BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Betta Fungus?

I just noticed that my Bettas here at work are acting a little strange. They are covered in some type of fungus or something...it almost looks like they have tons of tiny air bubbles on their scales or something, but I don't think it's ICK. it almost looks like they color is changing...Please any help on this would be appreciated. Thank you.

could you post a pic of the issue Jell ??

I don't know what it could be from your discription....You're sure it isn't ich ?

I would do a good tank cleaning. Put the betta in a cup and syphon out half the water from the top and set it aside...you'll put this water back in.

Dump what water is in there out and clean out the inside of the tank really good by wiping the sides and rinsing the gravel. Put it back together and put the water you set aside back in. Fill it up the rest of the way with fresh clean aged water...also add some conditioner/stress coat...the proper amount of the size tank you have.

Float your betta in it's cup in the tank for a bit and add a bit of the tank water to his cup a little at a time to acclimate him to the changes.

Keep an eye on them for a while and see how they do. You really don't want to treat them with any meds unless you're sure they have something..and what it is so that you can treat them with the proper stuff....sometimes just a good cleaning is enough to get them back on their 'fins' <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You might want to change half the water again the next day too...without taking the tank all apart...just syphoning out half and replacing it with clean aged water...treated with the conditioner/stresscoat.

Good luck Jell, hope it goes well for them ! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'll try that, but I do regular water changes for them...I'm not sure how much longer my red one will last. he's eating, but he's really just sitting in the tank...His eyes are almost all covered by this film or whatever it is...I have some quICK cure at home for my aquarium if it is ICK, but I know that when my fish had that at home, the white bumps were significantly larger...

Have you tried a google search for betta diseases? Sometimes you can find some nice pictures. Could it be velvet? That's similar to ich.

P.S. Take a look at this page, it isn't wonderful, but it may help... http://www.mushi.petfish.net/bettadisease.html

Hi Jell. How are your fish? I would follow Emg's excellent advice of clean water and stress coat. Maybe a tiny bit of salt to help make the water less hospitable to microorganisms and to improve gill function. Follow directions for the amount of salt on the box (it's aquarium salt, not table salt, from any pet shop).

I would hesitate before adding to many meds to their water, since that will just make it harder for them to breathe and might make things worse.

If things seem to be going badly and your bettas are suffering, you might consider a mercy death. A lot of us have used the freezer method that seems to be the most painless. let us know how it is going!

My fish both died, I'm not sure what was wrong with the one that had the "white coat" on him...the other one ended up committing suicide after he died, he jumped right out of the tank, and when I found him he was all dried up, but still a little alive! I tried to rescecitate him, but he died about an hour later...I have two new fish now, but my black one seems to have the same whiteish coat on him now...he just lays on the bottom of his tank until i feed him...I'll bring some of my aquarium salt from home and see if that helps, and also i'll do some research on the velvet disease that someone mentioned in one of the replies above...thanks everyone!

Jell, I am sorry to hear about your fish deaths. Poor little guys. I had a feeling they were not going to do so well.

If your new fish is sick, I would take him back to your LFS and get a credit or your money back. It sounds like the bettas they are selling are sick. Try going somewhere else. If fish are not shipped properly and handled correctly when they do come in, an entire batch of bettas will get the stress diseases of Ick and Velvet (that one is less common).