Help! How do I treat my betta's gill?

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 20 gallon
How long has the tank been running? 1 year
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 79
What is the entire stocking of this tank? betta and ramshorn snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Every 2 weeks
How much of the water do you change? 50%
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? I vacuum the substrate every other water change

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.8

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? 2x day, fast on Saturday and Sunday
How much do you feed your fish? 4 pellets in the morning and 4 at night or a small pinch of frozen brine shrimp/blood worms in the morning and at night
What brand of food do you feed your fish? aqueon pellets, omega frozen bloodworms/ brine shrimp
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? frozen and pellets

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? November 2019
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 week
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Her gill is out and there is something white sticking out of it. She can't eat food even if she wants to.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? After moving her to a hospital tank I thought maybe she had gill flukes but now I'm not so sure.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Her behavior has changed over night. She is no longer her active self.

Explain your emergency situation in detail.

My betta was originally in a heavily planted 20 gallon tank with a ghost shrimp. After I came back home from a weekend trip the ghost shrimp was gone and her gill was just slightly sticking out. Since then her gill has gotten worse very quickly. She cannot eat food now. Its like she tries to eat food but has a hard time chewing so it just gets spat out. This is not normal for her. She is no longer swimming around like she usually does. Initially I moved her to a 2.5 hospital tank (corner filter and heater at 79 degrees) until I could find a treatment for her. After some searching I thought maybe gill flukes so I gave her a dose of prazi pro but now I'm not sure. Her health is declining and she is just resting at the bottom of the hospital tank. What could be wrong with her gill and how do I treat it?

 

From the picture, it looks like there is a white fungus protruding out from the gill, correct? If so, we are probably dealing with a fungal infection. It doesn't look like any particular issue like columnaris, velvet, dropsy, or something similar. Maybe he injured his slime coat which caused the infection? Regardless I would start doing water changes every other day. I know your tank is heavily planted, but no nitrates at all? Is the betta scraping against anything or gasping for air?

 

Honestly, it doesn't look like a fungus to me. The color of it is a light pink color. It looks like the tissue under her gill has swollen up.

She did have a ghost shrimp in her tank with her that was starting to get a little aggressive during feeding but it disappeared last weekend. Maybe it was the culprit? I honestly don't know.

I tested the water twice to make sure there were no nitrates present.

She isn't scraping against anything or gasping for air. She is still swimming around a bit but is resting a lot more.

Someone else suggested treating her with paraguard for 5 days for a potential fungal infection and if that didn't work it may be a tumor.

I have ordered Seachem Paraguard through Prime and it should be here tomorrow. Since her gill is getting worse as time progresses I do want to try to treat her. I would love to hear your opinion on using Paraguard.

 

From the picture, it looks like there is a white fungus protruding out from the gill, correct? If so, we are probably dealing with a fungal infection. It doesn't look like any particular issue like columnaris, velvet, dropsy, or something similar. Maybe he injured his slime coat which caused the infection? Regardless I would start doing water changes every other day. I know your tank is heavily planted, but no nitrates at all? Is the betta scraping against anything or gasping for air?

Honestly, it doesn't look like a fungus to me. The color of it is a light pink color. It looks like the tissue under her gill has swollen up.

She did have a ghost shrimp in her tank with her that was starting to get a little aggressive during feeding but it disappeared last weekend. Maybe it was the culprit? I honestly don't know.

I tested the water twice to make sure there were no nitrates present.

She isn't scraping against anything or gasping for air. She is still swimming around a bit but is resting a lot more.

Someone else suggested treating her with paraguard for 5 days for a potential fungal infection and if that didn't work it may be a tumor.

I have ordered Seachem Paraguard through Prime and it should be here tomorrow. Since her gill is getting worse as time progresses I do want to try to treat her. I would love to hear your opinion on using Paraguard.

 

I love seachem products, whether it is prime, cichlid salts, stability, or Paraguard. I am really leaning toward fungal so paraguard might not be a bad idea, it can't hurt. It's hard to suggest treating a fish without knowing what the exact problem is first, but then again you want to know you did everything you could if the fish does pass.

Knowing that it is actually has a pinkish hue color to it helps! These kinds of infections can also occur on the head or even the gills like you have here. The infection could be due to a bacteria called 'genus flexibacter', when the bacteria forms it can appear white, gray, or pinkish colony that looks like a fuzzy fungus. I think that is what is going on here. A tumor would be a little rarer, so I don't think that is what is going on there.