Sunken betta eyes

[BettaMomma]

okay, so when I brought Harvey home, I thought he was simply adorable (and I still do). He is just a walmart veiltail, but I love him to bits.

He's always had an odd problem tho - his eyes have always been odd. They're very sunken into his head, and it looks like he's got light pinkish colored eyelids. They eyes look like the bottom half of them sinks into his head and the top part kinda sticks out with this "eyelid" looking thing at the top.

His eyeballs rotate around just like my other fishes' do, and he can see everything just fine. He makes bubble nests, eats and swims (and parcitularly flares at me) just fine.

I've had him for almost 4 months - I haven't noticed that his eyes have really sunken in anymore, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas - or if anything is wrong that I should treat him for it.

Thanks

 

[WILDER]

Take a look here.
Dropsy
Signs Of Infection
Sunken or protuding eyes and a characteristic pine cone appearance caused by the scales sticking out from a swollen body.
Fish Affected
All tropical aquarium fish can be affected particularly gouramis and Live-bearers.
Details Of Infection
Dropsy or Ascites as it is scientifically known is caused by a bacterial infection usually brought about by environmental factors.
Due to damaged heart and blood vessels, the body swells as fluid builds up in the abdomen and behind the eyes. This causes the scales to protrude like a pine cone. Sometimes scales will fall away and ulcers may appear.
Treatment
Commercial treatments are available and can be successful if used early. In my experience, by the time the disease is diagnosed, too much damage has been done to the internal organs of the fish for it to be saved. Treatment is always better carried out in a seperate hospital tank.
A preventative course of medication is often wise as other fish may be infected but may not yet show signs of the disease. In any case, address any poor water quality or filter maintenance issues.
Dead fish should be removed from the aquarium quickly to prevent transmission of the infection via cannibalism.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay - well here's the thing.
He's in a 2.5 gallon tank, alone, his temp generally fluctuates a bit between 74 - 78 degrees, depending on the season. The whole swollen head thing makes sense - that's what it looks like, but otherwise he's completely happy & healthy, makes bubble nests on occasion also. He has no scales sticking out, he flares all the time, etc...

I change out his water 100% about every 5 - 6 days. I've been throwing in some MelaFix every day, but I personally feel like that stuff doesn't do anything.

Do you think I should go ahead and run a course of treatment for dropsy anyway?
I might throw in some Maracyn Two, just because his tail has always been in a bad way - it's a bit frayed at the ends, but seems overall happy, so I could treat him for dropsy and tailrot at the same time.?

I'd really like to get him to complete health so I might try this treatment starting this evening.
Think this is a good course of action??

 

[WILDER]

I would to be on the safe side with have the sunken eyes, maracyn 2 should be fine, good luck.

 

[BettaMomma]

I will start it this evening after his scheduled water change

How about some salt?
I've never used salt with my fishes - is that a good thing to get him on during this treatment, also??

 

[WILDER]

Yes you can use the salt it helps with some meds they tell you to add it .

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay, I'll give it a try.
I'm sure Harv will love it.

thanks!

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, I just dropped the first dose of Maracyn Two into Harvey's tank.
Wish me luck

 

[WILDER]

Fingers crossed. X

 

[Raechal]

My bronze cory had sunken eyes as well...he developed them after I added some new gravel I bought from walmart. He died the next day. I didn't have time to go to the store and get him some meds. I also couln't add salt because he is a cory. I really hope your betta pulls through. I am sure he will because he is eating, swimming, making bubble nests, and flaring. My cory layed against a log and was barely breathing. He didn't eat and didn't swim.

-crosses fingers for your pretty betta-

 

[Synirr]

One of my bettas has the opposite problem... he looks bug-eyed
He doesn't have pop-eye though, I assure you... otherwise he would have had a case of pop-eye that hasn't gotten any better or worse in 6 months *lol*

Sometimes you find a betta with... uh... "character"
So if treatment doesn't do anything for your guy, don't sweat it... that may just be the way he is

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, it seems as if I have 3 "special" bettas. (I only have 3 bettas, what luck! LOL)

ANYHOW...
here's the synopsis of my boys...
Harvey's had sunken eyes for months now
Amos has a problem flaring - when he flares, both sides of the red stuff comes on out, but only one side will stick out
Archie has a batman-mask type of coloring.

Wow, how lucky can a mom be.

ANYWAY, back to the problem at hand...
I started the Maracyn 2 treatment 2 days ago for the eyes, and now I have also noticed that he's getting black ridges along his tail. His tail had been deteriorating for quite a while - I did water changes every 5 days, religiously - and I tried MelaFix but that did NOTHING (blech to that stuff for finrot). SO - I guess it's a good thing that I started treatment, hopefully this will get his tail better, and if they eyes don't change I guess I'll just assume I have a "special" eyeball betta.

I'm also suspecting that his little tank heater hasn't been working properly cuz his tank sits at about 74 degrees. Archie's tank in the same room is at 78 degrees, same size (well 2 vs 2.5 gallon) and they have the same heater. I"m going to pay a visit to PetWorld (yay.) today and get another heater for him. (I HATE going there cuz I always drag some droopy poor little fish that needs TLC home with me every time I go)

Anyhow, I changed out both his and Archie's water - does anyone know if I should just skip water changes while medicating with Maracyn Two? (ARchie's getting Maracyn just for fin rot)... Anyone??

 

[Raechal]

My betta had fin rot as well but it was cured by melafix. After his tail healed he grew black around the ends of his tail. I think it looks beautiful and he is perfectly healthy. Well I don't know if sucking up too many bloodworms in one swallow is healthy, but besides that he is perfectly fine. One time he ate about 3 dried bloodworms in one bite he started flaring really bad like he was choking. After a couple of seconds of flaring he got them down and swam back up to the top to eat some more.

 

[BettaMomma]

I have to feel all my bettas one pellet and one blood worm at a time. They'll swim around the top just inhaling anything that's up there in one big swoop.

Now, for the MelaFix... how big of a tank did you have and how much MF did you put in? That stuff seemed like it did NOTHING for any of my boys' finrot...

 

[BettaMomma]

-sigh-
I was staring at Harvey tonight and now it looks like he's got a big ol' patch on his side where he's lost his color, or it's pinkish - I can't really tell cuz his normal color is kinda pineappley/skin tone. I can't really tell if it's new or what the deal is. He's got so many colors going on all over that I can't keep up with him.

It looks like his raggedy fins are actually getting worse, although with the Maracyn Two treatment going on day 4 (tomorrow) I'd expected to start seeing some improvement in his tail. I'll treat again if I have to, I guess.

I'm going to do 100% water changes every other day, unless someone thinks that's not a good idea during treatment.

He's in very good spirits - I actually got him his own tank hood with a real light in it (not a makeshift hood/light combo that he had to share with Archie til today) and he seems to LOVE it. He's a showoff - he goes nuts for me when the light's on and I'm staring in. He flares and flaunts everywhere.

I have NOT however noticed a bubblenest for a few days. Anything else I should be doing? I want him to get back to the happy feisty healthy boy he was a few weeks after I brought him home.

I also don't understand how he got this way - his water's nice and warm, I always do water changes every 5 days and there's never ANY food that gets past that boy to muss up his tank.