Weird Symptoms

[honmol]

This is a quote from a user on another forum. So far we have not been able to identify the disease so I thought I'd see if someone here could.

I've had some of the weirdest symptoms with a couple of my bettas, and thought I'd see if anyone else has experienced this.

Some of my girls - it has only hit three females - are getting what initially looks like a scratch or scrape on their heads. They start acting more withdrawn, eat a little less, and then the scratch turns into something that almost looks like a pimple.

Two of the girls - one is a red female jarred by herself, one is a red gold female in a divided tank with a male on the other side - have actually had their faces look swollen! Almost like someone hit them in the face.

I tried a couple of different antibiotics, and nothing seemed to help - UNTIL I used some acriflavine. I did a water change, and did the acriflavine at the heavier dose. It can either be used at 1 tsp/10 gallons or 1 tsp/5 gallons. Within 24 hours, the red female showed NO SWELLING, and no other symptoms.

Wednesday night, I changed water on my giant girl. She's normally very active, and swims up to the tank to see me... well, probably to see what I might give her to eat. After changing the water, I noticed a scratch on her face. She started acting withdrawn and wouldn't come to see me, so I knew something was wrong. I took a closer look, and could see the pimple starting on her face.

You can see from the green in the water that I immediately treated her with the acriflavine. It has arrested the development of the sore, and she's getting back to her normal self. I suspect all three girls will be fine...

but does ANYONE know WTF this is??? I've kept the tools I use for cleaning the tanks and doing water changes confined to just these fish now, but I'm baffled!!!

Any idea what this could be?

 

[Meredith]

I know the green is the meds she is using, and I could be totally off base here, but that does not look like the cleanest environment. I wonder what her params are, the water changing schedule, size of "jar" and if its heated.

 

[honmol]

First is is a he, not a her.

Second, I would doubt that he would provide anything but great conditions for his bettas. He has been in the hobby (specifically bettas) for over 20 years and is a breeder (not professional but a breeder nonetheless) and very knowledgeable when it comes to this sort of thing. Out of our 158 members, no one so far has been able to diagnose the bettas. I read about a disease here in a post that had those beginning symptoms but I havent been able to find it.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Are they all in the same tank together? Do you know what size of the tank, and how many bettas are in there? Not to discount your friend at all, but anyone can breed fish, that doesn't mean they are kept in the greatest conditions.

My first inclination is that they are being picked at. Females can be very aggressive. Then, something in the water is infecting the sore area and growing.

Otherwise, it can simply be one of the many medical mysteries of fish that nobody will ever figure out. Tumors and cysts can appear anytime, and most anywhere on a fishes body, and genetics will be the cause.

FWIW, Acriflavine is not exactly the best med to use. It's killer on your biological filter, and used primarly for external parasites. Perhaps if your friend tried an antibiotic or fungus guard, he'd have more luck. The water looks quite yellow to me, which could be indication of high ammonia levels.

Best of luck.

 

[BillD]

Devilishturtles, did you read the original post? The fish is alone, antibiotics don't work, acriflavine does, and the tank is green because of the acrifalvine.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Yes I did, BillD. Thank you for pointing out the sentence I skipped over about being "jarred" alone, and in a divided tank.

The funny things about antibiotics is that they don't all work. It still may be beneficial to try others than what was previously tried. Even though, they can alter water chemistry.

The water still looks yellow to me though, and I'm still sticking to my opinion about the acriflavine. Perhaps a different med will help.

Best of luck, honmol.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Gees, seems I skipped over the text below the piccie as well.

So, all the bettas are doing better now?

 

[sudz]

some sort of reverse hole-in-head disease or something? (i know nothing, lol)
I'm lucky to have never had to treat a fish for illness. I hope to keep it that way, but i know AA's got my back if i have to!

 

[rubysoho]

unfortunatly there are a lot of unknown diseases, bacteria, fungii, and other stuff that are not known about because they may not happen as frequently as ICH or other diseases. Perhaps it is a mutated strain. I had a *nasty* disease get into my tank (perfect water, etc...) where the affected fish became paralyzed from the bacteria or whatever it was. I asked on a couple different forums and nobody had ever heard of it. Thankfully your person's fish got better, I ended up losing 5 fish in 4 days before I finally contained it.

 

[sudz]

where the affected fish became paralyzed from the bacteria

That scares me to no end. If something like that were to happen, i'm pretty sure i'd rip my 10 gallon apart, put all its fish in my 44 gallon, and make it a QT/hospital tank in no time flat.

 

[rubysoho]

yeh, I was scared, but the symptoms were very clear and a fish was either infected or not. It was as if the paralysis was only in the infected area and you could literally watch it spread in 24 hours. I cried when I lost my favorite female betta (the first to go) because I was trying hard to save her and it was so sad to see her suffer. I finally just euthanized her. *sigh* Now to go think happy thoughts!