2 Betta's In Need of a Diagnosis

[KasaraWolf]

Hello again guys~! It's been awhile

So, today I come to you with another problem with my Betta's.

I just wanted to double check with you guys first before I went out to buy medicine and stuff that may just be a waste of my money ^^;

Last night before I went to bed, I noticed that my Halfmoon, Atlas was acting really strange. He was just not responding to me and ignored the food that I had given him, in which he usually devours immediately. I went to bed and the next morning woke up to this-

I think Atlas may have some type of Fungus, what do you guys think? I changed out his tank IMMEDIATELY when I found out, (Put some AQSalt in his tank) and now he seems to be his normal self again and is eating like he usually does.

Also, not too long ago, my little Delta/Halfmoon Betta, Pisces got some fin rot due to previous Pet store conditions. His fins were all bloody red and such around the edges and all of it looks gone now-

In the picture, you can see the red that has not gone away, so I don't know if he still has fin rot or not...It was originally completely white and was the only spot not affected by fin rot. He is EXTREMELY hyper active (As usual) and acting like his usual self. Eating regularly.

I was really hoping to breed my boys one day, since they are the prettiest fish in my Petstore area here in Littleton.

Any help will be much appreciated!

[JKfish]

Are the white spots simply water stains in your first photo or actually on him?

As for him not eating, sometimes that happens if the light is out for a while and your betta falls asleep. When you turn on a bright light suddenly, they wake up and swim around but they don't respond to things. I'm not certain, but it's almost as if they're sleep swimming or their eyes have difficulty adjusting to the sudden change- sort of like when your eyes are used to the dark and then you turn on a light while looking at it. I've accidently done this to my fish a few times and tried to feed them, but they ignore it (they're fine in the morning though)

The second boy with the red spot on his ventral fin looks super healthy actually, and it could just be a coloration of his fins :)

But just to be safe, could you try and answer all of these?

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[KasaraWolf]

Originally Posted by JKfish

Are the white spots simply water stains in your first photo or actually on him? They are just some stains I didn't clean off the outside of the bowl XD

As for him not eating, sometimes that happens if the light is out for a while and your betta falls asleep. When you turn on a bright light suddenly, they wake up and swim around but they don't respond to things. I'm not certain, but it's almost as if they're sleep swimming or their eyes have difficulty adjusting to the sudden change- sort of like when your eyes are used to the dark and then you turn on a light while looking at it. I've accidently done this to my fish a few times and tried to feed them, but they ignore it (they're fine in the morning though)

[COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]I am not sure if it was that actually XD He was swimming around a bit and noticed I was there, but was just really out of it. Same with this morning, since all of fish are up way before me lol.[/color]

The second boy with the red spot on his ventral fin looks super healthy actually, and it could just be a coloration of his fins :)

[COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]Oh alright! I was really worried about him! [/color]

But just to be safe, could you try and answer all of these?

Housing
What size is your tank? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]Atlas (Blue/Yellow) 1 Gallon-Pisces (Black/Green) 2 Gallon QT [/color]
What temperature is your tank? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]Atlas/Pisces- 76-78 degrees[/color]
Does your tank have a filter? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]No[/color]
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]No[/color]
Is your tank heated? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]Yes[/color]
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]None[/color]

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] Blood Worms (Treat) Omega One Betta Buffet Flakes, Aqueon Betta Food [/color]
How often do you feed your betta fish? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] 2 Times a day[/color]

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] Once a week[/color]
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] 90% [/color]
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]A tiny bit of Aquarium Salt[/color]

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

[COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]I have actually never tested the water D:[/color]

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]Atlas just has these 3 blotches and that's the only thing that has changed. [/color]
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] He acts like he usually does [/color]
When did you start noticing the symptoms? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] Yesterday night and early this morning [/color]
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]I changed out the water and put a teaspoon of AQSalt in and he seems to be acting fine now, other than the spots O: [/color]
Does your fish have any history of being ill? [COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"]He has never been sick :) [/color]
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[COLOR="rgb(0, 191, 255)"] I have only had him for about 2 months now, he was tiny when I first got him! [/color]

[Myates]

Nice looking boys you have...

