Sick beta fish, after being dropped on the floor

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 5 gallons
How long has the tank been running? A week and a few days (had to add the fish in on day two of running due to the drop!)
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 78 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? One crown tail male beta

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Going to do water change this week/weekly
How much of the water do you change? Will be 25-50%
What do you use to treat your water? Beta water conditioners/freshwater fish water conditioners specifically from the brands tetra or API (currently using tetra for it all)
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Will vacuum both tomorrow

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? I tried it only was on day two of cycling due to an emergency
What do you use to test the water? Will be going to pet smarts and having them run tests tomorrow, till I have enough to buy the API master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: tbd tomorrow
Nitrite: tbd tomorrow
Nitrate: tbd tomorrow
pH: tbd tomorrow

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? 1-2 times daily
How much do you feed your fish? A small pinch of flakes or 2-3 pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Tetra
Do you feed frozen? No
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? A week
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1-2 days ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Red spots on head, maybe spots on body, no food interest (he was eating just fine before this even after the quick add into the new tank), lethargia, bumps on fin (had this since pet store idk if it’s related), slightly struggling to swim, can normally be found resting at bottom of tank
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I’ve started bettaFix (a fin treatment) for his fin bumps but that’s it, I don’t want to over medicate
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Maybe
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He’s become lethargic, and has red spots on his head

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
Okay so I got him a week ago from the pet store while his tank was still cycling but unfortunately that one broke so I had to set up a brand new one, and one day while I was feeding him (day two of the new tank cycle), something from uptop my desk fell and hit his container just right he went flying over my desk and landed in my shoe rack (it has a mesh netting on it) right under my desk, at first I thought he was dead till I touched him and saw him squirm (I was picking him up), so I quickly picked him up and threw him into the tank that had been cycling for 2 days with no Heater (that one also broke when the old tank broke), so next day I went out got a new heater, seemed to help him perk up, he was eating fine and swimming fine, just seemed to prefer laying on the bottom of the tank, he would always swim up to me and the top of the tank whenever I approached, now almost a week later from the incident he’s not so responsive anymore, seems to lay on the bottom more, has red spots on his head and maybe body, he doesn’t seem to be struggling to breathe, but doesn’t want to eat, he will occasionally swim up to the top of the tank to “blow bubbles”/get air, I’m adding in a bubbler tomorrow and testing the water chemicals tomorrow (will post updates when that happens), I also have been treating him with bettaFix for fin bumps he’s had since the pet store so the active charcoal part of his filter hasn’t been in since day 4, does anyone have any ideas what this might be? I’m adding back in his charcoal filter part tomorrow pending water test results. Ive attached as many photos I have, I hope they are okay, if you need/want more please tell me and I’ll take some more. He’s also had that small black/color strip since the pet store on that one side.

 

Hi Entropy ,

I hope that I can help! That is a lovely little crowntail!

I would first recommend that you do daily water changes. I know that your tank is not cycled yet, and doing some small daily water changes and adding the water conditioner/dechlor with every change will keep the toxic ammoni/nitrite levels from building up. (I use Prime conditioner, which will hold the toxicity of lower levels of ammonia/nitrites, but others are good, too). But if you have had fish before, then you know about the nitrogen cycle and how that works.

I would stop using the Bettafix. I would recommend that you avoid any product with "fix" in it as far as bettas are concerned. These products contain tea tree oil, and that can affect his labyrinth organ, which is what he uses to breathe air when he goes to the top of the tank. When I first got into betta keeping, I bought these products, too, and only found that they just smelled up the tank. They did not help the betta at all.

If you want to add something beneficial to his tank, then I would recommend adding some Indian almond leaves or driftwood...both will provide tannins to the water. Tannins will tint the water brown, but it is a humic substance that will provide some mild antibacterial and antifungal properties to the water, and will help him to recover. Just rinse the almond leaves off a bit, and then just drop them in; sometimes the bettas will actually lay on top of them, and make bubble nests underneath them!

