Sick Betta

[23578]

My betta fish is having a lot of symptoms and I can't find anything online that matches up with all of his symptoms so if anyone knows what it might be, please let me know.
The main symptoms is that his fins are deteriorating. Pretty much overnight, his fins got really messed up. He was doing okay and then now his fins are always clamped and they're turning white and have black dots on them. They also look a lot smaller, and I think the edges might have fin rot so I've been treating with aquarium salt but there might be something else also. He's been super lethargic and not as eager for food. I think he might also be losing his vision because he keeps going for the food and missing, or I put my hand in front of the glass, which is usually his cue to come up and he doesn't react at all. His head also looks kind of bumpy. And I'm not sure if this is what actually happened, but I was feeding him and it looked like white flakes came out of his gills, and its possible it came from something else but I'm not sure.
His water quality is good. The Ph is around 7.5, 0 ammonia and nitrites, less than 5 nitrates, and the temperature is a bit under 80.
I'm not sure how old he is, but he's at least 2 and could be as old as 3 or 4, so is it possible it's just because he's old? I'm not sure though because it was so sudden.

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures of the fish and a picture showing the entire tank?
Do you have any plastic plants or ornaments in the tank?

How long have you had him?
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?

Have you done a water change recently?
How often do you normally do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Do you have buckets and hoses specifically for the fish tank?

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BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. You've done that so no need to worry but you could test the tap water to make sure that is ok.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[23578]

Pictures of the fish and a picture showing the entire tank?
Attached
Do you have any plastic plants or ornaments in the tank?
Only silk plants, driftwood, and live plants other than the flower ball ornament in the middle, but it doesn't have any sharp edges.

How long have you had him?
Over a year and a half
Have you added anything to the tank in the last 2 weeks?
I added aquarium salt once I noticed his symptoms but other than that no.

Have you done a water change recently?
Yes, just a couple days ago.
How often do you normally do water changes and how much do you change?
Every week or two I do a 20% water change.
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Yes
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
Yes

What sort of filter is on the tank?
Built in filter
How often and how do you clean the filter?
Every few weeks I rinse it with the old tank water.

Do you have buckets and hoses specifically for the fish tank?
Yes

I'll start doing what you said and clean the glass, gravel, and filter. If there's anything else I should do or a medication I should buy please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

Can we get another picture of the fish (close up) and a 1 minute video of him?
Check to make sure the image is in focus on your computer before uploading it.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

Does he have a round fat lump near his belly area or is that the picture?

How hard/ sharp is the white ornament/ cave in the tank?
Does he spend any time in that white cave structure?

The white edging to the fins appears to be excess mucous over a shredded tail. He might have gotten caught on the white ornament and ripped it.

Re: his feeding. What do you normally feed him?
Did he used to eat the flake food without any issues or has he been eating it and spitting it out?

Are his eyes white or developing any white patches?

 

[23578]

Can we get another picture of the fish (close up) and a 1 minute video of him?
I attached a picture, and I tried taking a video but he just was doing the same thing he was doing in the picture the whole time. He just sits at the surface for a long time not moving.

Does he have a round fat lump near his belly area or is that the picture?
He does, but I looked it up and I think it's just his stomach. Because he hasn't been eating well, he's gotten a lot skinnier so its more noticeable.

How hard/ sharp is the white ornament/ cave in the tank?
Does he spend any time in that white cave structure?
It is a hard ornament but all the edges are rounded and I don't think there's anywhere he could have cut himself on it. He does spend a lot of time in it. That's usually where he sleeps at night and sometimes during the day he naps in there.

The white edging to the fins appears to be excess mucous over a shredded tail. He might have gotten caught on the white ornament and ripped it.
Maybe it's mucus on the edges, but usually the red on his fins is a lot more bright and it looks more like it's fading than being covered so I don't know if that's the only cause.

Re: his feeding. What do you normally feed him?
Did he used to eat the flake food without any issues or has he been eating it and spitting it out?
I usually feed him the Hikari betta bio-gold pellets. He's always had a bit of an issue eating but it's gotten worse recently. They're pretty small pellets and he can only eat 2 at once, if that. Sometimes he spits it out, but usually what he does is he sort of moves his head up to get it down his throat which makes me think he is having trouble swallowing it. The back of the package says he should be eating 3-10 pellets up to 3 times a day depending on the size of the betta,so it isn't enough food for him. In the middle of the day if I'm home I try to give him pieces of a bloodworm and he usually eats that, but I still don't know if he is getting enough food because he's so skinny.

Are his eyes white or developing any white patches?
No, they look normal, he just hasn't been reacting well to visual cues which makes me think he's losing his vision. I have to make it super obvious for him to notice anything.

 

[Colin_T]

If he isn't eating well, the round belly should not be sticking out like it is. He might have an internal issue, which is preventing him from eating. You can try him on brineshrimp rather than bloodworms. If he eats that well then it's a good sign. But if he spits them out he is definitely unwell.

Things that cause a fat belly and lack of appetite are usually a tumour or cyst, neither of which can be treated. He could also have an internal infection but that normally causes them to do a stringy white poop.

What does his poop look like?
Coloured is fine, white is bad.

 

[23578]

As far as I've seen, his poop looks normal.
For the brineshrimp, should I try freeze dried ones? I already have freeze dried baby shrimp that I feed to my bigger fish, so could I try cutting those up for him or are they different?

 

[Colin_T]

Frozen or live brineshrimp is better than freeze dried stuff. Frozen is the most economical way to buy it and you simply keep it in the freezer and break a small bit off. Offer the fish a little bit at a time and let him eat as much as he wants.

Live brineshrimp comes in a small bag of salt water and you can pour that into a bowl and keep it in the fridge for a few days. Use a small spoon, eye dropper or sieve and scoop a few out and put them in the tank. They will swim around for an hour or so and the fish will hopefully eat them.

 

[23578]

I got some frozen brine shrimp yesterday and just tried them out on him. The petco I go to only had baby brine shrimp, and I thought it would be the same but they're really small and he doesn't recognize them as food. They come in little cubes, so I put one in there and he ate at the cube, but all the brine shrimp that floated away are just staying there because he doesn't realize they're food. Its also possible he doesn't see them because he might be going blind and they're so small. He did try to eat though and I'm not sure how much he got but I think its a good sign that he tried to eat at least.
Also, I think his eyes are bulging a bit now. Last time I wrote a post, I don't think they were, so its pretty new. They're just sticking out more, but I think its the eye socket if that's what its called, not the eye itself. I'm not sure what it could be a symptom of. I still don't know exactly what's wrong with him so I've just been doing general treatments with aquarium salt and trying to space out his feedings more so he can actually eat.

 

[Colin_T]

Eyes bulging out are usually caused by an infection in the eye or brain. These can be from bacteria, viruses or protozoan infections and normally occur in dirty tanks (lack of water changes, filter cleaning, etc). Salt can sometimes help or a broad spectrum medication that treats bacteria, fungus & protozoans. But it doesn't always help and depending on what the underlying cause is, the fish can die.

Big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate for a week or two, along with cleaning the filter can sometimes help.