Slime coat or something else?

[ctmcquoid2016]

Ok so we had an emergency heater issue and had to move our female Betta into our new plant tank.
Everything was fine for a few days except now, she has this weird slimey coat coming off of her. Is she blowing her coat or is it something different???

 

[Jessie J.]

It looks like some sort of fungus or infection on her fins. Has she had any fin-picking incidents lately?

 

[Colin_T]

How long has the new tank been set up for?
Has it been cycled to get the filters established?

Have you checked the water quality for ammonia, nitrite & pH in the new tank?
If yes, what were the results in numbers?

Can you post another picture of the fish showing a side view?
The current pictures are from the head towards the tail and I just want to see the fish from the side.

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The first image (89550) looks like excess mucous but the second image (89551) looks like fungus.

Excess mucous is usually caused by poor water quality.
White fluffy Fungus grows where there is damage to the fish, usually caused by fighting or rough handling.

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

It isn’t a fully established tank unfortunately, we didn’t have another tank to put her in with a heater at the time. It’s been set up for a few weeks and has about 15 Amano Shrimp, 5 Nerite snails rand plants. We would have put her in the community tank but it’s full, and the other option has aggressive fish!

We are doing a water test today, but the last test brought about normal numbers. She’s worse today. The image is quite blurry as this page doesn’t allow very simple images from my phone. I have to resize it. You can see the slime/fur is all around her tail and midsection.

She can barely swim. Mainly floats and shakes her head. I feel awful, but it’s probably because of the temperature changes between tanks since she was in a holding tank without a heater for a day, and that day got really cold! So we immediately moved her thinking that would have been better

 

[Colin_T]

I can't tell anything from the picture. If you set the camera resolution to the lowest setting, the images will be smaller and might fit.

You can try a broad spectrum fish medication that treats fungus, bacteria & protozoan infections, or just a fungal remedy.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter before treating. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

I’ve put her in a separate tank again for now, with some stress coat, a little epsom salt and the Betta fix.. that’s all we have at home for now.

 

[Colin_T]

Bettafix contains tea tree oil and can cause problems to labyrinth fishes if it leaves an oily film on the surface.

Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) won't help if it's fungus.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt 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, 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 or plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

Hopefully this image is a better quality. I feel awful for her as this happened so quickly

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

Bettafix contains tea tree oil and can cause problems to labyrinth fishes if it leaves an oily film on the surface.

Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) won't help if it's fungus.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt 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, 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 or plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

Ok. We will have to put a tiny heater in this little hospital tank we created for her. I’ll find salt and begin that process. Thank you for your information and help

 

[Colin_T]

It is fungus so get salt in the tank asap. I would use the maximum dose of salt now (2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres), and get some fungus treatment if there is no improvement after 24 hours. You can use salt with the fungus remedy.

 

[ctmcquoid2016]

Thank you thank you. We will get on it today.