Puffy face

[ukclaire]

Hi all.
I was hoping to get some ideas of whats happened/what to do with one of my female bettas. I shall introduce myself in another thread. I have posted on another forum but I think you cannot have too much help

They have been in the tank since last October with no problems until now as one of my female bettas has what looks like a broken nose. Her face is all swollen and her tail is clamped shut (see pics below). occasionally she will swim at the surface and jump out of the water, then go and sit on the bottom hiding in the plants. She isn't gasping for breath, she is eating but just dosen't seem interested in anything.

have noticed the jumping out only occurs after eating. She has full colour when just floating around but when she tries to swim all her colour goes...like its a big effort.

In the 4 foot tank we have:
A further 5 female bettas
1 RTBS
3 Clown Loaches
12 5 lined barb
3 USDC

Temp is 26.4
25% Water change every sunday morning Tap Safe is added
General allround test...levels are bang on
Ammonia is 0 (just to be on the safe side we added an ammonia remover)
PH varies from 6.8-7.2
Running an eheim filter, 1 air stone and 1 powerball pump.
Fed on a frozen, freeze dried and flaked food (rotational).

All the other fish are swimming around quite happily, flaring if there is any chance of food...!!

2 weeks ago my friend came to stay with 2 dogs. There is a lid on the tank (tight fitting) and there has been 3 water changes since then. We did a 50% change this evening as we were worried about her.

I added a load of new plants 2 weeks ago and split them between the two tanks.

I have links to some photos of her and also a test strip (the pic was taken just outside the 1 minute time scale).

I really like my female bettas and its breaking my heart to see her like this.

Any ideas...?

Thanks in advance,

Claire

http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta01.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta02.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta03.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta04.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta05.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta06.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/betta07.jpg
http://images.fastasfunk.co.uk/test01.jpg

PS...ignore the PH value on the test strip..its way out we have a seperate test for that.

Also...we are treating the tank with Protozin (protozoacide/fungicide) and are on day 3 (dose on days 1,2,3 & 6).

 

[Menagerie]

I'm not a betta person, I won't even try to guess. Christmasfish is a betta keeper and may have ideas for you.
In the meantime, these sites may help:
Freshwater Diagnostic Charts--
http://www.aquatronicsonline.com/hobbyist/hobbyist3.htm
http://www.clubjungle.com/fish_chart.pdf

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi,
I'm really not sure what you mean by a puffy face. In picture 2, the puffy area could be dropsy; does anyone agree? Are the scales "pine coning" -- as viewed from above, are they sticking out from her body to resemble a pine cone? If it is dropsy, you can try feeding a pea. Cook the pea, cool, peel the skin away, and see if she will eat the pea. That can help with constipation, and may help the swollen area. If nothing improves in a few days, you could try an antibiotic, and just a pinch of epsom salts in the water to try to draw out the swelling.

I also notice that her "nose" area looks flattened; I don't know what could have caused that except an injury of some kind, or an encounter with a tankmate? Do other fish appear to be harrassing her?

If it isn't dropsy, then it may be a swimbladder problem, since you said she goes to the bottom often. I had a betta that did that too -- laid on the bottom and darted for the surface every now and then.

How old is she? How much is she eating?

 

[ukclaire]

hi,
No the scales arent coming away, she looks like she has scales growing back under the area where the white stuff is.

I got her about 4/5 months ago as a baby. She is eating fine, I always make sure she gets some flakes or frozen food.

As I said earlier...they seem to be looking after her. All I can think of is she did bang or get her head trapped.

Just need to keep an eye on her.
Thanks again.

Claire