Betta With Spot On Head...is It Ich?? Please Help!

HI everyone!!

I have yet another question about our new fish-this time it is about my son's fish.

I don't know how much back story you need, but here it goes...

We adopted her from a family who had her for 6 months in a 1/2 G cube. We have had her since Aug 6th, 5.5 G tank, filtered, heater keeps it at 80F. No other fish/invertebrates.

We are doing fish-in cycling, I test the water every 2-3 days with API master kit, usually change out 6L, temperature match water, treat whole tank with Prime.

Water test last night pH was 8.4 (normally it is 8.0-8.2), ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate 5.
**I did add 2 java ferns last night...I had them in a heated bucket for 3-4 days, then did a peroxide dip, and rinsed them with dechlorinated water**
It was late at that time, so I did a partial water change this morning of 7 L.

She ate 3 soaked pellets this morning, active.

Still active tonight, ate her 2 pellets, but she has a new spot on her head!! It's not really white, even though it looks like that in the pictures. Just looks smooth, not really raised. Not fuzzy. 2mm in diameter maybe. She zooms everywhere, she is impossible to get a picture of, I apologize!

Now, I haven't touched her filter until now because I was afraid of disrupting BB. After I saw the spot, I panicked, removed some of her tank water and rinsed the filter media...it was pretty brown

So my questions I guess...is this ich??? Did I do this by not cleaning the filter?? What do I do now?

I honestly thought I was doing a good thing getting her out of her horrible little cube. But now she might be sick anyway I feel awful and I feel like giving up. I feel like I am doing a terrible job, but had no idea keeping fish was this hard....anyone in Ontario want a couple Betta fish?!?

I am not really sure what to do! I really don't want to lose her.

Thank you so much for reading my rambling!! I would appreciate any help anyone can give this sad fish Momma
Pic 1 she is facing left...its on the top left side of her head
Pic 2 she is facing the camera
Pic 3-just a pic of her tank (decorated in a riot of colour by my 10 year old son)

 

It's hard to tell but at first glance it doesn't look like an ich spot. When my betta got ich the spots were very clearly raised on the scales/fins. Like bulging out. That almost looks like she lost a scale. I have a black crown tail and we had an incident where she jumped out of her temp bowl during a water change. She got a little dry and lost a couple scales on her head. Looks a lot like that. Just hard to be sure without a better picture.

 

It is not ich ich is a BUNCH of little white dots that looks like a sprinkling of salt on the fish. I think she injured herself on something so she may be missing a scale. Clean water should grow it back. Use paraguard? To prevent against infections?

 

I wouldn't give a med if there isn't a definitive sickness

 

If it starts with one spot and a week later it’s still one spot, prob not ich.

 

Thank you everyone!
MrsMontoya I would love to get a better picture, but this fish never stops moving! Which I guess is a good thing I hope it is a missing scale, like you said!

Iverg1 that 'let me google it for you' link is really cool! I did google s for ich prior to posting, but I figured it started with one spot and multiple showed up with time.

I will try to relax. If no more spots show up in a week, like georgelee1000 said, I will feel better.

This morning she looks the same, no new spots!

I will do daily partial water changes for a while to keep her water clean and hopefully prevent infection.

Thanks again!

 

Yep! Water changes are the best thing. You can always add a bit of water conditioner since most of them help with slime coating and if you have an Indian almond leaf that can always help. When my betta jumped her bowl I kept her in a smaller qt bowl for a week or so with daily water changes and a big almond leaf. She pretty much lived under it oh, and I get the picture quality, they are zippy little things. That's another indicator of ich-fish acting very uncomfortable. If she's swimming around normally then she is probably fine!

 

I actually had that with my Betta. I'm now pretty sure he has velvet and I'm treating him as such. If you shine a torch on him are there any gold specs or rusty coloured dust on his body?

 

Thanks MrsMontoya ! I use Prime as my water conditioner, I am not sure if it has a slime coating or not. I will pick up almond leaves next time I am at a pet store (or next time I order from Amazon, which seems to be weekly lately!!). She is still acting okay, other than being mad yesterday because it was her 'fast day

Thank you Aquilist !! So far no other spots and no gold/rust when I use a light to look at her. How long would it take to go from one spot to many in velvet? I googled s for it and it doesn't look fun at all I hope your Betta gets better!!