# Betta scales falling off



## Arielste (Jul 14, 2013)

Hi there, one of my bettas is loosing his scales.

Ink is a petstore crowntail, and today I saw that he'd scraped a massive amount of scales off his head somehow.








He is in a three gallon half moon tank with live plants, I took out his ship in case he was scraping against that. His temperature is 86 farenheit right now as he had ich a few days ago and I'm making sure its completely gone.
Ink hasn't changed his behaviour, he's very zippy and loves chasing my fingers. He didn't have any scales missing yesterday, so I have no idea how he managed to beat himself up this fast.
He HAS ground a couple scales off his head before, on some driftwood, but not like this. There is NO gold dusting on him, so I'm not sure what to think.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

It sounds like he injured himself. That used to happen to my female all the time, she's a jumper and would jump for the water droplets on her lid and bump her head (until she finally realized they're not food) and sometimes, she would get so excited during feeding, she'd jump and scrape her head on the edge of the feeding hole on her lid. She'd usually scrape off quite a few scales when that would happen. Warm, clean water has worked best for my fish and she usually grows them all back within a few weeks. I've never used aquarium salt, and haven't needed to, she heals fairly quickly with just warm, clean water.


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## Lamb (Jul 9, 2013)

Ouch! Poor guy looks sad.  Is there anything that's hard/sharp in his tank?

And if I'm not wrong... 86 is too hot!


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

Lamb said:


> Ouch! Poor guy looks sad.  Is there anything that's hard/sharp in his tank?
> 
> And if I'm not wrong... 86 is too hot!


86 is the recommended temperature for treating ich.


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## Arielste (Jul 14, 2013)

sainthogan said:


> It sounds like he injured himself. That used to happen to my female all the time, she's a jumper and would jump for the water droplets on her lid and bump her head (until she finally realized they're not food) and sometimes, she would get so excited during feeding, she'd jump and scrape her head on the edge of the feeding hole on her lid. She'd usually scrape off quite a few scales when that would happen. Warm, clean water has worked best for my fish and she usually grows them all back within a few weeks. I've never used aquarium salt, and haven't needed to, she heals fairly quickly with just warm, clean water.


That might be it, his water level is a little higher than usual and he is a good jumper, he can get half his body past the surface when he wants to!

Ink is a little bugger, and a little dumb, but a lovely fish. I was worried that something bad had happened.
Is it possible as well that he's itching because of the ich as well?


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## Arielste (Jul 14, 2013)

Lamb said:


> Ouch! Poor guy looks sad.  Is there anything that's hard/sharp in his tank?
> 
> And if I'm not wrong... 86 is too hot!


Nothing sharp, I did my researche when I got him, when I was worried about sharp edges on his ship, I got aquarium glue and used it to round all the edges in his tank. After he proved to be a headbutter of things (Particularly driftwood and hands) I went and double checked everything in his tank for sharpness.
And he was pretty happy in that picture, mostly, he was finger chasing, which is his favourite pasttime. He rests his chin on his grass and stares at the finger till it gets close enough to jump on.


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## sainthogan (Sep 27, 2012)

Arielste said:


> That might be it, his water level is a little higher than usual and he is a good jumper, he can get half his body past the surface when he wants to!
> 
> Ink is a little bugger, and a little dumb, but a lovely fish. I was worried that something bad had happened.
> Is it possible as well that he's itching because of the ich as well?


It is possible, but since you know that he's a jumper, he probably injured himself jumping.


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