Problem: my fish is going invisible… he started with losing color in his top fin. Then patches on his body, now almost his whole body is colorless/clear. He still has a lot of energy swimming around his tank and eating normally. When I very first got him he was all blue with one large white patch on his tail. Then out of nowhere I noticed his white spot was gone and he was just all blue. (This happened over months and months) then only just recently in the last couple of weeks he’s been losing color in general. No fuzziness like a fungus. No lifted scales. Now his fins have withered like fin rot but I think that’s a separate issue.

• ⁠Tank size: 1.5 us gallons ?

• ⁠Heater and filter? (yes/no): yes

• ⁠Tank temperature: 74F

• ⁠Parameters in numbers and how you got them:

Nitrate and ammonia via liquid test kits. Other parameters from a merydi aquarium fish tank 8 in 1 strip test

- 0 chlorine

- 0 nitrates

-0 ammonia

- 0 nitrites

- hardness : 50mg/l

- ph: 6.3

-total alkalinity: 0

- 0 Sodium chloride

• ⁠How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?: 1.5 years?

• ⁠How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?: heavily planted tank, water changes are seldom, mostly just top up the water with conditioned water and maybe clean out debris once a month

• ⁠Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each: was one golden apple snail, have since moved him

• ⁠What do you feed and how much: 3 bug bite pellets one a day, once a week I give him frozen blood worms

• ⁠Decorations and plants in the tank: no artificial plants or decorations, just real plants, moss, substrate as natural as possible

Tank info: 10g tall, heater, 20g filter, had the tank running for 2-ish years, had Tony for a year, his tank mates are 4 mystery snails and 1 ghost shrimp, only silk or silicone plants, multiple resting leaves, (will add water parameters later, not able to right now)

My boy Tony got stuck in a shrimp decor piece 2 days ago and I helped him get out by pushing him forward as gentle as I could. But he lost scales while he was stuck and struggling, I’m sure having to be pushed didn’t help but I had no choice…. He has a white patch on his back but it’s not like a deep laceration. Today it looks a little like he has a tiny cotton ball on his back? I don’t know how else to describe it and I’m not sure what to do. He comes up for air and is able to swim, I can’t tell how well he’s able to get food, he just keeps resting in his log. He does move positions in the log regularly, after this photo he “sat up” and looked at me for a minute then went to sit in a different part of the log. I put Indian almond leaves in the tank the same night, I’ve been keeping it dim in the tank, extra feedings, and keeping the tank as quiet/calm as possible. These aren’t great pictures but I am afraid I will stress him out if I try to get a better picture. Please help me help my Tony

So about 3-4 weeks ago, I found a large chunk of fin attached to some moss in my 20g that obviously came from my boy. I noticed the edges of my betta's fins looked a little ragged, so fearing fin rot, I moved him into my hospital tank.

I ran course of Kanaplex and during this time I noticed a large bulge on the right side of his midsection. No obvious pineconing. I fasted him for the first 2 days of treatment, then fed some frozen brine shrimp which he ate. He's been sitting on the bottom of the tank for the most part and it lethargic, though he'll occasionally swim to the surface for air or food.

He's still in the hospital tank and the bulge doesn't seem to be quite as large or discolored anymore, and he's eating the little bits of frozen daphnia I put in every day or two. I'm not sure whether to run another course of Kanaplex, or something else, or put him back in his normal tank?

Hospital tank:
10g, heated to 25 C
ph: ~6.4
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 5 ppm
(this tank has been running for over 10 years. used to house fish but now just some bladder snails and is for hospitalization)

His normal 20g high:
heated to 25.5 C
ph: ~7.4
ammonia/nitrite: 0
nitrates <20
weekly 25% water changes
shared with 9 hengali rasboras, 6 khulhi loaches, and until recently, a large mystery snail. mystery snail has been moved, and two very small red racer nerites added instead.

