Betta Fish Is Sick, Completely Stumped. Please Help (pictures)

Hello, I'm completely new to this forum , I just signed up because I'm getting desperate to help my betta. He has a mash of a bunch of symptoms and I can't pin what he actually has. I have him in a 3gal (I know this is small but its all I have) quarantine tank now. The quarantine has a 5gal water heater and a sponge filter to keep the water from going stagnant. I just put him though a cycle of general antibiotics that are suppose to help a umbrella of illnesses and it only seemed to help for the first 3 or 4 days but now he is back to were he was and seems to be declining rapidly. At first I though he had ich but I realized that his spots don't fit the small "cotton ball" appearance people say. Then I though he might have velvet but his spots shine a light blue not a copper color. His head is a dark brown and from what I can tell he doesn't have any "holes". He has been slightly bloated so I was considering doing a Epson salt bath but I think I'm going to wait for some help before I continue treatments that could be making him worse. Since he has been in quarantine I've also noticed a small line of scales became slightly raised and turned a lighter color(see in pictures for side 1. This morning he was also unresponsive when I first went and checked up on him, he was sitting on the floor on the quarantine holing himself up with his front fins. We are entering his 3rd week in quarantine and I'm become extremely worried about his declining health so any help is appreciated. I don't know all my water parameters but I plan on going out and purchasing a water test kit so I can hopefully update on that soon. His normal tank has been established for about a year and I used his normal tank water for 50% of his quarantine water and let that tank sit for a day with some marimo balls thrown in from his normal tank as well just trying to increase the beneficial bacteria as much as possible.. I normally keep him in a 10gal tank that's medium planted with 4 neon tetras and some red cherry shrimp. sorry for writing so much I'm really stumped at thI spoint and really need help. thank you all for reading please ask questions if you have any and Ill try to answer asap.


Sorry I was difficult to get clear pictures of his spots because I had to have the flash on for you to clearly see them. I don't know if these pictures are good enough.

 

Is he ACTING differently? Why do you think he may be going downhill? All of your symptoms can be explained away but only you know your fish and can tell when something is just "off."

My betta sleeps upside down, face first in the larger stones I put in there with his tail poking out of the rocks. Yours just may have been in a deep sleep and just didn't want to move.

I do think you're overfeeding him (hes a pretty big boy) which could result in the bloating. Maybe fast him or give him some frozen shelled pea.

Your betta may also just be changing colors, which is common as they get older if they have that gene. The color changing appears to be affecting scale by scale and not in blobs, which is what makes me think that. How long have you had him? If hes new, he could be changing due to a better environment.

I would stop all treatments (except the pea...do the pea and the diet) until you have definitive answers or you could actually make him sick if hes not.

 

Hello and welcome! The very first thing I noticed in your post was that you set up your quarantine tank with part of his old tank water? The whole point of a quarantine is to get him into clean water, what you've done is just put him into the exact same water that has whatever is making him sick so you need to get a real quarantine tank going with nothing from the other tank until you find out what's wrong that's all suspect then check your water parameters but just from his pictures I can't see any evidence of ich or a fungus and the raised scales could be nothing more than just losing a scale (like we lose hairs) the neons in his old tank are kind of an issue, Bettas don't really like little darty fish because the little fish tend to be nippy and aggravating to them and it can make them want to sink to the bottom of the tank just to get away from them so I would change most or all of the water in the Q. tank -
did you move the sponge from the old tank too? if so rinse,rinse, rinse test the water then keep an eye on him it might just be the tetras

 

Is he ACTING differently? Why do you think he may be going downhill? All of your symptoms can be explained away but only you know your fish and can tell when something is just "off."

My betta sleeps upside down, face first in the larger stones I put in there with his tail poking out of the rocks. Yours just may have been in a deep sleep and just didn't want to move.

I do think you're overfeeding him (hes a pretty big boy) which could result in the bloating. Maybe fast him or give him some frozen shelled pea.

Your betta may also just be changing colors, which is common as they get older if they have that gene. The color changing appears to be affecting scale by scale and not in blobs, which is what makes me think that. How long have you had him? If hes new, he could be changing due to a better environment.

I would stop all treatments (except the pea...do the pea and the diet) until you have definitive answers or you could actually make him sick if hes not.

He is acting a lot more lethargic then normal and is swimming with his fines more closed up. He is really active and curious but I decided it was time to start a quarantine when he started just looming around and had all his fins closed. The bloating has to confused as well because I only feed him a couple betta pellets every couple days and I have reduced that since his quarantine and I could more track his pooping easier, I think he is defiantly constipated. I'll try the pea idea. As for ho wold he is I'm not sure because when I bought him he was fully grown and I have had him for around a year and 7/6 months at this point.

 

Well when I have to poop and I can't I kinda feel pretty yucky too.
I hope the pea works for you.
Keep us updated!

 

Hello and welcome! The very first thing I noticed in your post was that you set up your quarantine tank with part of his old tank water? The whole point of a quarantine is to get him into clean water, what you've done is just put him into the exact same water that has whatever is making him sick so you need to get a real quarantine tank going with nothing from the other tank until you find out what's wrong that's all suspect then check your water parameters but just from his pictures I can't see any evidence of ich or a fungus and the raised scales could be nothing more than just losing a scale (like we lose hairs) the neons in his old tank are kind of an issue, Bettas don't really like little darty fish because the little fish tend to be nippy and aggravating to them and it can make them want to sink to the bottom of the tank just to get away from them so I would change most or all of the water in the Q. tank -
did you move the sponge from the old tank too? if so rinse,rinse, rinse test the water then keep an eye on him it might just be the tetras

I can do a 100% water change and scrub out the tank he is in now pretty quickly so that shouldn't be too much of a hassle. I was and am nervous that all new water change would shock him because I don't know how exactly sick he is. I've been doing water changes to the water he is in now once a week, just so I can be certain that the ammonia levels and stuff stay safe, because I don't have the test kits yet. The sponge filter was from an old tank but it was completely cleaned before I put it in this tank so I wouldn't transfer any germs from the other tank(it was cleaned when it was taken out the old tank and I cleaned it again to put it in this one). I bought my cherry shrimp before the neon tetras just to test how he would react aggression wise (I had a separate tank as a plan B if he didn't like them) but he was completely fine with them, so I bought the neon tetras after some time with just the shrimp. I watched very closely for awhile to make sure there was no fin nipping or signs of stress. In my time take watching I never noticed any behavioral changing in my Betta though, he remained very lax about have tank mates and pretty much ignored them. I also made sure I had hiding spots and tall plants to break line of sight so everyone could have a break from one another. I recently did a big clean on the original tank with a 90%ish water change and I cleaned all the gravel his normal hide, a piece a drift wood, and the two plants I have(I gently rubbed algae off there leaves) Ill attach a picture of the tank, its due for a water change.

Well when I have to poop and I can't I kinda feel pretty yucky too.
I hope the pea works for you.
Keep us updated!

Will do!