Please help my Betta!

No one can tell me what is wrong with my Betta. The white/grey growth has gotten larger over about the past month. He is NOT lethargic and has no loss of appetite. Here is some additional info:


Housing:

How many gallons is your tank? 2.5 gal

Does it have a filter? Yes. Aqueon Minibow filter

Does it have a heater? Yes

What temperature is your tank? 78-80

Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?

Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? No



Food:

What food brand do you use? Omega One Whole Frozen Brine Shrimp

Do you feed flakes or pellets? Neither. From day 1, Buddy would get sick from pellets, etc. He became lethargic and bloated and would float at top of tank on his side. Moved him to a hospital tank a couple times , tried frozen peas, and eventually tried brine shrimp. He became better immediately and since then is only good he can tolerate.

Freeze-dried? N/a

How often do you feed your Betta? How much? Once every 2 days. A pinch of frozen brine.



Maintenance:

Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? Once a week.

What percentage of water did you change? 50-75%

What is the source of your water? Tap

Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Dip out.

What additives do you use? What brand of conditioner? Aqueon water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.5
Hardness (GH): 180
Alkalinity (KH): 80

Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? Slight change in color on tail about 3 months ago.

How has your Betta’s appearance changed? Tail only.

How has your Betta’s behavior changed? No

Is your Betta still eating? Yes

Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Yes. Tried API Fungus Cure 2 weeks ago. API Betta Fix last week.

Does your Betta have any history of being ill? Yes. See dietary issues above.

How long have you owned your Betta? 1.5 years.

Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? Maybe? See dietary issues above

Ouch, that looks nasty! Do you have a reading for ammonia? It's strange that nitrAtes are at 0, there should be some sort of nitrAte level in a cycled tank, and you've had him for 1.5 years, so tank is surely cycled. What process do you follow when you clean his filter?

That also doesn't look or sound like ammonia burns either though.

Would you be able to answer those questions, and also include a photo of your whole tank, and a photo of your betta while he's swimming so we can see the rest of him please?

@Colin_T, hope you don't mind me tagging you, have seen others tag you for questions about illness and disease before, and I'm not sure what's going on for this poor fish either, but it looks bad.

Edit because lazily typing when tired makes it easy to write nitrites when you mean nitrates, and make yourself look daft.

Wait, does his heater have a guard on it? It looks like a burn, wonder whether he's been resting on the heater, and done this.

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of tank water. Keep salt in there for 2-4 weeks.

When you do water changes, add salt to the new water before it's added to the tank so the salinity in the aquariums remains stable.

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The reason the fish floats when it eats dry pellets is due to the air in the food. It causes the fish to float until the air is farted out.

I would also vacuum the substrate. Just removing water does not get rid of the decomposing stuff in the gravel, which can be a breeding ground for 'nasties'.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Ouch, that looks nasty! Do you have a reading for ammonia? It's strange that nitrites are at 0, there should be some sort of nitrite level in a cycled tank, and you've had him for 1.5 years, so tank is surely cycled. What process do you follow when you clean his filter?

Click to expand...

Have you typed nitrite instead of nitrate
Nitrite should always be zero in a cycled tank. it is possible to have zero nitrate if the source water has zero nitrate and the tank is heavily planted.

essjay said:

I would also vacuum the substrate. Just removing water does not get rid of the decomposing stuff in the gravel, which can be a breeding ground for 'nasties'.





Have you typed nitrite instead of nitrate
Nitrite should always be zero in a cycled tank. it is possible to have zero nitrate if the source water has zero nitrate and the tank is heavily planted.

Click to expand...

Dammit, you're right! I do know the difference, I promise! Just lazy typing and typed the wrong word... oops!

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Ouch, that looks nasty! Do you have a reading for ammonia? It's strange that nitrAtes are at 0, there should be some sort of nitrAte level in a cycled tank, and you've had him for 1.5 years, so tank is surely cycled. What process do you follow when you clean his filter?

That also doesn't look or sound like ammonia burns either though.

Would you be able to answer those questions, and also include a photo of your whole tank, and a photo of your betta while he's swimming so we can see the rest of him please?

@Colin_T, hope you don't mind me tagging you, have seen others tag you for questions about illness and disease before, and I'm not sure what's going on for this poor fish either, but it looks bad.

Edit because lazily typing when tired makes it easy to write nitrites when you mean nitrates, and make yourself look daft.

Click to expand...

Here are a few more pictures. The water looks a bit discolored because I used API Fungus Treatment last week and have been doing 25% water changes since Tuesday.