I’m wondering if my betta is sick. A week ago I noticed my betta’s chin was turning white. I think his chin was already lighter colored so it was hard to tell if I was imagining it at first, but now it definitely seems whiter. From the research I’ve done it looks like it could just be a natural color change, although I think he’s only about a year old so is that too young to change color? Or could the color change be caused by stress? The tank water quality could have been bad enough to stress him because I had been overfeeding and it was probably a bit dirty at least. I have done water chances since then so i don’t know what the parameters were. I’m wondering if you can tell from the photos if he is sick, and if so what disease does he have?
Do you think it could be columnaris or fungus? I heard you can treat columnaris with kanaplex so I bought it. Should I treat him with it? I don’t want to wait till it’s too late. But from googling around it looks like it’s a fairly heavy duty drug and it can cause kidney damage if you use too much, but if I don’t go over the recommended amount should it be fine? I haven’t read that it is dangerous or has side effects. I’m not used to using antibiotics with fish, so I don’t know how risky it is to use them. I was thinking I could treat him with less than the normal dose of kanaplex? Or should I just do extra water changes and keep an eye to see if he comes down with other symptoms? I was also thinking of treating him with table salt because I don’t have aquarium salt, but I heard it can be toxic because it contains yellow prussiate of soda so I don’t know if it’s worth the risk? From what I have seen he’s not acting strangely, I haven’t kept a close eye on him but I’ve noticed him opening his mouth a few times. And once it seemed like he might be gasping for air but I might be being paranoid. Also, maybe it’s not columnaris because from what I’ve read it usually kills fish in a few days, but maybe in some cases it takes longer? The photos aren’t great, I can add better ones later.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3zyjcfvtWckRR52P9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qjPBxwVSTT2CwaZq8
Do you think it could be columnaris or fungus? I heard you can treat columnaris with kanaplex so I bought it. Should I treat him with it? I don’t want to wait till it’s too late. But from googling around it looks like it’s a fairly heavy duty drug and it can cause kidney damage if you use too much, but if I don’t go over the recommended amount should it be fine? I haven’t read that it is dangerous or has side effects. I’m not used to using antibiotics with fish, so I don’t know how risky it is to use them. I was thinking I could treat him with less than the normal dose of kanaplex? Or should I just do extra water changes and keep an eye to see if he comes down with other symptoms? I was also thinking of treating him with table salt because I don’t have aquarium salt, but I heard it can be toxic because it contains yellow prussiate of soda so I don’t know if it’s worth the risk? From what I have seen he’s not acting strangely, I haven’t kept a close eye on him but I’ve noticed him opening his mouth a few times. And once it seemed like he might be gasping for air but I might be being paranoid. Also, maybe it’s not columnaris because from what I’ve read it usually kills fish in a few days, but maybe in some cases it takes longer? The photos aren’t great, I can add better ones later.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3zyjcfvtWckRR52P9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qjPBxwVSTT2CwaZq8
Last edited by a moderator:
