Is my betta sick?

Hi guys,

I'm new here but I'm worried about my betta fish. I got him a couple of months ago and all has been going well, but I noticed a white dot on his head and I'm having trouble identifying what it could be. Currently, I'm debating if it is Ich or Hole in the Head Disease or even just an open sore?

I have attached some pictures and I would love some advice. I'm new to fish keeping but I really care about my betta!

It's a small white dot and there is only one so far, there is some reflection on the glass in my photos and the dot isn't as white in the photos as it is in real life.

I'm open to all advice!

It is certainly plausible that it could be the beginnings of ich. ich in general can be first treated with just increasing the temperature of the tank, some people combine that with salt as well.

here are instructions for how to treat ich: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-is-ich.7092/post-3788879

here are instructions for how to use salt in your tank: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/white-bone-like-thing-on-my-fish-upper-lip.466287/post-3990556

If you are in the habit of weekly large water changes, do a 75% water change, gravel clean and wipe down the glass. this will get rid of as many ich spores (assuming it is ich) as possible from your tank. If you do not normally do large water changes, test for your nitrates, pH and (if possible) hardness of your tank water, and compare your pH and hardness to your tap water. As long as your nitrates are not very high and your pH and hardness are similar, you are ok to directly do a 75% water change. if the values are very different, then you will need to do three 20% water changes on three successive days (one per day).

The white mark on his head looks more like a missing/lifted scale than ich - that looks like grains of salt stuck to the fish and the white patch looks too big.
You can see the betta while we can only see photos. Does it look like a grain of salt or a missing scale?

If it is a missing scale, daily water changes for at least a week are the best treatment.


Is there any decor in the tank which he could have tried to squeeze through and ripped a scale off? Bettas are notorious for trying to squeeze through gaps which are too small, and as he's probably grown since you got him he now finds he can't fit in places where he could when you first got him.

Update:

It did look more like a missing scale than a grain of salt, so just in case I turned up the water temperature to 85 F and have increased my water changes. It took a couple of days but the white spot is gone!

@essjay I think you were right about the missing scale because his appetite never decreased and after the original appearance of the white spot, no more white spots appeared.

Thank you to everyone for your help, both my betta and I appreciate it!