Your betta will need time to recover from his out of tank experience. He needs time, and he needs to have as little stress as possible, so keep the lights off for a while. Pristine water often helps with fin and body issues, so the water changes will help a lot. I am not really seeing the bumps in the pics, but his fins are really clamped. Red spots around the gills are often a sign of ammonia issues/poisoning. I see his nostrils in the pics, and bettas can have bumpy-looking scales/skin/body along with sensory pits.

Another good thing to do is to provide a varied diet. If you can get some frozen brine shrimp or daphnia, those are really good choices. Flakes can often cause digestive issues in bettas, as well as large betta pellets. It's always good to soak the pellets/flakes in water before feeding in order to soften them up. It's also good to crush flakes up. You can try soaking his food in garlic juice, which will give him an immune system boost. It's also used for picky eaters. You can make some yourself by cutting up a piece of garlic and soaking it in water. Then use that water to soak the food in before feeding.

I hope this helps some, and I hope that he recovers quickly!!!

 

Hopefully, your betta will recover. Falling on the floor might not hurt it unless some bones were broken or if it was left there long enough for the scales to dry out. Bettas are pretty tough. Because they have a labarynth organ, they can continue to breathe even when out of water.

Right now, the main thing is making sure you treat your tap water with a good water conditioner. If your tap water is disinfected with chloramine, I would suggest using Seachem Prime as your conditioner as it detoxifies both chlorine and ammonia. If the water is disinfected with chlorine alone, then any water conditioner will do.

 

Hi Entropy ,

I hope that I can help! That is a lovely little crowntail!

I would first recommend that you do daily water changes. I know that your tank is not cycled yet, and doing some small daily water changes and adding the water conditioner/dechlor with every change will keep the toxic ammoni/nitrite levels from building up. (I use Prime conditioner, which will hold the toxicity of lower levels of ammonia/nitrites, but others are good, too). But if you have had fish before, then you know about the nitrogen cycle and how that works.

I would stop using the Bettafix. I would recommend that you avoid any product with "fix" in it as far as bettas are concerned. These products contain tea tree oil, and that can affect his labyrinth organ, which is what he uses to breathe air when he goes to the top of the tank. When I first got into betta keeping, I bought these products, too, and only found that they just smelled up the tank. They did not help the betta at all.

If you want to add something beneficial to his tank, then I would recommend adding some Indian almond leaves or driftwood...both will provide tannins to the water. Tannins will tint the water brown, but it is a humic substance that will provide some mild antibacterial and antifungal properties to the water, and will help him to recover. Just rinse the almond leaves off a bit, and then just drop them in; sometimes the bettas will actually lay on top of them, and make bubble nests underneath them!

Your betta will need time to recover from his out of tank experience. He needs time, and he needs to have as little stress as possible, so keep the lights off for a while. Pristine water often helps with fin and body issues, so the water changes will help a lot. I am not really seeing the bumps in the pics, but his fins are really clamped. Red spots around the gills are often a sign of ammonia issues/poisoning. I see his nostrils in the pics, and bettas can have bumpy-looking scales/skin/body along with sensory pits.

Another good thing to do is to provide a varied diet. If you can get some frozen brine shrimp or daphnia, those are really good choices. Flakes can often cause digestive issues in bettas, as well as large betta pellets. It's always good to soak the pellets/flakes in water before feeding in order to soften them up. It's also good to crush flakes up. You can try soaking his food in garlic juice, which will give him an immune system boost. It's also used for picky eaters. You can make some yourself by cutting up a piece of garlic and soaking it in water. Then use that water to soak the food in before feeding.

I hope this helps some, and I hope that he recovers quickly!!!

Alright thank you, I planned to do a water change today (and keep up with it) after I got the test done today (a local fish store will test your water for free), unfortunately they are all sold out of the driftwood and the leaves you mentioned, do you have any ideas where I could possibly find some? Outside of that one small town shop I only have the big chain pet stores around me and thank you for the tip (I always try to soak their food to help since I have flakes, pellets, and while I’m out I’ll grab the others you recommend cause he’s a picky eater), I will say he did eat a little today so I hope that’s a good sign

Hopefully, your betta will recover. Falling on the floor might not hurt it unless some bones were broken or if it was left there long enough for the scales to dry out. Bettas are pretty tough. Because they have a labarynth organ, they can continue to breathe even when out of water.

