Small white patch of flaking skin on Betta. Injury or something else?

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 5.5 gal
How long has the tank been running? three to four weeks
Does it have a filter? yes, but there's no media in it since I'm medicating the water
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? around 78
What is the entire stocking of this tank? just my betta

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? a couple of times per week, but I haven't in the past four days since I'm putting medicine in his tank for fin rot
How much of the water do you change? 50 percent or however much is needed to get the gunk out
What do you use to treat your water? using tetra aquasafe dechlorinator for bettas
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? both

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? no
What do you use to test the water? api liquid ammonia test kit and 5 in 1 test strips by tetra
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: in between .25 and .5 ppm but that's because I haven't cleaned the tank due to his medicine
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: about 7

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? once in the morning and once at night
How much do you feed your fish? two pellets in the morning and then either two small pieces of a pea (the size of a pellet), a freeze dried bloodworm, or two more pellets, depending on what day of the week it is
What brand of food do you feed your fish? the pellets are imagitarium and the bloodworms are tetra
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? freeze dried

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? three to four weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? today
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? a small white patch of flaking skin that only spans over a couple of scales
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I'm currently on the last dose of lifegaurd all in one treatment by tetra for fin rot, but I've done nothing for the white patch yet
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? no
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Other than the white patch, no. He is still pretty lively around the tank, but isn't glass surfing as much as he was a couple of weeks ago when I first got him. He is a little stressed from the ammonia level, though.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. I spent the night at a friend's house yesterday and when I got home today, I noticed the small white patch of flaking scales. He seems fine otherwise. Did he injure himself somehow or is it something serious? I've been looking diseases up online and his scales aren't sticking out like dropsy, and there's no white dots like ich. My phone is broken so I can't really take any good pictures, but here's one from my kindle. Sorry for the bad quality.

 

I can't really see anything in the first picture, but the fact that it is an uncycled tank is a problem. Leading to high Ammonia. If you are treating him for Fin Rot, you should be doing more water changes, so I don't understand why you are doing less.

 

I can't really see anything in the first picture, but the fact that it is an uncycled tank is a problem. Leading to high Ammonia. If you are treating him for Fin Rot, you should be doing more water changes, so I don't understand why you are doing less.

It kept fluctuating, so I finally got medicine for it. The instructions just said to not change the water so the medicine will stay in the tank. Since yesterday was the last dose, tomorrow I will be doing a water change to get rid of the built up ammonia.

I'm new to this and I didn't know I needed to cycle the tank when I got him, but I don't think there's anything I can do now. Other people on here told me that I'll just have to let it run its course and it'll eventually even out.

I know it's hard to see, but it's the white thing on him. I could try to circle it, if that would help? That's what I'm most worried about, not the fin rot, since he has a mild case and It's almost completely gone.

 

It kept fluctuating, so I finally got medicine for it. The instructions just said to not change the water so the medicine will stay in the tank. Since yesterday was the last dose, tomorrow I will be doing a water change to get rid of the built up ammonia.

I'm new to this and I didn't know I needed to cycle the tank when I got him, but I don't think there's anything I can do now. Other people on here told me that I'll just have to let it run its course and it'll eventually even out.

I know it's hard to see, but it's the white thing on him. I could try to circle it, if that would help? That's what I'm most worried about, not the fin rot, since he has a mild case and It's almost completely gone.

Okay, you can do a fish in cycle, which is doing water changes when Ammonia and Nitrite get to high. Which means daily testing, and when the tank goes a week without any buildup, it will be cycled. At this point I can't tell what the dot is, we'd need a better picture.

 

How old is you're betta?

 

How old is you're betta?

OP says the tank as been running for 3-4 weeks, so the Betta is probably just a year old.

 

Okay, you can do a fish in cycle, which is doing water changes when Ammonia and Nitrite get to high. Which means daily testing, and when the tank goes a week without any buildup, it will be cycled. At this point I can't tell what the dot is, we'd need a better picture.

That's really good to know! Thanks! I'm getting a new phone tomorrow so I'll be able to get a good picture then.

 

That's really good to know! Thanks! I'm getting a new phone tomorrow so I'll be able to get a good picture then.

The flake of skin is gone and he's acting fine, so I think he just bumped into something and hurt himself.

 

The flake of skin is gone and he's acting fine, so I think he just bumped into something and hurt himself.

Good. I notice I freak out when stuff like this happens. Sometimes it's not much.

Just make sure to cycle your tank if it isn't already.