Betta with fuzzy white on mouth

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suzabbe

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Aug 22, 2004
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Betta with fuzzy white

I just purchased 2 male bettas and they are in a 5 gal tank with divider, heater, filter etc. They both are eating fine, swimming fine, seem to be enjoying the larger space as opossed to the cups they were in in the store. One of them seems to have, just appeared overnight, some white fuzz on it's mouth. Any ideas what this is? It almost looks like a frozen brine shrimp that's stuck there, you know very small and fuzzy, but it's not. I've stared at it all morning. It appears to be just a film almost on the lower jaw. Anyone know what this could be? The other betta doesn't have it that I can tell, but he is cream colored, while the one that had it is dark blue so he may have it and I just can't see it yet.
 
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suzabbe

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Aug 22, 2004
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OH NO! I was just watching the cream colored betta and see that one of it's WHOLE sides is covered in a cloudy fuzz, it protrudes out from behind the gill to right above the tail! Is this some kind of fungus?

Here are some pics of the cream colored one. The dark blue Betta doesn't photograph well:




You can see the buldge-looking thing in the middle of the fish. It's a soft white fuzzy cloud.
 
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Nuriel

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Sep 6, 2004
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sounds like "velvet"

I have never had bettas but my pleco had white "fuzz" on him when I brought him home from the pet store. I used Aquarium Product's Anti Fungus which contains malichite green, not good for scaleless fish> however i used it at half dose and the fuzz disapeared the same day. i recommend an anti fungal followed up by more frequent water changes.
 

suzabbe

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Aug 22, 2004
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I read up some on Velvet, I'm not sure that's it though. The thing I found that best macthes the symptoms is:

Body Fungus (Columnaris)
Symptoms : White cottony patches anywhere on the body.
Info : Body 'Fungus' (aka: Columnaris) is actually a bacterial problem.
Treatments : Clout
Prevention : You can prevent by keeping your betta clean. Disease may still be introduced by live foods.

After watching the cream betta more this morning I can see it has another patch of white cloudy substance on it's tail fin. I've also read that CLOUT treatment is not a good idea.
 
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suzabbe

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Aug 22, 2004
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Thanks. The 2 stores near me didn't have Jungle Fungus Clear so I'll need to order it, which I hope isn't too late. Unfortunately, the cream-colored Betta shown above died last night. He got this fungus really bad really quick. He must have had it in the store when I bought him and I couldn't see it because of his color. I separated the two bettas into 2 seperate tanks yesterday before the cream one died.

The blue one seems to be acting fine, as the cream one wasn't, however, I can see some growth on him as mentioned before, it looks different than the growth the cream one had. I believe the cream one had True Body Fungus (Saprolignia) but the blue one looks like he has Body Fungus (Columnaris)? He's got little bits of stringy white coming off his head and under jaw. These two diseases are so simular in description I can't really tell them apart. With the council of the store staff I purchased MarOxy and have been treating with that. It doesn't require any water change or temperature increase, doesn't that seem strange? I'm worried that because MarOxy and Maracyn treat these two different diseases that I'm giving him the wrong medication.
 

sdb

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May 4, 2004
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Sorry about your betta not making it. :( He must have come from the pet store that way, and like you said, because of his coloring you didn't notice it. At least he died in a nice home rather than in a disgusting environment in a LFS.
Unfortunately, I'm not at all famaliar with MarOxy, but when I checked my box of Maracyn-Two, it did say it works along with MarOxy, so the two can be used together, if needed. The thing is, Maracyn-Two is not for fungus treatments. Does MarOxy say it's for treating fungus?
Anyway, hopefully someone comes along that's familiar with MarOxy and gives their opinion. But as long as it's for treating fungus, it should work.
Oh, and lots of meds don't require you to raise your temp or do water changes (until the end of treatments, when you would then use carbon to remove the meds, and do a water change.) So I wouldn't worry about that.
 

suzabbe

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Aug 22, 2004
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Hi, Yes MarOxy does treat Body Fungus, that's what it says it does and I've found that on several BEtta websites it is recommended for body fungus.

I brought the dead betta back to the store last night and the store said ALL their bettas either died or were infected with fungus within that 2 day period!!! I noticed, when I purchased the 2 bettas the store had at least 50 and now they had none. The guy gave me my money back and said if the blue betta lives and gets past the fungus that's great. If not, they'd refund the money for him as well. They didn't even do a water test, so they at least knew it was their fault. I feel bad for all those bettas though. There were a lot. I hope I can save this little guy I've got now. He's in a tank by himself and hasn't been in any other one so there's no risk of infecting any of my other fish.

Yes, I agree, he had to have had the fungus in store, it's especially hard to detect anything wrong on bettas in store because of those stupid little cups they are in. And his color didn't help.
 

sdb

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May 4, 2004
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Yes, hopefully you can save your little guy. That's amazing (and so sad)that the store lost all it's bettas. Unfortunately, they are easily replaced with a new shipment of cups full. It makes me sick.
Anyway, good luck with your betta. Let us know how he does....
 

brookelyn

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Mar 18, 2004
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Sounds like it could have been Columnaris/Flex (which is not fungal, but bacterial even though is sometimes goes by the name "mouth fungus"), which can kill in as little as 24 hours. The sooner you can treat Flex the better the chances the fish will pull through are.

Best of luck with your betta. I sure hope he recovers.
 
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