Right now, the main thing is making sure you treat your tap water with a good water conditioner. If your tap water is disinfected with chloramine, I would suggest using Seachem Prime as your conditioner as it detoxifies both chlorine and ammonia. If the water is disinfected with chlorine alone, then any water conditioner will do.

I’ve been using tetra freshwater conditioner (I’ve used them or api all my life for all my fish) I’ll definitely check the one you suggested as soon as my next check hits my bank account, and he wasn’t out long enough for the scales to dry, I found him immediately and threw him into the already cycling tank (I still feel really bad about that especially since it wasn’t ready ) and I don’t think anything is broke I’ve been watching him this entire week thankfully cause it was about a 15 foot drop, he did eat a little today and last night

 

Alright thank you, I planned to do a water change today (and keep up with it) after I got the test done today (a local fish store will test your water for free), unfortunately they are all sold out of the driftwood and the leaves you mentioned, do you have any ideas where I could possibly find some? Outside of that one small town shop I only have the big chain pet stores around me and thank you for the tip (I always try to soak their food to help since I have flakes, pellets, and while I’m out I’ll grab the others you recommend cause he’s a picky eater), I will say he did eat a little today so I hope that’s a good sign

I usually get my IAL from Amazon as I live in a very rural place with no pet stores. If that is an option, my recommendation is for the Fancyte brand. The leaves are pretty big, and you can cut them in half if you need to do so. I've used them for years. I don't really like the Sun Grow brand because I found that they did not release as much tannins into the water compared to Fancyte.

https://www.amazon.com/FANCYTE-18-2...x=fancyte+indian+almond+leaves,aps,124&sr=8-7

 

Hi Entropy ,

I hope that I can help! That is a lovely little crowntail!

I would first recommend that you do daily water changes. I know that your tank is not cycled yet, and doing some small daily water changes and adding the water conditioner/dechlor with every change will keep the toxic ammoni/nitrite levels from building up. (I use Prime conditioner, which will hold the toxicity of lower levels of ammonia/nitrites, but others are good, too). But if you have had fish before, then you know about the nitrogen cycle and how that works.

I would stop using the Bettafix. I would recommend that you avoid any product with "fix" in it as far as bettas are concerned. These products contain tea tree oil, and that can affect his labyrinth organ, which is what he uses to breathe air when he goes to the top of the tank. When I first got into betta keeping, I bought these products, too, and only found that they just smelled up the tank. They did not help the betta at all.

If you want to add something beneficial to his tank, then I would recommend adding some Indian almond leaves or driftwood...both will provide tannins to the water. Tannins will tint the water brown, but it is a humic substance that will provide some mild antibacterial and antifungal properties to the water, and will help him to recover. Just rinse the almond leaves off a bit, and then just drop them in; sometimes the bettas will actually lay on top of them, and make bubble nests underneath them!

Your betta will need time to recover from his out of tank experience. He needs time, and he needs to have as little stress as possible, so keep the lights off for a while. Pristine water often helps with fin and body issues, so the water changes will help a lot. I am not really seeing the bumps in the pics, but his fins are really clamped. Red spots around the gills are often a sign of ammonia issues/poisoning. I see his nostrils in the pics, and bettas can have bumpy-looking scales/skin/body along with sensory pits.

Another good thing to do is to provide a varied diet. If you can get some frozen brine shrimp or daphnia, those are really good choices. Flakes can often cause digestive issues in bettas, as well as large betta pellets. It's always good to soak the pellets/flakes in water before feeding in order to soften them up. It's also good to crush flakes up. You can try soaking his food in garlic juice, which will give him an immune system boost. It's also used for picky eaters. You can make some yourself by cutting up a piece of garlic and soaking it in water. Then use that water to soak the food in before feeding.

I hope this helps some, and I hope that he recovers quickly!!!