The first guy looks to be he had rubbed hard against a rock, hard decoration or a rough substrate and knocked off some scales- they don't look infected, and will grow back. It doesn't look like fungus, fungus you would see white cottony growths with fine hairs sticking out, that's just smooth skin.

You can keep him in the AQ salt (1 tsp per gallon, pre-dissolved, daily 100% water changes adding in mixture of salt each time for no more then 10 days) to make sure no bacteria builds up on it. -- After seeing you normally place AQ salt into the tank, I don't think this is needed, but if the spots turn red as if being irritated/infected then this is the treatment needed.

After that just keep up on the weekly water changes (which I will address at the end).

For the next guy, it looks as if the rot has cleared up and I can see the new growth on all of his fins- a good sign (the clear edging). Keep an eye on it just in case, but I believe it should clear up if it is remnants of the rot- otherwise it could be a new color he has developed (normal for bettas to change/add coloration).
The rot wouldn't be cleared up in all other areas, and start in a new one while under treatment. So I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you see it get worse.

The nutrition seems like a good variety of good brand ones- Make sure not to overfeed, the pictures could be right after feeding if not then I would make sure that you are only feeding 2-3 pellets per meal/2-3 blood worms and a tiny pinch of flakes per meal twice a day (if mixing per meal, or if mixing 2 in one feeding, make sure to not pass 3 total whether it's pellets or FD).

You say you only add in a tiny bit of AQ salt during water changes, but nothing else:

You will need to pick up some water conditioner (there is a list of them on a link in my sig), and stop use of AQ salt: unless it is being used for treatment purposes only, and for only specific treatments, and for specific amounts of time.
Overuse, over exposure of AQ salt can harm the kidney/liver functions and can cause failure. It can also cause bacteria and viruses that the salt normally would kill to become resistant to the salt, therefor the salt won't work the way it should.
AQ salt is not recommended for long term use on bettas, and highly recommended you not- there is not enough good benefits of using salt to outweigh the danger of using it with them.

In tanks of your size, unfiltered, 1 change a week at 90% is no where near enough to keep the water clean and in the long run, keep your fish healthy and living a full life span. For those size tanks you will want to be doing 1 50% (water only, dosing the tank for the full volume of water conditioner) and 1 100% water change per week with only water conditioner. Ammonia among other things can and do build up quickly in tanks those sizes and without the needed 100%s, the salt you are adding in is building up slowly to dangerous levels over time (why the daily 100% is needed when using a salt).
Water can be too clean, just as it can be too dirty.. it's a calculated thing that depends on where you get your water (I am assuming tap water for you), live plants, filtered, cycled, etc.
But for everything unfiltered, under 5 gallons, no live plants the recommendation is what I stated above at 1 50% and 1 100% per week.
The only 90% per week can cause your first guy there to become infected on his wounds, which is not something anyone wants. And for the fin rot to develop on either of them the next time they get any type of fin damage.

Good luck with everything, you are doing a great job, just need a tweak :)

[JKfish]

+1 for Myates (Those are excellent explanations!)

I personally think that 1 gallons need two 50% water changes and one 100% water change a week, but either way, you need at least one 50% as well as one 100% water changes a week in both tanks.

I would suggest Prime by Seachem as a water conditioner. It's a little expensive, but since it only needs 2 drops per gallon, it's very economical. :)

[KasaraWolf]

Really? Well, I guess it was good for me to change out his fish rocks with "marble" stones instead this morning The other 10% water change is from the old water that I keep him in when I empty out his tank XD So my 3 Betta's water tend to get a "100%" change :) (Except for Pisces, who I change every 3 days because he is so darn messy compared to Atlas and Orlando) I will have to buy some water conditioner when I am out again, I usually just let chlorinated water sit out for 24+ hours or I used my filtered dechlorinated water that I have ^_^

Great advice! Thank you guys so much for the help~! :D Hopefully my little Atlas will recover ^^ I still wonder what he scrapped himself against to make that happen to his scales, I made sure the rocks in his tank were smooth enough >o>