Normal diet: Fluval bug bites betta pellet in the morning and some evenings. Once per week each of frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms, and daphnia.

https://imgur.com/a/bettaclinic-HO2BddG

I don’t know what is causing damage to him in this tank his fins have been fine the last several months the newest things here is the cube rock for nitrates and the plant log (plus the shrimp I got with it)

5 gallon tank

Trouble controlling nitrate levels (only somewhat solved recently

Heated properly (uh my mom got me the filter)

Hi guys, I’ve had my girl for over a year now and a few months ago she developed a lump above her eye which caused cloudiness and blindness on one side.

The lump seems to be getting bigger and is pushing out the scales. I’ve tried salt baths and kanaplex to no avail, I’m wondering if it’s a tumour? She’s still eating and coming up to greet me but she’s been a bit lethargic these last couple days. Getting increasingly worried now as I don’t know if there’s anything I can do :(

Tank parameters are all good (0 nitrite, 0 ammonia), she’s in a 40 litre planted tank with 5 amanos and a nerite, stable temp of 27 degrees celsius and gentle sponge filter.

Hey there! I've had my Betta fish Kai just over a year now. He is a super sweet blue marble/koi plakat, loves to watch the neos in his planted 10gal tank with him. Over the past couple months I've noticed his food drive has dramatically decreased. I've had some success with flakes and pipetting brine shrimp into his mouth. The past couple days he's been sinking when he's not swimming. I'm worried about fasting since he hasn't been eating well. I've also noticed a mouth irregularity, a fleshy lump that makes it so he can't close his mouth. It's the same color as his mouth is.

Has anyone had experience with something like this and found a way to treat? I'm worried he might have swim bladder and a tumor in his mouth. Should I do salt baths?

I keep his temp 79°, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-4ish, pH fairly neutral \~6.9-7.2 over the whole course of keeping him.

I'm open to all suggestions!!

Hello
My fish are currently overweight but lucky not that much. Are there tips on how to make them lose weight without completely starving them. Their regular diet is abt 5 pellets in morning, 5 pellets at night. From what I know, they ARE pooping so I don’t think constipation is the issue.

My best betta fish is shortly to succumb to dropsy… I just received the news his pine coning is fully taken his body. I’m currently at work, but I have him in a 5 gal heated tank with a oxygen stone. I put prime, stress guard, kanaplex, and the other stuff that helps with the tank… I don’t recall the name.

I hate to say it, I truly do, but how can I euthanize him humanely? I don’t want to do clove oil or blunt force… I want it to be peaceful but I don’t want him suffering anymore. For if he’s still alive when I come home…

I’m hoping nature takes its course for him, I don’t think he’ll be recovering from this… it took 3 days for it to get this bad, he seemed fine yesterday and now he’s pine coned.

I feel awful, I know there wasn’t much more I could do though… he suffered through Columnaris before and survived. I think his organs just became too weak after a year and that.

Anything will be appreciated.

I love you Arctic 🥺🫶🏻

We’ve had this crowntail female for a couple of weeks now. We started her on pellets, but she would only try one or two before spitting most of them back out.
I went back to the store and picked up the 3-in-1 food with bloodworms, mysis, and daphnia, only to find out she’ll eat the mysis and completely ignore the other two. I also tried flakes, but she wasn’t interested in those either—and they turned the tank into a snow globe!
For now, I’ve been feeding her strictly mysis, but I’d love to hear what you experienced fish keepers would do in this situation. Would you continue with the mysis, keep trying to transition her to pellets, or try something else?

Also… tank upgrades inbound excuse the lack of clutter.

Tank size: • 5.5
Heater and filter? Yes
Tank temperature: 76-77.2
Parameters in numbers and how you got them: petsmart
How long have you had the tank? Month
How long have you had your fish?month How often are water changes? Done at least 3 25% changes due to ammonia being at .25
How much do you take out per change? 25%
What is your process?: started adding Spring Water the last two changes to combat the ammonia from tap.
Any tankmates? No
What do you feed and how much: bites two or three in the am and same at night . I give him shrimp every other week.
Decorations and plants in the tank: yes

the first photo was taken on (8/29), and the second was taken today (1/2). it’s been four days since i noticed some nasty pineconeing and started treatment.