Oh and here’s a pic where you can see the bumps on his fins (they are on his top fin) if you want to see that, I think that might be part of his clamped fins, unfortunately it’s really tiny to see but I circled the area they are, I can try to get a better pic of them later cause you can see them when he flairs and he does occasionally flair (especially after seeing that I’ve come home)

I usually get my IAL from Amazon as I live in a very rural place with no pet stores. If that is an option, my recommendation is for the Fancyte brand. The leaves are pretty big, and you can cut them in half if you need to do so. I've used them for years. I don't really like the Sun Grow brand because I found that they did not release as much tannins into the water compared to Fancyte.

https://www.amazon.com/FANCYTE-18-25CM-25PIECES-Improve-simulating/dp/B0758R6QBR/ref=sr_1_7?crid=162CCFFU0Q7VE&keywords=indian+almond+leaves+for+betta+fish&qid=1666628565&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjQzIiwicXNhIjoiMy45OSIsInFzcCI6IjMuODYifQ==&sprefix=fancyte+indian+almond+leaves,aps,124&sr=8-7

Alright thank you so much (this is my first time solo owning fish, I normally would have my dad to help out, so it’s been a journey)

 

Ok, I see that area that you are talking about. It could be some form of small tumor/cyst, or maybe just an abnormality due to his genes. Crowntails do tend to have fin issues, unfortunately.

If he recovers and the problem starts to spread, I would treat with some aquarium salt. You can use it for up to 10 days without any problems. If you decide to use aquarium salt, just remember that it can only be removed by water changes. So you will want to keep track of how much water you change, and only add back that amount of salt that was removed with the change. Long term use of aquarium salt will result in it becoming ineffective(just like the long term use of antibiotics causes them to not work well), so that is what the 10 day recommendation is about.

I am glad to help in any way that I can! If you have questions, you can post them. Once you get up to 50 posts, you can message members directly.

Hope this helps!!

 

Hello Entropy ,
I don't exactly have an answer or a cure, but I do have a bit of experience. One of my bettas used to lay on the bottom of the tank all the time. He always ate normally, and had healthy fins.
Another one of my crowntails also had those "knots" in his fins, and he's one of my best breeder males.
The last story is of my floppy fish named lilly. She is a female veiltail betta. You'd think that after dropping her 4 times, I might have learned my lesson. She likes to jump out of tanks and cups all the time (I have to have a lid at all times!) Net, hand, cup, etc.! This girl jumps out of everything, yet she's just fine (Never had a dent). She is also one of my fine lesser breeder girls.
This either helped, or it proved I need to take a closer look at my fish. Your crowntail is gorgeous, and I hope he gets better!
Here are two pictures. One of my floppy female, and one of my fin dragger male.

 

Ok, I see that area that you are talking about. It could be some form of small tumor/cyst, or maybe just an abnormality due to his genes. Crowntails do tend to have fin issues, unfortunately.

If he recovers and the problem starts to spread, I would treat with some aquarium salt. You can use it for up to 10 days without any problems. If you decide to use aquarium salt, just remember that it can only be removed by water changes. So you will want to keep track of how much water you change, and only add back that amount of salt that was removed with the change. Long term use of aquarium salt will result in it becoming ineffective(just like the long term use of antibiotics causes them to not work well), so that is what the 10 day recommendation is about.

I am glad to help in any way that I can! If you have questions, you can post them. Once you get up to 50 posts, you can message members directly.

Hope this helps!!

It does thank you so much, it’s hard not having my dad (I live at a college a state way so I unfortunately Can’t rely on him, he was/is the fish expert of the family), and yeah I have some aquarium salt (thanks to him), that I’d planned to use if they seemed to get worse, at the moment I’m just hoping they are cysts and don’t hurt him to badly with everything else going on, and also hope it’s part of the reason his fins are clamped, they’ve been clamped since the day I got him, not as badly as the og photos above though, so I really think it’s probably a combination of things on why his fins are clamped, which is why I’m going to get the water tested today after my classes and I’m going to try to pick up a master test kit so I can keep up with it on my own (the one I had went to my friend who’s fish was sick and unfortunately died, they had columnaris and we caught it too late)

Hello Entropy ,
I don't exactly have an answer or a cure, but I do have a bit of experience. One of my bettas used to lay on the bottom of the tank all the time. He always ate normally, and had healthy fins.
Another one of my crowntails also had those "knots" in his fins, and he's one of my best breeder males.
The last story is of my floppy fish named lilly. She is a female veiltail betta. You'd think that after dropping her 4 times, I might have learned my lesson. She likes to jump out of tanks and cups all the time (I have to have a lid at all times!) Net, hand, cup, etc.! This girl jumps out of everything, yet she's just fine (Never had a dent). She is also one of my fine lesser breeder girls.
This either helped, or it proved I need to take a closer look at my fish. Your crowntail is gorgeous, and I hope he gets better!
Here are two pictures. One of my floppy female, and one of my fin dragger male.

