I got a fish on October 10. She's been perfectly healthy. Today, I noticed a single raised whitish spot in the middle of her tail, almost like a tiny blister. I don't know if this is ick or just some kind of small injury. She doesn't seem to be having any problems at all. Can ick spontaniously appear after this long a period of time? There's no way that we could have introduced ick to her tank. We don't feed her live food at all and there's never been another fish in there with her.
There's no way I'm going to be able to get a picture of it. My camera has no macro setting and has an automatic focus that can't be turned off. It just focuses on the glass.
Ich is actually in the tank all the time. They just wait until the fish is stressed to strike. Since Ich is a parasite, there should be multiple white dots covering the fish. I don't think this is Ich... Picture? Oh, and just to clear up; live foods can't cause Ich.
I can't get a picture. My (very old) digital camera doesn't have a macro setting and it also has an auto focus that can't be turned off so it just focuses on the glass and anything in the tank just comes out blurry. Even if I could, this fish will not cooporate at all. As soon as there's a human near her tank, she gets all excited and zooms all over the place expecting to be fed and this thing on her tail is so small that this camera is NOT going to pick it up.
All I can do is describe it. It looks like a single tiny white pimple on the middle of her tail. There are no other spots on her body or fins. I've checked meticulously. It's definitely raised with what looks like a point at the top. It looks like a REALLY TINY blister on the right side of the middle of her tail. What are the chances that this is ick that I'm looking at?
That sucks. :\ There's only a 20% chance of this being Ich. If there aren't anymore white dots then this shouldn't be Ich. Maybe you can search up pictures with your description.
It looks almost like one single ick spot. But like I said. There's nothing anywhere on her body. It's just this one spot. I wonder if this is some kind of injury. Her tail is fine. No holes. No degredation. She's not scratching or biting at it. She's not clamping at all. Her fins are all open and wide spread. Should I just sit back and wait and see or do you think this is something that needs attention now?
sometimes when fish get injured they get this white thing on them, like we get the brown stuff on our wounds to protect it while healing, if the fish isn't lethargic, or trying to scratch itself, or darting with multiple white dots it's most likely not ich.
My betta had a white "pimple" on his head a few months back, exactly like the one you're describing on your fish. It disappeared within a week. Keep her under close observation, and as long as you don't see any other spots developing, she should be fine.
What temperature is your tank? Fluctuates between 77-78 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? Four pellets twice daily
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once or twice a week depending on when we see ammonia. The tank has not cycled yet (and doesn't even seem to want to get going). Nitrates are zero
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Beta Water Treater (It's the easiest to measure for our pitcher)
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
pH: Have not tested
Hardness: Don't have a test kit for this
Alkalinity: Don't have a test kit for this
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? A single raised white spot has appeared on the middle of the right side of her tail fin. It looks like a tiny white pimple. There are no other spots. No sign of any other thing wrong.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? It has not changed. She's still the spunky thing she always was. She is eating and happily swimming. She is not clamping or scratching. Her fins are fully open (unless she's zipping). She is not showing any odd behavior or signs of darting unless something scares her.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Today.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I have not started treatment
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? I bought her from a store in mid October so
she's pretty young, I would imagine. She appears full grown.
I wish I could get a picture, but there's just no way my camera can do it. The only way I can describe this thing is that it looks like a tiny white blister on the right side of the middle of her tail fin. It looks almost like an ick spot, but if it was ick, I would imagine that it would be visible all over her and not just one dot. This thing really looks to me like a teeny blister about the size of an ick spot. There is no sign of any tail wear or biting.
I would also imagine that if there was ick in the tank that she would have shown signs of being attacked for the four months that we've had her.
Update: She's still doing fine. The spot hasn't changed it's size at all. That one spot remains her only spot. No sign of problems with her fin other than the spot.. She's still as spunky as she usually is.
Well, it's been almost a week and still only that one little spot. If it was ick, it would definitely be noticeable all over her body by now, I would imagine. It's still remained that one spot. It hasn't grown at all. There's no sign of her being stressed or unhappy. She definitely is still eating fine (She just almost took my wife's finger off while she was being fed her pellets). She hasn't lost any color, and her fins look fine other than that one spot. I'm beginning to lean toward the feeling that this is probably a little injury on the fin.
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