Can Fish Get Burned by Heaters?

Two days ago I bought a heater for my 10 gallon fish tank that holds 2 male Betta fish. Of course I have a divider between them. The edge of the divider to the tank wall holds a small gap that they can see each other through. It isn't big enough for either of them to fit through. Carson, the "dominant" one likes to meet Alfonzo there and flare his gills and try to intimidate him.

I placed the heater on one side that they can see each other on, thinking it would be a good barrier for them. The heater has been running none stop for the past 2 days and is only supposed to get up to 82 degrees.

Today, I was watching them swim around and Carson just had to go try to intimidate Alfonzo by the heater. The heater is on Alfonzo's side. Whenever they both meet up by the small crack, I always tap the glass so they swim away. Carson swam away and Alfonzo got stuck and flipped his tail on the top of the heater and wouldn't move for a good 45 seconds. I was just about to scoop up Carson into his container that I bought him in just in case I had to move the divider to get him out. As I was doing this, Alfonzo swimmer away very fast and has now been swimming very slowly and casually.

Alfonzo now has a red mark on his head where it looks like scales have almost been burned off by the heater. Is this even possible? If so, what should I do to make him better?




The link above has a picture of the burn on the top of his head. If anyone has any advice or encouraging words, I'd appreciate it!!

 

Typically a heater should not be hot enough to burn the fish, unless there's an issue with it. My snails climb all over my heaters without any issue. Do you have a thermometer to see what the water temp is? I'm wondering if, since you said it hadn't shut off, it may be overheating or something like that.

Alternately, is there a chance he could have hit his head on something while he was stuck and it's just a bruise instead of a burn?

 

I touched every part of the heater afterwards and there were not any parts that we warm. I'm not really sure what happened. But I do not have a thermometer.

 

Hopefully he'll recover quickly. I'd suggest clean water, but not really sure what, if anything else, you should do for him. Hopefully someone with more experience will weigh in on that. Whenever you have a chance, I'd suggest picking up a thermometer just so you can keep an eye on the water temp. Some heaters are calibrated well, and others seem to be nowhere close to what they should be. For example, I keep my 50W in my 10 gallon tank set to about 72 and it keeps the tank at 76-77.

 

I read the directions on my new heater when I set up my tank, and it did warn that the heater could burn fish if they got stuck against it, and to make sure to place it with enough space around it/under it that none of the fish would get themselves stuck.

Heaters aren't hot when they aren't on, but they get hot fast when they turn on. I was moving some plants and bumped mine (oops, should have unplugged it) and I could definitely feel the heat. Not sure if it would have burned me since I had my husband immediately unplug it. But I don't think it's unreasonable that your betta got a burn if he sat against the heater for almost a minute.

I would move the heater to a spot that the bettas aren't attracted to, preferably near the flow of your filter so the warm water gets the most circulation. And make sure to keep an eye on the poor burned guy for signs of infection.

 

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it. He's been acting a little better even though it's been a few hours. He ate his regular food and has been swimming around a bit more. I didn't think about a possible infection. Hopefully it'll just heal quickly. I just feel so bad for him, and want to help him

 

Glad to hear he's doing better!
BornThisWayBettas would you mind tossing some thoughts on here about what could be done to help recover faster. I'm lost after keep the water clean.

 

Welcome to Fish Lore!! Pleasure to have you here!

I've never had a fish get burned before, so I'd get a thermometer ASAP and keep your other betta away from the heater/make sure he can't get stuck touching it.

As for the one with a suspected burn, my recommendation would be to keep the water pristine, but I really have no other advice since I've never had a fish get burned before, as I stated above. But in humans, that's one of the best way to heal an injury, by keeping it clean. In a fish's case, you'd need to keep the water clean.