Sick Female Better Fish

Hello all! I hope I'm posting this in the correct area (been a while since my last log in).

Posting this in hopes of some of you helping me out with a sick female betta fish.
She lives in a 5.5 gallon tank with 2 red cherry shrimps. The tank has been cycled months ago (ammonia: 0, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 0). The tank is filtered, heated, and heavily planted.

My female betta has been riddled with diseases since the day I got her: from pop eye, to fin rot and velvet. I was away for two days (the weekend) and came home to what looked like a very sick and stressed fish. It looks like she has developed some sort of mouth fungus, and has unusual white blotches (colour loss) all over her body (it is not ich). I'm not sure if this is in fact mouth fungus, as it seems like a piece of her mouth fell off or is missing? (don't know how to describe it) I should mention that her fins are also very clamped (more so now than yesterday - when the photos were taken), and hides or stays at the bottom of the tank (acting very lethargic).

Immediately transferred her into my 2.5 gallon hospital / quarantine tank to get her started on some aquarium salt. My hospital tank has also been cycled for months and I have been maintaining it on the regular in case something like this were to happen.

I posted some photos of her - tried my best but she really wasn't liking the light and kept turning away.

Anyone knows what this might be, or what I should do?

I have no clue as to how old she is - picked her up back in February from my local animal humane shelter after someone left her in a small bowl outside.

Did she have any tankmates with her in the 5.5?
Also, it's horrible that someone dumped her! o:

LyraGuppi said:

Did she have any tankmates with her in the 55?
Also, it's horrible that someone dumped her! o:

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Only the two cherry shrimps, nothing else.

I felt sooo bad for her when I saw her at the animal shelter. She was in a tiny vase and was covered in slime someone clearly neglected her and most likely kept her in a bowl or vase

LyraGuppi said:

Did she have any tankmates with her in the 55?
Also, it's horrible that someone dumped her! o:

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I should also mention that since I posted this, she has barely been moving. She's currently sitting at the bottom of the tank, fins clamped, breathing heavily, and doesn't even want to go up for air. I'm debating lowering the water level, but then again, that might stress her out even more...?

You could do that, or give her something to rest on near the surface, like a plant.
I'm afraid I have no idea what's happening to her, the only thing I can suggest is keep the water warm and clean until someone else can chime in. What kind of test kit are you using? It may be worth it to shake the test bottles very well and retest, just to make sure.

For ammonia I have one of those API tests, and for everything else (nitrate/nitrite/GH/KH/ph) I have the tetra easy strips for the time being. My nitrates are at a good level (my three local fish stores test them once a month), by my easy strips always show them as being 0, or just barely 20.

Do you know what I should keep the temperature at? Some sites say to raise it to 85, while others say to lower it to prevent a disease* (such as cotton mouth/mouth fungus) from spreading - but I don't even know what it is... I dose the tank with Kanaplex today. Going to do a water change before the second dose.

I'm really hoping that this is just an older fish with a weak immune system - I have never had a fish go through this many disease / and possibly die so soon. I have been keeping aquariums for at least 10 years, and I'm just getting back into the hobby - so I know I'm not doing anything wrong... Ugh... this is stressing me out!

LyraGuppi said:

You could do that, or give her something to rest on near the surface, like a plant.
I'm afraid I have no idea what's happening to her, the only thing I can suggest is keep the water warm and clean until someone else can chime in. What kind of test kit are you using? It may be worth it to shake the test bottles very well and retest, just to make sure.

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There's a little house in the tank (her favourite one) and a leaf hammock, but she just doesn't want to rest on either of those. I don't want to put in a live plant due to the salt, and I don't have any fake/silk plants on hand

I'm not sure what disease it is either, so I'm not certain what temperature. :c I'd say 26-27°C for the time, especially with the salt in the tank.
If you'll be dosing a medicine, it may be more convenient to leave the water level where it is. Of course, if she really struggles to swim upward, lowering it might be for the best.

BettaLuver said:

I'm really hoping that this is just an older fish with a weak immune system - I have never had a fish go through this many disease / and possibly die so soon. I have been keeping aquariums for at least 10 years, and I'm just getting back into the hobby - so I know I'm not doing anything wrong... Ugh... this is stressing me out!

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My first thought when I read this post was that theory, actually. There's no telling what she could have lived in, or for how long she was mistreated before you got her, and I'm sure that's not good on an immune system. The best you can do right now is research and keep her comfortable, which you look like you're doing. c:
More experienced members will likely come out in the morning (at least from the Northern Hemisphere) with better advice.

LyraGuppi said:

I'm not sure what disease it is either, so I'm not certain what temperature. :c I'd say 26-27°C for the time, especially with the salt in the tank.
If you'll be dosing a medicine, it may be more convenient to leave the water level where it is. Of course, if she really struggles to swim upward, lowering it might be for the best.

