Eleven13
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hey everyone,
I've had my betta for about 2ish years now. He's in a 3 gallon marineland eclipse system with 3 live plants (2 betta bulbs and an anubias). The temp is generally between 82 and 86F and I do 50% water changes weekly. He has been doing very well, but he gets scared easily and I think he may have crashed himself into the gravel recently and injured his side (although this is only speculation).
Immediately posterior to his left pectoral fin there seems to be a hole and his scales around it are lifted. It is white in appearance from what I can see, but as I said he spoofs easily so it's hard to get a good look at it unfortunately. His other side is completely normal. He's eating, but over the course of a few days his eating has seemed to drop off (I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms). He swims decently, but he is sort of lethargic and he definitely favors that side when swimming. Sorry for the picture quality, he's afraid of the camera so it's very difficult to capture the injury in good quality:
http://imgur.com/ivNoEZu
http://imgur.com/DcqzZtv
I was hoping clean water with Stress Coat dosed in would do the trick, but I'm unsure if it is getting better or worse so I'd like some advice on what to do, and I'm now thinking that it is indeed getting worse.
I do have API aquarium salt which I haven't used, and I also have API Tetracycline on hand that I haven't used. My biggest concern is that I'm unsure if it's bacterial or fungal, so I want to make sure that I use the correct medication. I'd ideally like to treat at the same time for bacterial and fungal but I'm not sure what medications to use and if that combination is safe. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
I've had my betta for about 2ish years now. He's in a 3 gallon marineland eclipse system with 3 live plants (2 betta bulbs and an anubias). The temp is generally between 82 and 86F and I do 50% water changes weekly. He has been doing very well, but he gets scared easily and I think he may have crashed himself into the gravel recently and injured his side (although this is only speculation).
Immediately posterior to his left pectoral fin there seems to be a hole and his scales around it are lifted. It is white in appearance from what I can see, but as I said he spoofs easily so it's hard to get a good look at it unfortunately. His other side is completely normal. He's eating, but over the course of a few days his eating has seemed to drop off (I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms). He swims decently, but he is sort of lethargic and he definitely favors that side when swimming. Sorry for the picture quality, he's afraid of the camera so it's very difficult to capture the injury in good quality:
http://imgur.com/ivNoEZu
http://imgur.com/DcqzZtv
I was hoping clean water with Stress Coat dosed in would do the trick, but I'm unsure if it is getting better or worse so I'd like some advice on what to do, and I'm now thinking that it is indeed getting worse.
I do have API aquarium salt which I haven't used, and I also have API Tetracycline on hand that I haven't used. My biggest concern is that I'm unsure if it's bacterial or fungal, so I want to make sure that I use the correct medication. I'd ideally like to treat at the same time for bacterial and fungal but I'm not sure what medications to use and if that combination is safe. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
