# Injury or Disease?



## TripleL (Mar 11, 2020)

My Betta was acting oddly yesterday by hanging out in his castle decoration all day. And because of this I didn’t get a good look at him until he came out today. That’s when I noticed the large what seems to be a gash in his side. I’m thinking I missed a sharp edge on part of the decor (even though I try to be so careful in this area) and he may have hurt himself on his home. I was hoping to get some more opinions if this could be what happened, or if he is suffering from some sort of disease. I am not very experienced in fish illness. Either way, I need to do something to help him, so please send any and all advice my way.

Thank you.

*Housing*:
How many gallons is your tank? 6.5
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? No

*Food*:
What food brand do you use? Hikari
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Pellets
Freeze-dried? No
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? 6 pellets 1-2 times per day

*Maintenance*:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? Once/week
What percentage of water did you change? 30%
What is the source of your water? Tap
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Vacuum substrate
What additives do you use? What brand of conditioner? Tetra Aqua Safe for Bettas

*Water Parameters*:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water _before_ the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: ? Bought the wrong kit, doesn’t test
Nitrite: .5 (yes we are still cycling, I read somewhere you could do so with fish? could be wrong, this is my first time trying to keep track of parameters)
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.5
Hardness (GH): 120
Alkalinity (KH): 180

*Symptoms and Treatment*:
When did you first notice the symptoms? 1-2 days 
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? There is some sort of injury on his side
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Yesterday he stayed in his rock hiding spot, today he came out but just hangs out near the top of the water.
Is your Betta still eating? He stopped eating today, though he stays near the food looking at it like he wants to eat it. Normally he has all the food from his feeding eaten before I set the container down.

Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? Not yet, seeking advice for this.
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? No
How long have you owned your Betta? 2 months
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? Nothing observed


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Looks as if he was gouged by something. To be safe, I would remove any caves, etc., and run panty hose over them to see if they snag. Sometimes we can't feel something that is harmful. I hope others will let us know what they think it might be.

If it's a gouge I would add either Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) or Rooibos Tea for their mild antibacterial properties and SeaChem Stress for its antiseptic properties. Up water changes to 50% every three days or when Nitrites reach .25 ppm, Clean water is extremely important.

Here is this Forum's tutorial on fish-in cycling. You will do best if you have SeaChem Prime and an Ammonia test. Ammonia is the most important parameter to track. When you can fit it in the budget, an API Master Test Kit will give you a lot more bang for the buck than strips,









CYCLING: the two-sentence tutorial


Change half the water when either ammonia or nitrite approach 0.50ppm (alternately, 25% at 0.25ppm), or weekly, whichever comes first. Add Seachem Prime at 2-drops per gallon of tank size every day until cycled. That’s all you have to do. You can stop reading now. But there’s a lot of...




www.bettafish.com





Ammonia and Nitrites, during cycling, should never be allowed to reach more than .50 ppm.

Best of luck and keep us posted. He's a beautiful boy!


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## TripleL (Mar 11, 2020)

Thanks for all the information on what to try and fish-in cycling. I’ll probably have to order some stuff online, there isn’t much around here for fish beside what’s at Walmart. I’m hoping a little nurturing can help him recover.





RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Looks as if he was gouged by something. To be safe, I would remove any caves, etc., and run panty hose over them to see if they snag. Sometimes we can't feel something that is harmful. I hope others will let us know what they think it might be.
> 
> If it's a gouge I would add either Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) or Rooibos Tea for their mild antibacterial properties and SeaChem Stress for its antiseptic properties. Up water changes to 50% every three days or when Nitrites reach .25 ppm, Clean water is extremely important.
> 
> ...


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## Mr Grumpy (Feb 28, 2020)

> If it's a gouge I would add either Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) or Rooibos Tea for their mild antibacterial properties and SeaChem Stress for its antiseptic properties. Up water changes to 50% every three days or when Nitrites reach .25 ppm, Clean water is extremely important.


I agree, 

It look like an injury, any chance of posting a photo of his tank?


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## TripleL (Mar 11, 2020)

Most everything was picked out at Walmart by my kids... if an injury I’m guessing the castle, orange fake plant (it isn’t jagged, but it is hard), or do you think the filter could have done it? The tank and filter came in a kit from Walmart. I wanted to get different stuff, but it was kind of a project for my kindergartener and there isn’t a lot around here to physically go to and choose from. I’d actually just taken out some decor this week before this happened. Definitely changing things up now though.



Mr Grumpy said:


> I agree,
> 
> It look like an injury, any chance of posting a photo of his tank?


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Did you run your fingers all around the inside of the castle? Are the turrets hollow where he might have gotten stuck?

I used to use unpunched clay pots (found in Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc.) as hides. Bury half in the substrate. If you can't find unpunched then block the hole with a rock.


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## TripleL (Mar 11, 2020)

The inside is smooth, a little bit hollow up into the turrets but no openings big enough for him to get into. And it usually has a little bit of an air pocket at the top.

After removing the castle, I found that the bottom edge was most likely the culprit. It was broken in one place. I’m not sure if it was that way before or has broken since being put in the tank, it is very thin in that spot. Either way, It had been more buried in the substrate before I did some cleaning and rearranging this week, I’m sorry to say I didn’t burry the bottom very much to make the entrances easier to get through. So now I’m thinking the broken part was exposed enough that he caught it. 😢 why do they sell so many death traps for fish? I had to talk my kids out of so many more obviously dangerous decorations before we settled on what we did. And in the end even those were bad choices.

I hope he will come through this.


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

Hi, in addition to the information given here, if the wound is fresh, you could also consider adding aquarium salt at 1 tsp / gallon for the next 5 days. It won't heal the injury, it will help sterilize the wound.
It's all about preventing infection and letting him heal himself.


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