Health Question - White Spot on Betta’s Head?

[kapsey]

Hello!

I’ve got a lovely Betta fish with a strange white spot on the side of his head. I’ve done my best to get photos, but fish are ever hard to photograph.

It popped up a month ago and I first thought it was Ich, so I treated the water with Seachem Paraguard for a bit. It faded, came back, faded again...

It hasn’t spread across his body or to the other fish, so I don’t think it’s Ich. He also isn’t behaving strangely at all.

I’m just wondering if anyone has an idea of what it is, and what, if anything, I should be doing to treat it?

 

[Yohance1130]

I got that same white spot on my betta's head also it seemed to fade and disappear and come back and then fade and disappear and come back. I heard that it is something that usually happens to older betta's, it never got transmitted to any of the fish in my tank and my betta never showed any symptoms of distress or discomfort. He was still eating and swimming around like he normally does. Im not really sure what it is tho. sorry!

 

[Abaddon]

It looks a bit like some kind of external parasite (like a louse, fluke or something), or a tumor, or possibly lymphocystis (no treatment for it, but usually not serious). But I'm not sure. The most important thing you should do is keep his water squeaky clean. You can also add some banana leaves/indian almond leaves to soften the water and reduce stress, and you can try a salt dip and perhaps some kind of broad spectrum antiparasitic if you think it might help. But I would be careful about overmedicating, as that can be very dangerous and stressful to the fish. Take it easy for the time being, if he's had it for that long without any other symptoms then he's not in any immediate danger from it.

 

[hurgerburger]

I remember something similar happened to my betta and I was completely freaked out, turned out I just had wacky water quality and there was a film on the top of my tank, so when he went up to take a breath of air he would get some on his head. it looked kind of flaky. If you can't see any film on the surface of your tank it's probably not that though

 

[kapsey]

I remember something similar happened to my betta and I was completely freaked out, turned out I just had wacky water quality and there was a film on the top of my tank, so when he went up to take a breath of air he would get some on his head. it looked kind of flaky. If you can't see any film on the surface of your tank it's probably not that though

I’m glad that’s all it was! It definitely isn’t flaky and there’s no film over the water in my tank, so it’s probably something else.

 

[kapsey]

It looks a bit like some kind of external parasite (like a louse, fluke or something), or a tumor, or possibly lymphocystis (no treatment for it, but usually not serious). But I'm not sure. The most important thing you should do is keep his water squeaky clean. You can also add some banana leaves/indian almond leaves to soften the water and reduce stress, and you can try a salt dip and perhaps some kind of broad spectrum antiparasitic if you think it might help. But I would be careful about overmedicating, as that can be very dangerous and stressful to the fish. Take it easy for the time being, if he's had it for that long without any other symptoms then he's not in any immediate danger from it.

Thanks for the advice! I did think it was a parasite at first, but there’s also 6 tetras in the tank with him, and I feel like it would have spread to them by now if that were the case.

 

[kapsey]

I got that same white spot on my betta's head also it seemed to fade and disappear and come back and then fade and disappear and come back. I heard that it is something that usually happens to older betta's, it never got transmitted to any of the fish in my tank and my betta never showed any symptoms of distress or discomfort. He was still eating and swimming around like he normally does. Im not really sure what it is tho. sorry!

Thanks for the info! I’m not sure how old he is, so I suppose that could be the reason. As long as it’s harmless, I’m not too worried.