My first thought when I read this post was that theory, actually. There's no telling what she could have lived in, or for how long she was mistreated before you got her, and I'm sure that's not good on an immune system. The best you can do right now is research and keep her comfortable, which you look like you're doing. c:
More experienced members will likely come out in the morning (at least from the Northern Hemisphere) with better advice.

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I originally had the temp set at around 30°C (maybe even higher). I lowered the setting on the heater, and its slowly dropping. She moved around a little bit, but continues to lay down on the gravel in the one corner of the tank. Also, when she goes up for air, she takes about 2-3 gulps of it.

I've been reading so many different forums today that I don't even know what to think anymore. I just hope she gets better. She's quite big for a betta though - maybe she's an oldie? Either way, I'll post an update tomorrow. Hopefully you're right and some other members will be able to join in tomorrow and offer some insight! Gnight!

Do you know what I should keep the temperature at? Some sites say to raise it to 85,

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I keep mine at 80F.

LyraGuppi said:

I'm not sure what disease it is either, so I'm not certain what temperature. :c I'd say 26-27°C for the time, especially with the salt in the tank.
If you'll be dosing a medicine, it may be more convenient to leave the water level where it is. Of course, if she really struggles to swim upward, lowering it might be for the best.

My first thought when I read this post was that theory, actually. There's no telling what she could have lived in, or for how long she was mistreated before you got her, and I'm sure that's not good on an immune system. The best you can do right now is research and keep her comfortable, which you look like you're doing. c:
More experienced members will likely come out in the morning (at least from the Northern Hemisphere) with better advice.

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I didn't post anything yesterday because there really was no improvement.
I did a PWC late last night because I wanted a full 48 hours to pass since the first dose of Kanaplex. I also added a tiny amount of aquarium salt. I had a slight ammonia spike in my hospital tank because I had to remove the carbon insert from the filter (as per the Kanaplex instructions), but I've got it under control now.

The fish seems to be doing a lot better today. I finally turned the light on (doesn't bother her anymore), and at first she was hiding behind the filter in the shadows. I gave her some food and to my surprise, she actually ate for the first time since I transferred her into quarantine.

Fins are still slightly clamped (mainly the tail and top fin) but she spreads them out when she wants to. Her side fins (not sure their name) are a little frayed for some reason, but she's swimming fine.

The white on her mouth is practically gone - her "lips" are a little deformed though... maybe they'll grow back? (probably not).

Her colouring though is still pretty much the same since I posted the photos: still has white spots all over her body. Her fins are regaining colour though.

She's exploring the tank more and more, looking for food at the bottom, so I guess she's starting to feel better - but you never know with these fish.

The only thing I am concerned about is that her top fin has been growing back since her fin rot and I noticed some white, which I am assuming is new tissue, but there is also the slightest amount of orange. I've had a fish die to ammonia poisoning a long time ago (before I knew what the nitrogen cycle was). Do you think this might be a sign of the small ammonia spike I had? Can I fix this? I don't want her to burn

Could you get a picture of the new growth? It could be healthy new fin, but it might be worth a look just in case.
Same as before, clean water is the best first step towards recovery. The Kanaplex should help out any damage as well.
Her change in behaviour and colour sounds like she's making good progress! c:

LyraGuppi said:

Could you get a picture of the new growth? It could be healthy new fin, but it might be worth a look just in case.
Same as before, clean water is the best first step towards recovery. The Kanaplex should help out any damage as well.
Her change in behaviour and colour sounds like she's making good progress! c:

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I had to move her back into the 5.5 gallon for the time being because of the ammonia spike in the 2.5 hospital tank. I'll be putting her back in if she gets worse. The ammonia seemed to be going down but then it rose to 0.5 and I couldn't bare having her in there.

The first two images are from earlier this morning when she was still in the hospital tank. It's just her mouth - how the white has gone away.

The other two images I tried taking right now but she was moving around so much in the 5.5 gal that my phone wouldn't focus on her fin. The "stuff" in the middle of the fin is actually orange, though it looks white. The other white "stuff" is actually white - and I'm guessing is the actual tissue that's regrowing.

I'll try to take a better photo in a second

She seems to have improve A LOT very happy!

Her mouth does look much better! The growth on her fins is a little hard to tell, but if it's fin rot, it's very little.

LyraGuppi said:

Her mouth does look much better! The growth on her fins is a little hard to tell, but if it's fin rot, it's very little.

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So happy about the mouth fungus clearing up.
As for the fin, it's definitely not fin rot. She had fin rot about 4 weeks ago (maybe even 5 weeks). But I'm going to keep my eye on it.

Every time I try to take a photo of her, she either gets super shy or she gets super excited to see me and swims around like a maniac. At least she's feeling better, because earlier I would walk into the room and she wouldn't react.

I'll keep you posted on her progress to recovery