a little more lethargic than before. She still eats and seems perfectly capable of consuming food, but she eats much more slowly than before. She will take breaths at the surface as well, but it seems to me that this pit against her mouth has developed so much that water (and tiny air bubbles) can pass through it without her opening her mouth.
I'm not sure what to do! It doesn't look anything like the HITH pictures, but it is, quite literally, a hole in Piper's head - only it seems to be more like a hole that goes straight through her flesh from either side against her upper lip. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Is it some sort of tumor that has grown on her "forehead" and split the flesh above her upper lip?
I'm not sure how to treat her, or even if I can do anything about it. The other two fish appear to be fine and very healthy.
Also - this may be related - a couple months ago, Piper managed to jump over her divider and visit her neighboring betta - this encounter did not go well. I woke in the morning to find Piper at the top of the tank and Aquaneesha, the other female betta, hiding down at the bottom. Piper's fins were in total disarray - Aqua clearly stood her ground. Aqua developed a fungal infection on what appeared to be a wound from this encounter, which I treated with medication apparently successfully - the white "cottony" material completely disappeared and Aqua seems totally healthy and happy.
I am unable to remember if this fight came before or after Piper's developed white mustache, and I'm wondering if this began as some sort of injury from the fight with the other fish. However, it has taken a long time to grow to appear this way. Also, the white lump on Piper (I TRIED to take pictures but I couldn't seem to get it to come out, sorry) looks nothing like the fungus on Aqua. It looks more like a white lump of flesh than cottony material. I would think that if it were a fungus-like infection or something along those lines, the medication that treated Aqua would have also treated Piper, since I distributed it evenly throughout the divisions of the tank and the water filters throughout.
I change about 25% of the water every two weeks, which is perhaps less than I should, but when I have the water tested, the levels come out "perfect" (the last time I tested the water was about two weeks ago - I don't have my own test kit but I took water in to the LFS). The tank has a heater that I keep at about 79-80 degrees, and I have a whisper filter for up to a ten-gallon tank.
Piper is still a bright, rich red color and does not appear too sickly... other than the fact that she has become very slow to eat in the last week or so.
I feel sad because I'm sure this condition is painful for her, but I have no idea what to do... please help!
(Sorry for the obnoxiously long post... I wanted to explain thoroughly).