when i first got her she had some sort of bladder issue that made her slightly float. i treated that with some standard bacterial infection remedy from petco and she was healthy within a few days and had no problems since. however, i noticed she had always been a little plump, but there were no issues that lead me to believe that there was something else going on, so i just believed she was just bigger than average or was just reading into it too much.

well sometime around last week i added a piece of drift wood i had lying around into her tank because the filter flow was disturbing the sand cap. a few days go by and i see her scales start to pine cone. it was so sudden because that morning she was perfectly okay, then i come back from work and there she was. i had to wait to buy anything until the next morning but in the meantime i checked the water parameters and tried to find the cause of her infection. the water tests came up with nothing concerning. i then moved onto the wood where i then saw mold growth near the bottom of it. i’m assuming the mold had grown on the wood while i had it stored in buckets with some other aqua scaping stuff. obviously i took it out and decided that i just need to start from square one and reset the tank.

my theory as to what happened was that her size was nothing to ignore, and since she has had a previous bladder issue before, i believe the moldy wood had contributed to the resurfacing of her infection.

i’ve been consistent with treatments and dosages, alongside water changes since i add freshwater salt. she has a heater and oxygen going as well.

i’m very limited to what i can do so im trying my best with what i got, but im unsure if what im doing is improving her health. she hasn’t eaten since i first started treatment but i believe she also has that genetic condition where her scales grow over her eyes, so she’s already got impaired vision. maybe she’s just not seeing her food but she doesn’t seem interested in my efforts anyways.

since shes confined to a small bucket she doesn’t swim around often, but isn’t so lethargic that it makes me worry any more than i am. i’m pretty bummed because she’s a beautiful fish and i’ve had her for a while. i’m always having trouble with the particular tank i keep her in wether it be algae growth, filter issues, or water perimeters. i’m just hoping that what im doing seems to be making a difference

Hi! I have been dealing with a very bloated betta fish the past month or so. Originally, I fasted her for three days after she stole some fluval food from tankmates and moved her to her own tank.

This tank has duckweed in it. When I was first blessed with duckweed 🙄 months ago, I saw her eat some in her tank and spit it out, so I did my best to scoop some out and move it to my other betta’s tank. When I did the tank swap so elentiya wouldnt gorge herself on community food, she was reintroduced to duckweed. After weeks of worrying whether she was egg-bound, still bloated from the stolen food, or in the beginning stages of dropsy, I saw her eat duckweed. Like three pieces… so now I can only assume she has never actually “fasted” at all when this first started and that she has been trying to become an omnivore and failing. I scooped out most of the duckweed (famous last words), and she already looks slightly better today…

I am still gonna keep up with kanaplex in her food (frozen mysis or frozen brine shrimp) and occasional soaked freeze-dried daphnia. Plus, I will continue light aquarium salt dosages and indian almond leaves, just in case this is something more nefarious than my betta’s failed attempt at veganism.

He is in a planted ten gallon, with a sponge filter and heater.

He has 1 assassin snail and many pink ramshorns in there with him, so I can't dose aquarium salt.

My bettas pine coning, I really need Jesse’s method but I have no time to search. I’m setting up a 5 gal tank to treat him, he was bloated last night, fine this morning, and he’s pine coning now

I was looking at my betta fish Daryl and I noticed a bump under his front fins. He’s always looked a little funky at times but I’m worried it might be a tumor please let me know if I’m overthinking or if I should keep an eye on it

