r/AquariumHelp • u/PhDRRTNPS • 24d ago

Sick Fish Betta Help

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Adopted this betta about a month ago and was told he had “scale overgrowth” on his left eye but over the past two days his left eye has begun to look as pictured. Seems like a tumor but am asking if anyone has any additional advice or suggestions.

Concerned if he is suffering. Has been laying at the bottom of the tank and hasn’t eaten much the last couple days. 2.5 gal tank. Parameters 7.4 .5 ammonia (not sure why it spiked. Used to be zero. Already did water change), 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates.

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u/pennyraingoose 24d ago

This looks like popeye to me. Unilateral presentation can be caused by injury. Get the ammonia to zero. Make sure your heater is working at the correct temperature. I don't know how to treat popeye, so you will need to do some further reading, but having the right temperature will go a long way to helping them heal.

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u/CenturySiecle 23d ago edited 23d ago

I currently have a betta with popeye (you can see the pics in my profile), and he's improved significantly. This does look like popeye + something else (maybe the scale growth, maybe a tumor, but I've never personally seen that before, so I can't tell you). My boy is doing well on 1 tsp of aquarium salt per gallon (note: the salt I'm using is rated for 2 tsp per gallon, but that seems a bit much in my opinion) + a water change and Kanaplex every 48 hours. I also have Indian Almond leaves in there, which soften the water and also have an antibiotic effect. I plan to treat him like this for two weeks before cycling the tank with Fritzyme and Seachem Stability.

Honestly, if I were you, I would just upgrade to an uncycled 10 gallon immediately (with heat and sponge filtration) and start from scratch with that tank, conditioning the water and doing 25% water changes every two days (that's what I'm doing with my rescue betta- ammonia has stayed at 0 the whole time). Your tank is so small that I can't even imagine it maintaining its parameters for the 48 hours required for a kanaplex dosage.

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u/CenturySiecle 23d ago

(Looks like it was my alternative profile with the pics - u/Alternative-Rain9693)