Help Siamese Fighter Has Strange Whiteness On Scales And Partial Loss

[wetfish]

can anyone advise me. my fighter has, in the last two days, had a strange looking white patch on his scales next to his tail fin(not on the fin) also his dorsal is half missing. is it fin rot? does fin rot affect scales? please help!! 
i would upload photos but i cant seem to get the files small enough
many thanks

 

[KrystaK]

It sounds to me as if, unfortunately your poor Betta has multiple illnesses.
How big of a tank is he kept in? Does it have a filter and heater? Do you change the water weekly - if so, how much water do you change? Do you put any chemicals in your water like dechlorinator? How long have you had the tank?
 
If his dorsal fin is gone that is fin rot, it's a bacterial infection brought on by poor water conditions and stress to the fish. The best thing to cure this is to keep his water clean. So do a large water change when you get the chance.
 
The other illness isn't as clear to me. Does it look cottony like a fungus??
 
My suggestion is get a picture, quickly make an account on a website called Photobucket, there you can upload the picture and take it's IMG code (Looks like [IMG*]...blah..blah...[*/IMG]  And paste it here and hopefully we can identify it for you and help you get your fish better :0
 
By the way, welcome to the forum.

 

[the_lock_man]

So do a large water change when you get the chance.

And then keep doing them until you see an improvement.

 

[wetfish]

Hi thanks for your replies. I do a 10 - 15 % water change every week without fail, using tap safe on the water thats put back in. The tank is heated and filtered, 48 litres and four months old with java fern and bogwood. I added two bristle nose catfish/plecos (still unsure on the name) about a month ago. All the fish in the tank are fine and dandy and its only big red whose having these issues. 
I dont know if its related,i hope not, but i have four yoyo`s and yesterday two of them were kind of thrashing abit in the substrate against each other for about 30 seconds. they lost thier reticulation and went totally silver. within a matter of minutes the colour returned and all was well. was that maybe some kind of mating thing maybe?
I`ll get pics up asap
thanks again

 

[wetfish]

 

[the_lock_man]

I'd be interested to see a current set of water stats, for 2 reasons.
 
1) 15% water change is prehaps a little on the low side. You may well find that your nitrates are building up to a high level, especially as.....
2) Plecs are a fish with a relatively high bioload for its size. You might well find that the ammonia they produce is overloading your filter (48l is very small for plecs). Even if the ammonia and nitrite is being processed, you'll be getting relatively high levels of nitrate as a consequence.
 
An awful lot of fishy illness is caused by water quality issues. Could you do a test now, and post up the results (ammo, nitrite, nitrate and pH).

 

[wetfish]

Hi . Thanks for that. I read more than a 15% water change too regularly will cause the tank bio to go awry,is that not right?
I am currently in the process of sourcing a bigger tank and sort of just gettin by until I get one. The filter has been filling up awful quick since the plecos came along so i`ll keep an eye on that. I can only give a PH reading for now until I do my next change(friday) as i`m abit over zealous with my strips and need more! The PH is 6.9 

 

[phoenixgsd]

strips are not reliable, i would invest in a liquid based test kit, at least you'll know what your dealing with, changing more than 15% of water regulary wont harm the media as long as you dechlorinate the new water going in first,

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi . Thanks for that. I read more than a 15% water change too regularly will cause the tank bio to go awry,is that not right?
I am currently in the process of sourcing a bigger tank and sort of just gettin by until I get one. The filter has been filling up awful quick since the plecos came along so i`ll keep an eye on that. I can only give a PH reading for now until I do my next change(friday) as i`m abit over zealous with my strips and need more! The PH is 6.9 

Yeah, sorry, you read wrong. I do 30% weekly on my tanks, others, I know, do more, but, hey I'm just lazy.
 
As the good lady Phoenix just said, test strips are somewhat unreliable, I strongly suggest you invest in liquid-based tests. I personally use the Salifert range, and have previously used the Nutrafin ones, but they can be a bit pricey. Many people on here recommend and use the API kits.

 

[Wildbetta]

 First problem I see is that you added 2 plecos(even if they are the smaller BN) to your tank which is only 48L / 12 Gallons. That is way to small a tank for even 1 pleco by itself.  They need a 20 Gallon long/ 75+ L tank for one BN pleco. 
 
You technically can never change too much water.  In nature, water is constantly being changed.  As long as you add declorinator and do not change all your filter media at once or scrub the whole tank, water changes actually help your tank out the most.  With all my tanks, I do 25-50% water changes weekly even though most of my tanks can go longer without a water change BUT I do not like leaving them for longer than a week.
 
You really need to get a liquid test kit.  The paper strip tests are notoriously unreliable.
 
Your photos are a bit small so it is hard for me to really get an idea of the nature of the scale problem he is suffering from but he definately has some fin rot issues.  I am positive that it is due to water quality issues in your tank. 
 
 

I am currently in the process of sourcing a bigger tank and sort of just gettin by until I get one

 
This statement bothers me because you really need to research any fish before buying it.  Always make sure that the size of your tank will fit the fish full grown and that the fish will work out with the current fish you have.
 
One last thing--are your loaches in a different tank?  The behavior that you are describing sounds pretty normal for them.

 

[wetfish]

Hi there, thanks for that! I have an API liquid test set coming this week and a bigger tank is imminent.... Surely everyone has to start from somewhere and mistakes are inevitable. I think i`ve done pretty well considering i`m a complete fish keeping virgin, I havent lost any fish in 5 months and my tank doesnt stink.Big red obviously has his issues but i`ll get him fixed up asap and thankfully he doesnt look agitated or uncomfortable. Yes my loaches are in the same tank and they`re rocking out hard and loving every minute. As I said before I am on the road to bigger tanksville and am aware now that I need to research alot more. also I have been cleaning my filter every two weeks but properly cleaning it, i realise thats a total faux pas

 

[the_lock_man]

Surely everyone has to start from somewhere and mistakes are inevitable.

 
Definitely!