# Red eyes, not eating, "rough" looking "skin", what gives?



## beatlesusan (May 18, 2009)

Hello. We've had great luck with my sons little betta girl. But over the past few days she hasn't been eating (she's always been a good eater) and her eyes are all red. You can see the ridges in her gills (ie she doesn't appear smooth like she did). She looks a little bloated almost...more round than normal. She may have a bit more white on her fins, but I"m not sure. She just kind of floats around...she'll, like, dive straight down to the bottom of her little tank (a 1 gallon). It almost looks like she is having trouble "breathing". I recently put in a new plant and this little tiki thing my son wanted...could that cause her to be sick? I just changed her water again and put some bettafix in. Any suggestions on what to do? Is there still hope?


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## beatlesusan (May 18, 2009)

I've been reading about this...I'm afraid its dropsy. She does have that pine cone look...is there anything that can be done? Will salt help?


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## AngelicScars (May 5, 2009)

Dropsy is 100% lethal. The best thing is to make her as comfortable as possible until she passes. I'm sorry.


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

I use an Antibiotic clean water and epsom salt. My fish made it a little longer than most dropsy cases.


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## beatlesusan (May 18, 2009)

Will it recover? It's looking pretty sad. Kind bobs vertically. Lost its color. It seems to have trouble breathing  Should I just put it out of its misery?


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Dropsy will always kill. No hope sorry


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## AlexXx (Aug 23, 2009)

I figured by reading your first post it might be dropsy 

Id just try to keep the water clean and see what happens, dont put her outa her misery just yet, who knows, maybe it really isnt dropsy! Hope things turn around soon!


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## beatlesusan (May 18, 2009)

Should I continue putting bettafix in her water? 

Also, she seems to be, IDK, excreting a film or something? There's little bits of it all over, even after cleaning.

And another silly question probably. I've cleaned the tank, I've washed my hands thoroughly...can a fish disease affect a human? Just want to be sure as I have young children and all...


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## Willh2much (Jun 2, 2013)

*Very unlikely*



beatlesusan said:


> Should I continue putting bettafix in her water?
> 
> Also, she seems to be, IDK, excreting a film or something? There's little bits of it all over, even after cleaning.
> 
> And another silly question probably. I've cleaned the tank, I've washed my hands thoroughly...can a fish disease affect a human? Just want to be sure as I have young children and all...


It is extremely unlikely for diseases like dropsy or other to spread to humans, just continue washing your hands before and after cleaning, so the betta is safe and you don't smell like fish :lol:


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## Happyhobbit (May 6, 2013)

The others are right, if she has dropsy you can't really do anything.  Just an FYI I wouldn't use bettafix. It has an ingredient that could hurt their labyrinth organ.


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## LittleBlueFishlets (Nov 10, 2012)

This thread is really old. It was started in September 2009....


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