Is this white mark on her cheek normal?

[Graciee]

Hi there, just wondered if my new fish is okay, I noticed this mark on her cheek and I wasn't sure if it was okay or not? My first fish so I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, but I don't remember it being there a few days ago.

Thanks

 

[Endlersendlers]

It looks to me like something to be addressed but I don’t know what it is. Hopefully my answering will bump this up so someone more knowledgeable can answer that question. It looks inflamed around it too.

 

[Colin_T]

Hard to tell but possibly fungus on a damaged gill cover. Clean water and salt should fix it.

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

--------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[Endlersendlers]

Thanks Colin.

 

[Graciee]

Thanks Colin.

Thanks for bumping it up

 

[Graciee]

Hard to tell but possibly fungus on a damaged gill cover. Clean water and salt should fix it.

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

--------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Hi there thank you so much for this info. I added the salt like you suggested, I added more today though, and she jumped out of the tank a few hours later. She's back in now and seems okay, but will have to keep an eye. Do you reckon it's the salt that caused this or just a fluke? It's a very small gap where I feed her and she does jump at the water when I feed her, but never out the tank!
Tbh the marks don't seem to have improved yet and next weekend I'll start the removing the salt slowly process.

I checked all the water parameters after she jumped out, ammonia and nitrites were 0 ppm but nitrates were the one above maybe it was 20? I can't remember without looking. The only other thing is the water temperature was hotter than usual I have the heater set to 24.5, but it was hotter than that in my house and water temperature was apparently 27, could that make her want to get out?

I feel like I'm missing something!

 

[Colin_T]

A temperature of 27C is fine for Bettas.

Salt shouldn't make them jump out unless you add a heap suddenly, then they sometime panic and jump but it's not normal.

If the white mark hasn't changed, post more pictures.

 

[Graciee]

I've been trying to get a good picture but she was always very fast. Unfortunately I think she's dying, she's at the top of the tank and looks a little bloated? I don't think I've overfed her tho, I only feed a few of her pellet things twice a day, coz I was always worried about over doing it. Anyway she's not swimming around and just looks bad tbh I feel so bad for her I wish I could do something, I'm guessing there's nothing tho?

Maybe the salt has been in too long I was gunna start removing it this weekend. I tested the water and there's 0 ammonia and nitrites.

This has not been a good start to fish, I was sold a male and a female together, the male I quickly moved to a new tank which wasn't cycled so I've been using prime and just managing that and I left her in the cycled tank and now she's dying

If she dies, do I still need to remove the salt slowly? I have 8 amano shrimp in there, Idk if they'd be sensitive to bigger changes or not.

 

[Colin_T]

What's the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water?

Can you get a 1 minute video of the fish?
Upload the video to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't leave black bars on each side.

Are the scales sticking out around the belly?
What does the fish's poop look like?

 

[Graciee]

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrites is either 0 or 20 maybe it's basically colourless but looks a tiny bit more pink on the strip. The api test tube comes back yellow tho which is 0ppm.
Ph is 8

Ill try get a video, but this is a picture, she doesn't move from this spot.

I cant really tell about the scales tbh. But her belly looks larger than usual I think.

Got to be honest I've never really seen her poop? Not seen any of the fish poop only the shrimp.

 

[Graciee]

Here you go, sorry its not the best quality, she's in a hard to see corner because my thermometer is stuck on the outside there


I did actually forget to feed her breakfast this morning, but I assume that won't be the issue.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

I mean she is moving, I have defiantly seen much worse for sure. I wouldn’t worry that you didn’t feed her this morning. To me she looks a bit bloated, I could be wrong but a day or 2 without feeding her might help the bloating. See what Colin_T says though too.

 

[Graciee]

Yea she doesn't move from that area at all though, this morning she was swimming like normal I thought, I've never missed a meal before for her, she always gets so excited for food. But I did this morning was in a rush to get out the door with my toddler and dog

But again I can't imagine one meal missed would cause this, she ate a normal amount last night for dinner and was doing her usual eager behaviour.

Yea hopefully Colin will have some idea, I definitely think she looks bloated. I just really hope she doesn't die my daughter is so in love with her the fish normally follows her finger about.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Yea she doesn't move from that area at all though, this morning she was swimming like normal I thought, I've never missed a meal before for her, she always gets so excited for food. But I did this morning was in a rush to get out the door with my toddler and dog

But again I can't imagine one meal missed would cause this, she ate a normal amount last night for dinner and was doing her usual eager behaviour.

Yea hopefully Colin will have some idea, I definitely think she looks bloated. I just really hope she doesn't die my daughter is so in love with her the fish normally follows her finger about.

I hope it turns out well too, it’s so sweet how kids always form such special bonds with pets.

 

[Graciee]

Thank you, me too, just got a really bad feeling about it when I'm looking at her