Laken
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have a sick female betta or at least possibly sick. She is not acting sick - swimming and moving about as usual. Has a healthy appetite. The only thing wrong with her is about a week and a half ago I noticed a white/ grey discoloration on the top of her body.
As soon as I noticed a white spot to be safe I removed her from the tank and placed her in a "hospital/quarantine" tank.
I've already treated with melafix with no improvement. After treating with melafix I did a large water change (90%) in the hospital tank. Put the carbon back in the filter and let it run for the past 5 days to give her a break from the meds before starting a different treatment. During the past 5 days I've been doing every two day water changes of 50%.
Now I was going to try a different treatment but not sure what to try? I have API fin and body cure and I have Fritz Maracyn Oxy on hand but I really don't think either of these are the appropriate treatment. I'm thinking I should do something else entirely but not sure what!
It's not ich I've dealt with ich before and this does not look like ich. If it's an illness I'm thinking it's fungal, but it DOESN'T really LOOK fuzzy to me and her eyes are clear NOT cloudy. I was thinking it looks like columnaris but aside from appearance nothing else matches up - none of the other fish got sick, it doesn't seem to be a fast acting illness, and fish hasn't lost any energy.
I don't want to keep exposing the fish to a lot of different medications because that has to be stressful. So I'm asking for help on identifying what's wrong with her and what should be used to treat it?
I am also aware that it might not be an illness. Perhaps it's discoloration caused by something else??
I have tried googling and searching for what this could be but couldn't find anything that I could for sure say was the same thing. So I'd love to get other people's opinion.
Other information:
Normally she lives in a 29 gallon tank with a group of other female bettas. This tank has been established for abt a yr and I'm not having any aggression issues between the fish in the tank.
Other fish in the sorority tank are not showing any signs of illness, stress, or discoloration.
Not sure of her exact age. She was pretty big when I got her, I've had her for a lil over a year, so I'm guesstimating she's about a year-and-a-half old.
My hospital/quarantine tank is rather small it's only 2.5 gallons from top fin with the stock filter and small heater. Artificial plant in the hospital tank for cover. The hospital tank water readings PH 7.0 Ammonia .50ppm (this is pretty high for me but it's right before a water change) Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 0-5.0ppm (I couldn't really tell which one it was somewhere between the two).
The 29 gallon tank she was in when the patch appeared is currently testing at PH 7.2 Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 5.0ppm. I think these readings are not really relevant to her condition because those are the readings from today. Unfortunately I do not recall and did not think to write down the readings from a week and a half ago when I first noticed the spot of discoloration. But I don't remember anything concerning.
TL; DR SEE PHOTOS. WHAT IS THIS PATCH OF DISCOLORATION?
As soon as I noticed a white spot to be safe I removed her from the tank and placed her in a "hospital/quarantine" tank.
I've already treated with melafix with no improvement. After treating with melafix I did a large water change (90%) in the hospital tank. Put the carbon back in the filter and let it run for the past 5 days to give her a break from the meds before starting a different treatment. During the past 5 days I've been doing every two day water changes of 50%.
Now I was going to try a different treatment but not sure what to try? I have API fin and body cure and I have Fritz Maracyn Oxy on hand but I really don't think either of these are the appropriate treatment. I'm thinking I should do something else entirely but not sure what!
It's not ich I've dealt with ich before and this does not look like ich. If it's an illness I'm thinking it's fungal, but it DOESN'T really LOOK fuzzy to me and her eyes are clear NOT cloudy. I was thinking it looks like columnaris but aside from appearance nothing else matches up - none of the other fish got sick, it doesn't seem to be a fast acting illness, and fish hasn't lost any energy.
I don't want to keep exposing the fish to a lot of different medications because that has to be stressful. So I'm asking for help on identifying what's wrong with her and what should be used to treat it?
I am also aware that it might not be an illness. Perhaps it's discoloration caused by something else??
I have tried googling and searching for what this could be but couldn't find anything that I could for sure say was the same thing. So I'd love to get other people's opinion.
Other information:
Normally she lives in a 29 gallon tank with a group of other female bettas. This tank has been established for abt a yr and I'm not having any aggression issues between the fish in the tank.
Other fish in the sorority tank are not showing any signs of illness, stress, or discoloration.
Not sure of her exact age. She was pretty big when I got her, I've had her for a lil over a year, so I'm guesstimating she's about a year-and-a-half old.
My hospital/quarantine tank is rather small it's only 2.5 gallons from top fin with the stock filter and small heater. Artificial plant in the hospital tank for cover. The hospital tank water readings PH 7.0 Ammonia .50ppm (this is pretty high for me but it's right before a water change) Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 0-5.0ppm (I couldn't really tell which one it was somewhere between the two).
The 29 gallon tank she was in when the patch appeared is currently testing at PH 7.2 Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 5.0ppm. I think these readings are not really relevant to her condition because those are the readings from today. Unfortunately I do not recall and did not think to write down the readings from a week and a half ago when I first noticed the spot of discoloration. But I don't remember anything concerning.
TL; DR SEE PHOTOS. WHAT IS THIS PATCH OF DISCOLORATION?
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