Brown spots on head and back????

[Ann from Vermont]

I got a betta several weeks ago. He's been alone in a 10 gallon tank. Last week I got a couple of oto catfish for the tank. A few days ago I noticed a brown spot on his back......not bloody...just kinda looks like a bald spot. Today I see two more on his back...so I guess he has some kind of fish disease. Anyone know what it is or what I should do to treat it??
Ann frm Vermont

 

[RandomWiktor]

Is it raw? It could be a sore of some sort, perhaps something the catties gave him. Or, he could be suffering from some kind of parasite, though the coloration sounds odd.

Any possibility of pictures so the folks here could better assess the situation?

 

[BettaMomma]

Due to the coloration, i'd have to say he's suffering from the "those darn catfish are biting me" disease.

Is it possible for you to get him quarantined for a week or 2 in his own tank, get him some MelaFix and see if he starts to heal up?

How about his fins? Is he clamping them? Is he hiding, or doing anything else unusual??

 

[Ann from Vermont]

It does'nt look raw and it is certainly causing him no pain. He is acting perfectly normal and eating well. They are just brown spots...as opposed to his normal coloring. No one has been nipping at his fins. I could take him out and put him in a " bowl "...away from the cat fish. He did not have this before I added the cat fish, but they really don't look raw, like in a fight. I suppose I could catch the cat fish ( although they are fast ) and put tem in my 125 gallon, and see how the beta does alone. what do you think??

 

[BettaMomma]

The only other thing I can really think of is that (because catfish are somewhat psychotic ) they might be startling the bajeezus out of him, and this could cause him to go crashing into things. But that sounds kind of silly.

Can you post pics of it at all??

 

[Ann from Vermont]

We recently got a digital camera, but haven't gotten to the stage of figuring out how to download pictures, or else I would post a picture. He is still acting fine and eating well. I do have some petrified wood in his tank. Maybe he is bumping into stuff. I'll try rearranging his tank. If it ever stops snowing today, I'm going into the town where the fish store is. I'll see if they have any ideas. I've been reading all the articles on deseases that bettas can get, and this doesn't look like any of them.Thanks.
Ann from Vermont

 

[WILDER]

Brown spots can be a parasite is he flicking and rubbing against objects.

 

[WILDER]

vulifer ambloplitis (Black spot disease)



A. Digenetic fluke; metacercaria infect fish.



B. Herons and kingfishers are the definitive host, snails are the first intermediate host. Fish are the second intermediate host.



C. Clinically the fish have numerous black to brown spots up to 1 mm (dia) over the skin, gills and eyes. The spots contain a metacercaria surrounded by heavily pigmented fibrous connective tissue.

 

[SRC]

do they look like this?

Have they always been there or did they just pop up?

My Han has brown spots on his head, they show up more when he is "excited" and flaring, but are always present.




I doubt seriously the Otto cats did anything..as they are algea eaters only.

 

[Ann from Vermont]

SRC, Thanks for posting the picture. The spots on my betta are not on the side of his face. He has one on the top of his head, and the other one is on the very top of his back, just in front of his fin. I don't remember seeing them before last week. However he hasn't gotten anymore and they haven't grown at all.

Wilder, I looked up uvulifer ambloplitis on google. They also refer to it as black spot flatworm and say that it is a parasite. However I could find no articles that talked about this being a betta desease. However, if these spots start to get worse or cause him any problems, I'll certainly see if I can find a treatment for parasites. Thanks for your help.

I did learn one thing about bettas when I was at the LFS yesterday.( This is my first betta and I got him at Petco not my LFS ). The food Petco sold me for him says Betta food on the front of the package and that is all that it says. In the reading that I have done about bettas the past week, it sounds like Betta Bio-Gold by Hikari is the best food...so I bought some of that yesterday. The guy at the LFS also carried the stuff that I had bought at Petco, and he said that that food was freeze dried bloodworms and should only be fed as a treat every few days. The first couple of times that I fed him the Hikari pellets, he would eat them and then spit them out, but today I guess he is finally hungary enough, that he ate them. Could feeding him a diet of straight blood worms for several weeks have caused a problem ( besides a very spoiled betta? )

Ann from Vermont

 

[veen]

2 of my male bettas took about a week or so to get used to the hikari bio pellets after bringing them home from petsmart & the lfs. they would just look at them in a disgusted manner, sometimes even spitting them out after putting them in their mouths. but now that they've been in their divided tank for awhile they love their bio gold pellets! i don't feed them any other kind of food aside from treats like brine shrimp. my female on the other hand will not eat the pellets at all. she had lived on flakes & brine shrimp too long before i bought the pellets, so has no desire to eat them. but she's healthy so i see no reason to change her food.