I think my betta is dying?

I've only had him for a year and I got him from petco so he couldnt have been very old. He has a saddle pattern on his head and back that has been a described symptom of columnaris and he has some fuzz on his tail. His breathing is extremely labored and he is very lethargic. My tank was also a pretty dirty because I had a lot of dying plants cause I have a black thumb (but thats been fixed). So as far as I know, all signs point to columnaris. If I am wrong, which I very much hope, please make sure to tell me and give suggestions of what it could be. I just want him to get better

The OP's Betta has excess mucous over its head, eyes and part of its body.

Fish naturally have a thin layer of mucous over their body to help prevent parasites getting at their skin and to help them slip through the water. When they are stressed by poor water quality, diseases, parasites or anything else, they produce more mucous and it appears as a cream, white or grey film over their body, head and eyes.

Make sure the water quality is good and the excess mucous should clear up by itself.

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The fish appears to have a small white fluffy patch on the body just above the anal fin. This looks like fungus and might be from moving the fish.

Fungus will need treating with an anti-fungus medication. Methylene Blue will normally treat fungus and salt should too. If you use salt then add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. See how it goes over the next 24 hours. If it doesn't improve them increase the salt so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level here for 2 weeks then do small daily water changes to dilute it.

If you do water changes while there is salt in the tank, you will need to add salt to the new water to keep the levels up.

Colin_T said:

The OP's Betta has excess mucous over its head, eyes and part of its body.

Fish naturally have a thin layer of mucous over their body to help prevent parasites getting at their skin and to help them slip through the water. When they are stressed by poor water quality, diseases, parasites or anything else, they produce more mucous and it appears as a cream, white or grey film over their body, head and eyes.

Make sure the water quality is good and the excess mucous should clear up by itself.

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The fish appears to have a small white fluffy patch on the body just above the anal fin. This looks like fungus and might be from moving the fish.

Fungus will need treating with an anti-fungus medication. Methylene Blue will normally treat fungus and salt should too. If you use salt then add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. See how it goes over the next 24 hours. If it doesn't improve them increase the salt so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level here for 2 weeks then do small daily water changes to dilute it.

If you do water changes while there is salt in the tank, you will need to add salt to the new water to keep the levels up.

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Ok thank you for the help. He is getting a cloudy layer over him so that is spot on. I'll do the salt and look into the blue stuff you mentioned. I still have a snail in with him at this point; i'm guessing I should move him out while doing the salt treatment?

snails are normally fine with the salt.

you should check the water quality tho because excess mucous is normally caused by poor water quality or something (like a chemical) in the water that is stressing the fish.

Colin_T said:

snails are normally fine with the salt.

you should check the water quality tho because excess mucous is normally caused by poor water quality or something (like a chemical) in the water that is stressing the fish.

Click to expand...

Ok I'll make sure to test it and dose with salt tomorrow. And ya the snail thing does make sense since their eggs can only hatch in salt water so theyd kinda have to be ok with it I guess aha

Some snail eggs hatch in salt water but most need freshwater. However, the salt levels mentioned above are fine for plants, snails, filter bacteria and fish. However, soft water fishes like Bettas, gouramis, tetras, angelfish, should not be exposed to salt for more than a couple of weeks at a time otherwise kidney damage can occur.

Colin_T said:

Some snail eggs hatch in salt water but most need freshwater. However, the salt levels mentioned above are fine for plants, snails, filter bacteria and fish. However, soft water fishes like Bettas, gouramis, tetras, andgelfish, should not be exposed to salt for more than a couple of weeks at a time otherwise kidney damage can occur.

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Gotcha ok I'll update soon with how he does with it/ if there are anymore complications. Thanks for the help through this

Ok so it's been a couple days since I first started the salt treatment. I wanted to see how he would do with the salt before I went to anything else. He seems to be responding to it really well. He is swimming about a lot more than he was though he still spends quite a lot of his time resting which I understand for his condition right now. But when I get up and get some light to his tank he wakes up and does his little squiggle dance at me which he used to not have enough energy to do. I think his coloring is coming back but his left eye is still foggy, the right one looks fine. The stuff on top of him is going down I think as well. He is eating, though, I have to wait until he is already at the top and hand pick small pieces of food so he can successfully eat it because if it is too difficult to get in his mouth, he gives up and drifts to the bottom gasping. Today, though, he has shown great improvement. His breathing isnt nearly as labored and he has eaten a pretty normal amount for the day (as little snacks whenever I check up on him). Please let me know what you think of these pictures and if I should keep doing what im doing or if I should add/change something.

If the fish appears to be improving then keep doing whatever you are doing.

I don’t think it’s ich
Tried the bacteria treatment?


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michaelgn said:

I don’t think it’s ich
Tried the bacteria treatment?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Ya it's not ich. I'm using aquarium salt to help with his other bacterial infection.

Ok so apparently him feeling better was only temporary because now he's back to his lethargic self. I have ordered methylene blue so that should be on its way but I'm just really worried about him. I did the two weeks of the smaller salt treatment and as I had said he was progressing but about a week in he started laying on the bottom more and more and now he barely even goes to the surface for air. I put food all around the top so that when he does go up for air he finds food but none of it is gone so I know he hasn't eaten. Is there anything I can do in the mean time while the medicine gets here? And when it does arrive does it have instructions or how do you think I should treat him? I'm starting to worry that the sudden dosage would shock him because of how weak he is. I'm going to also do as you recommended earlier and go buy some frozen blood worms and see if he is at all interested in those. I initially didn't get them because I only have one fish and they are typically big cubes so I was worried about how the left overs would store.

If the fish doesn't have any signs of disease, adding Methylene Blue might not help. If you do use Methylene Blue, treat the fish in a bare glass container with an airstone bubbling away. Do not add Methylene Blue to the main tank because it kills filter bacteria. It also stains silicon blue. Silicon is the glue that holds glass aquariums together.

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You don't want to leave food on the surface of the water otherwise it produces ammonia and that will stress or kill the fish. When you feed the fish you put some food in and let him eat whatever he can, then remove uneaten food so it doesn't rot and cause ammonia problems.

Frozen foods remain in the freezer and will last for months. You remove 1 block and defrost it and offer a few bits at a time. Let the fish eat as much as it can then remove uneaten food. Sometimes you can break or cut the blocks in half or quarters and leave most of it in the freeze to use next time.

One of the best foods for fish is raw or cooked prawn/ shrimp. You can buy them from a fishing store as bait, or from a supermarket as fresh prawns or even frozen. You get 1 prawn and remove the head, shell and gut (thin black tube in its body) and throw these bits away. Use a pr of scissors to cut the remaining prawn tail into little bits and offer 1 or 2 pieces at a time. Feed until the fish no longer eats and remove uneaten food.

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Make sure the water quality is good and do regular water changes. 90% of fish health issues are caused by poor water quality and dirty tanks.

Ill test the water tomorrow to see if anything is out of wack that could be causing this. Though at this point i'm doing 2 to 3 50% water changes a week so if it is at a bad spot i'm not exactly sure what else to do to fix it. I havent seen him move in a couple days but when I look at him every so often he'll be somewhere else in his tank or in a different position so i'm not sure how I'd get the food to him without it waiting for him at the top

Sometimes I have to put food in between tweezers and feed my old man betta. I put it right in front of his face.