Is My Betta Ok? Please Help!!!

Jess7

Jess7

My Pets Play So Nice Don't They?!!
Feb 27, 2005
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Massachusetts
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I recently had a 2.5 gallon tank with a betta divider and one male on each side. I believe the tail fins of one may have slipped into the other side and got nibbled on. So I put that on in a cheesy betta bowl to separate the two fish and reduce the stress. While in the bowl it seems that the skin by his face and over his gills are almost see through (I believe it was darker before) and I can see a vertical red line. His eyes also seem somewhat blood shot. He is now in his own 10 gallon tank and seems happy as can be. He eats and is very responsive swimming everywhere. Am I overreacting? Please any feedback is much appreciated. :bowing:

Oh yeah, pH is 7
Nitrate and Ammonia are normal too..
 
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hi. I dont think you are over reacting. Ive found bettas to be much like people, each with their own personality and tolerence level. What you describe sounds to me like fluid retention/ salt loss - dropsy. This is usually caused by an open wound ( not nec large) somewhere on the fishes body or gills, and suppose it could have been caused by your other male like you said, although I very much doubt your fish would allow the other to simply nibble at its fins when it is easily capable of moving away from the gap where it was being 'eaten'.

All freshwater fish 'want' to hold onto the salt that the have and require in their bodies. This is because the environment they live in has a lower salt concentration than they need. What happens with an open wound is that the fish will ( via osmosis and diffusion) eventually loose salt to the environment, ultimatly killing the fish.

If you do believe your betta splendens to have an open wound, treat it with a long term salt bath, to keep internal salt levels in check. I dont want to advise specific salt levels as Ive never tried this on bettas, but hopefully somebody else will know what exactlevels b splendens is accepts. Andy.
 
Thanks so much for the quich response! Does this dropsy usually lead to death? :sad Do I have time to act? I have some dwarf frogs I was planning on putting in there too. I suppose I should avoid this for now...
 
I would keep the frogs out because your fish is likley to be listless (due to lack of salt, believe it or not it may be dehydrated!) Dropsy is not contagious in itself, so there is no risk of 'infection' to other fish (or frogs i presume). I have books specificly on bettas. I'll check for salt concentrations etc and reply soon.
 
one tablespoon (aq salt) per us gallon is what 'a complete guide to bettas' recommends. This is really pretty low, and shouldnt cause your betta osmoregulatory problems. I would advise doing a 33% water change after one week, and then after two weeks also.
 
at this level it shouldnt do any harm. I know it sounds incredibly simple, but ive used salt to treat this and 'velvet' in bettas before and its been very sucessful. andy
 
I just looked up dropsy and it said he should be bloated and have raised scales. He doesn't look like that. Hmmm...
Oh, I've been using BettaFix and it seems to be helping his tail fin, is it ok to put the salt in also?
 
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