BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Another Sick Betta

I think my betta fish is sick, I found your forums after doing a google search for fish care, I've read through some of the posts here about sick fish, and I don't know what to do exactly yet.

My betta fish, Professor Chaos, has lost color all over and the area under his mouth to his front fins has turned gray. He seems to lurk at the bottom of the bowl, hiding in his fake plant more than he used to. He does come out and swim around to get air, but he stays at the bottom the rest of the time unless I wave my fingers near the bowl.

I live in a college dormitory, and am not allowed to have an aquarium, so he lives in a bowl, I don't know how big but I have a picture (from before he was sick).

I don't heat the bowl because the radiators in my building are always on, and it's extremely hot here in the winter. I also don't know if I can heat such a small bowl anyways. I've been buying bottled spring water for his bowl, but I haven't put anything other than water in it.I change the water about every 1 and 1/2 weeks. I've been feeding him about 6 pellets a day of hikari betta gold, 2 pellets at a time. When I called Petco they said that I should put dechlorination stuff in the water, even though I'm using bottled. Could that be the culprit?

Addendum: I changed the water completely and he seems more lively, but the gray around the face is troubling. I looked up ich, and the pictures of that seemed to be more spread out than around the face, and it doesn't seem to be in little spots of colonies like bacterial infection pictures. I couldn't get a good picture of Professor Chaos because he keeps hiding in the plant when the flash goes off. I didn't notice it before, because I didn't realize it didn't always look like this, his little front fins which are blue in the above picture, are now clear.

I added a 1/2 a teaspoon of aquarium salt and some drops of betta fix, I also moved his bowl to be under a desk lamp, I hope that these things will help to improve his condition.

My betta has the same problem...gray on his head and under his mouth. The rest of his color looks good though. He swims around like normal and is eating. I'm worried about the gray though. I can't find anything on-line about how to treat it though...

I found this link that helped me diagnosing my betta, it has pictures:BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Well, today my betta looks like he has a little bit of fin rot to go along with his other problem. I talked to the lady at PetCo today and she said that the gray stuff is probably the same stuff that is causing the fin rot. I got some Malachite Green to treat him with. It says I should see improvement in 48 hours. We'll see.

Good luck! I hope your betta gets better!

Ok I hope I can help you two out. First of all...
DO NOT use bottled drinking water for your beta. It has been de-ionized and can do more harm than good.
Do Move your beta out from under the lamp - they hate bright direct light.
DO get a therometer for your bowl- a small adhesive one will do that you can stick to the side. Dorm rooms are usually very warm and should be heated more than enough for a beta.

As far as the ailment, I know esactly what you are describing. As my first beta aged he developed the same blotch of gray by his face/mouth. It did not go away but was simply a sign of aging. I would keep up with the water changes you are doing and using aquarium salts. The lamp could be a reason why he is hiding more, my beta also does this if the water temperature is either too cold or too hot. The best temperature range is 72-78 degrees F. More than that stable tempeature is the key.

For fin and tail rot you are going to do pretty much what you are already doing, a water change and keeping aquarium salts in the water. Before you do a water change though make sure you are finished with any medication cycles you are currently treating him with - since it will mess up the treatment. If you end up needing a medication for the fin and tail rot I recomend Mardel's TriSulfa.

If other symptoms arise please let us know and we will let you know what we can. I hoped this helped.

Fantails and Betas

Thanks, he seems much better now that I've been changing the water more frequently. I've been putting aquari-sol in his bowl because I think he had velvet. People on another fish forum said that I should just put one drop of it in his bowl every time I change the water. As for the lamp, it's actually a desk lamp with a glass shade, and I push the shade down so the light is not directly on his bowl, but behind it, it still warms it up and he seems very happy. Thanks for the advice about heat though, I'll try keeping the lamp off to see if he's just as active. I did read elsewhere that bottled water was bad, I've been changing it with dechlorinated tap water since I posted that. Professor Chaos has since spread his tail fins out and started making bubble nests. I am glad to hear that the gray coloring on the face could just be age, as it doesn't seem to be going away. ^_^ Thanks for your response!

Thanks for the advise. It turned out that my betta also had velvet. It became pretty obvious the day after the last message that I posted. I switched to Coppersafe to treat him for that and he is almost back to normal now. He still has a little bit of the parasite visible on him but he built a huge bubble nest a couple of days ago, so I think he must be feeling better now. His fins are looking better too. The black is gone from the ends of them and the fin rot seems to be gone. I think the velvet should be cleared up in another couple of days.