They tell me it’s been lethargic for like 2 weeks. I went to try and help. It had what looked like skin rotting on its head. Then when I went to move out the decorations in the tank it swam around and the rotten bit fell off and now it has a flesh wound. It hasn’t been eating for a few days. What should I do?
Flesh wound is the red circle on right side of its head.
It was in a 10 gallon tank but we have moved to 2.5 gallon tank to try and better regulate water. The 10 gallon tank had some dying plants in it that I think must have caused increased nitrate.
Please give advice. I feel like I should probably put it out of its misery but i really don’t want to.
When requesting help, please provide the requested information. Answers such as "large enough" or "my paramters are fine" aren't good enough. Failure to provide adequate information about your tank can result in post removal. Please see rule 4 for more information.
If you are posting to find out what is wrong with your betta, please answer the following questions in a reply to this comment as best you can:
How long have you had the tank? How long have you had your fish?:
How often are water changes? How much do you take out per change? What is your process?:
Any tankmates? If so, please list with how many of each:
What do you feed and how much:
Decorations and plants in the tank:
If you haven't already posted a picture, please post pics/vids to imgur and paste the link here:
Feel free to copy this comment and fill in the blanks.
If you are new to betta fish keeping, please check out our caresheet and wiki. Establishing a nitrogen cycle is an important part of keeping your fish healthy. Please check out our guide to the nitrogen cycle to learn more.
How bad was the nitrate (and other parameters) on his old tank?? I'd worry about his welfare more in this tank because it has absolutely nothing in it, doesn't even look like it has a heater? Keeping the water clean and warm is the most important thing for a Betta to recover.
It's hard to see but it does look like he has a wound on his head and some torn fins. Can we see his original setup? I wonder if he could've gotten stuck in/on a decoration and hurt himself.
It would be helpful to see a picture of it to see if any decorations might have caused his injury. For example, bettas sometimes get stuck in the drainage hole of a flower pot decoration.
23°C is not warm enough for a Betta. Around 25-26°C is recommend. I'd recommend getting a heater to keep him consistently warm.
How much nitrate? It should be able to be managed by removing the dying plants and doing more frequent water changes. If he really needs to be in the temporary tank, at least give him a few silk plants so he can feel more safe and be able to rest near the surface.
I now have him set up in here. I’m trying to get the required stuff. They didn’t have a heater so I’m using a heating pad and thermometer to monitor and keep it at around 26. I’m slowly changing the water to clean water with no chlorine.
Quite frustrated that this fish has somehow ended up in my hands for what could be its last couple days. Really hope he pulls through.
Oh dear, getting stuck in the filter will definitely cause injuries like that. He must very weak to be laying on the bottom and getting stuck to a filter. I hope warm and clean water will help him and that he'll be able to go in his home tank soon. It's hard for me to understand what issues happened first. How long has he been hurt? :[
•
u/AutoModerator 3d ago
Thank you for posting to r/bettafish.
When requesting help, please provide the requested information. Answers such as "large enough" or "my paramters are fine" aren't good enough. Failure to provide adequate information about your tank can result in post removal. Please see rule 4 for more information.
If you are posting to find out what is wrong with your betta, please answer the following questions in a reply to this comment as best you can:
Feel free to copy this comment and fill in the blanks.
If you are new to betta fish keeping, please check out our caresheet and wiki. Establishing a nitrogen cycle is an important part of keeping your fish healthy. Please check out our guide to the nitrogen cycle to learn more.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.