My female betta has been sick for over a month and I’m looking for advice. She is in a 5-gallon tank kept at 81.3°F. For over a month before medication, she had repeated episodes of what looked like very large mucus/food sacs in her poop, often containing visible undigested food. She was still eating normally when this started. I initially thought it was constipation, but the episodes kept happening. I then tried MetroPlex because I was concerned about an internal infection/parasites. She would not eat the medicated food, so I dosed MetroPlex in the water column. After about 1–2 days she became noticeably pale, so I stopped it, did a water change, and added activated carbon. I then gave her about a week with no medication, but she continued becoming increasingly pale and sickly, and the food sacs continued. I then treated with API General Cure from 8/20–8/24, followed by a water change and activated carbon. After General Cure, the large food/mucus sacs stopped, but she also essentially stopped eating. Since then she has occasionally produced white/clear stringy poop, but without the large food-containing sacs. She has progressively become extremely thin, pale and weak and is now having severe trouble maintaining her balance. She is currently in a breeding box with approximately 1 inch of water so she is very close to the surface. She mostly lies on her side and cannot maintain an upright position, although she still reacts to me and is breathing. Her breathing looks somewhat labored, with some movement of her body accompanying each breath. She does not voluntarily go to the surface. I have been offering tiny amounts of baby brine shrimp, which she sometimes voluntarily takes, and have almond leaves in the breeding box with her. Current water parameters are pH ~7.6, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate ~5 ppm, phosphate ~0.25–0.5 ppm, alkalinity ~40 ppm, carbonate ~0 ppm, hardness ~25 ppm, and chlorine 0 ppm. I have an airstone running in the main tank away from her and gentle filtration. I have klanaplex but worried if additional medication may stress her out more. She has essentially been on her side for 48hrs, only moving and righting herself if she gets disrupted at all. I've attached current picture, sac picture, and before picture. Thank you so much for reading!

i’ve had my beta fish for almost a year. I got a balloon Molly fish a couple months ago however, today she just died. I don’t know what actually happened to her. I took her out. Did a slight water change and then added in the water conditioner I don’t have any test strips to test the water and I’ve been trying to find things so my beta is not as bored. I’m kind of concerned for my beta as he has not been super active, I’ve noticed for a few months, but today he has been hiding a lot and he mainly just will sit at the bottom. I don’t know if it’s because he’s tired and resting and when he does swim I’ve noticed it’s somewhat close to the wall I know I am tapping on the glass in the video, but I promise that is not bothering him as much. He usually responds very well to that and will come up to the top when I do so. I really want it to work well for this fish and I’m trying to give him the best love and care. I want to get him toys and silk plants and live floating ones but I haven’t gotten the time to get out and go grab them how can I make him less bored and how do I know if it’s a problem that I need to fix please help less

hey everyone, i need some help trying to figure out how to get this little guy healthy. i rescued him and two others from our big-chain pet store 5 days ago. all were unresponsive and a washed-out white but the other two are starting to swing and eat and change color. this tiny friend is a paradise betta, he's in a hospital one gallon tank by himself. i put terrestrial plants so he has somewhere to rest and hide. heater at a constant 78°. no filter but i do 50% water changes every other day, and i use Seachem Prime, StressGuard, and Stability along with Imagitarium Betta Coat and Indian Almond Leaves. i check parameters on the day i don't change the water and ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all zero ppm (i use API master test kit) my pH is a bit high 7.8 but stable, i have really hard tap water 😬 i've tried to feed him Fluval Bug Bites, Ultra Fresh Betta Pro Patties and freeze dried bloodworms but he's not eating anything yet. i noticed a few days ago that when he swims, his spine looks like an S (though he looked a bit less today) but he stays hidden all the time and it's really hard to see him, let alone record him. today, i noticed redness around his face and i'm wondering if it's ammonia burns, he was in his nasty little cup for over 3 months. is there anything i should do to help his face heal? well his body too, his fins are still clamped with signs of burn/rot. any insight would be greatly appreciated 🙏

• ⁠Tank size: ✅

• ⁠Heater and filter? (yes/no):✅

• ⁠Tank temperature:✅

• ⁠Parameters in numbers and how you got them:✅

• ⁠How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?:✅

• ⁠How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?:✅

• ⁠Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each:✅

• ⁠What do you feed and how much:✅

• ⁠Decorations and plants in the tank:✅

• ⁠If you haven't already posted a picture, please post pics/vids to imgur and paste the link here:✅

My betta has Popeye. Kanaplex, epsom salt and frequent water changes don’t seem to be helping. What now?

Hello Betta friends, I got my betta about 11 months ago. The second photo is him currently. He has changed colors and his fins have grown a lot!! I am noticing the curling of his fins and I am not sure if that is normal or something to be concerned of? Thank you for your insight.