My Betta Has White Patch on his Head

[sincerelyanna]

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 79
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes
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? Wardley Betta Color Intensifier
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3 pieces in the morning, 3 at night.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice a week.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 10%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Bettasafe


Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Small white patch on the top of his head.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? No behavior change.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? It appeared overnight.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Not yet, waiting for a decent diagnosis.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? Not sure. About a year and a half?


He developed a small white patch on the top of his head.
The scales are normal sized, nothing is protruding, it isn't fuzzy, etc.
It doesn't look like a fungal infection or ich at all.
I've seen bettas change colors, but is that what is happening? Do black bettas change colors?

Help! :(

[beta novice]

does it look like this

[sincerelyanna]

No, it looks abit indented, but i can see the shape of the scales clearly.

[beta novice]

i do think were encountering the same problem if you do find out what it is let me know please

[SpookyTooth]

Is the aquarium cycled? If so I'd recommend upping your water changes to one 50% a week with gravel vaccume, if it isn't cycled you need to monitor ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and do water changes accordingly. Two 10% water changes a week are unfortunately not enough for a standard aquarium unless it is densely planted. Would you consider your aquarium densely planted?

Sometimes if a betta scratches against something they can lose scales and leave a white or grey patch in the area; my old betta used to have a habit of scratching himself on objects but I've since moved him to a safer aquarium (he's a bit short-sighted nowadays). It's entirely possible that your betta has scratched himself but it could also be another issue so I'd wait until another member comments before taking any action. If you can get a photograph that'd be wonderful!

[sincerelyanna]

Originally Posted by SpookyTooth

Is the aquarium cycled? If so I'd recommend upping your water changes to one 50% a week with gravel vaccume, if it isn't cycled you need to monitor ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and do water changes accordingly. Two 10% water changes a week are unfortunately not enough for a standard aquarium unless it is densely planted. Would you consider your aquarium densely planted?

Sometimes if a betta scratches against something they can lose scales and leave a white or grey patch in the area; my old betta used to have a habit of scratching himself on objects but I've since moved him to a safer aquarium (he's a bit short-sighted nowadays). It's entirely possible that your betta has scratched himself but it could also be another issue so I'd wait until another member comments before taking any action. If you can get a photograph that'd be wonderful!

Yes, it is cycled. I have a water siphon vacuum I use on it, I will start changing more of the water.
My aquarium isn't densely planted, but it does have some live plants and moss.
I will upload a picture as soon as I can :)

[sincerelyanna]

Here is a picture of it.
I circled it in the first picture to indicate where it is and have attached more.
It is healing up now though, so it probably was a scratch :)
Just want to make sure though.