They both are so pretty! And yeah it does help, my female veiltail is currently sick (as far as I’m aware), so I’m having to down grade her filter to a less powerful one cause she keeps getting stuck by it due to the fact I think it’s fin rot, but it’s hard to tell cause she’s all white this is my girl, but I’m glad to know that they can survive drops cause that was my absolute fear! And yeah my crow tail eat a little today and last night, he’s swimming around a bit more, not much (from what I’ve seen), he still likes being at the bottom though so if he starts looking and feeling better and I still find him at the bottom I’m just going to chalk it up to him being weird, especially now knowing that there’s at least one others person Betta who does that, so thanks

 

Glad I caused ease! What a beautiful girl!

 

This is his tank water levels!

 

Hi Entropy,

Those water parameters look really good. Hope your crowntail is doing well. I would still do small, frequent water changes to keep the water pristine. Once the ammonia and nitrite start to build up, that will add stress to the fish, so you may need to do daily water changes when you reach that point. Also, I always found it easier to use Prime water conditioner by Seachem when cycling a tank. I like that the Prime will detoxify low levels of ammonia and nitrite, and that you can actually over dose with Prime when necessary. Just something to look into if you are interested, or maybe ask your dad about. I know that you already have some water conditioner/dechlor.

What kind of filter do you have on the little girl's tank? Is it a hang on back or an internal filter? Is she getting stuck on the intake part of the filter? She doesn't look like she has fin rot in the pic that you posted. She is very beautiful....just a georgous little girl!!!

Oh, and have you named them? It's always fun to hear what people name their bettas!!!

 

Hi Entropy,

Those water parameters look really good. Hope your crowntail is doing well. I would still do small, frequent water changes to keep the water pristine. Once the ammonia and nitrite start to build up, that will add stress to the fish, so you may need to do daily water changes when you reach that point. Also, I always found it easier to use Prime water conditioner by Seachem when cycling a tank. I like that the Prime will detoxify low levels of ammonia and nitrite, and that you can actually over dose with Prime when necessary. Just something to look into if you are interested, or maybe ask your dad about. I know that you already have some water conditioner/dechlor.

What kind of filter do you have on the little girl's tank? Is it a hang on back or an internal filter? Is she getting stuck on the intake part of the filter? She doesn't look like she has fin rot in the pic that you posted. She is very beautiful....just a georgous little girl!!!

Oh, and have you named them? It's always fun to hear what people name their bettas!!!

So unfortunately my girl twist pasted away today, I found her dead around 3 pm, her cause of death is unknown, her water levels were
Ph: 7.5

Ammonia: 0.25

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0
But the filter she had was hanging on the wall (it’s the same type as my boys 5-10 gallon tetra filter), I did notice her hiding behind it a lot and struggling to swim whenever it was on so I thought it was too strong, so I turned it off (got a new one today and came back from class and she was unfortunately gone) I have two pics of her last night and even looking over them I can’t find anything wrong/sickly with her unfortunately

and my two crowntail males names are Nox (he’s the gold and white one that’s this tread was posted about) he’s actually looking better, he’s eaten the past day and today, still resting at the bottom of his tank though
And euphoria he’s my little dark guy, I don’t have any good pictures of him in his tank yet as his tank isn’t safe enough for him to go into yet unfortunately but I’ll attach some photos below

 

I hope that Nox gets better soon!!!

 

I hope that Nox gets better soon!!!

Me too, he seems to be doing a lot better, he’s eating once again and is being more active thankfully, I just don’t get why he likes resting on the bottom of his tank