Velvet won't leave..? :/

[LittleBettaFish]

You can tell if your fish has velvet. I had velvet spread through most of my tanks and it is an extremely nasty little parasite. It looks almost like grey or gold dust over the top of your betta's scales. It is usually visible around the gills and on the fin membranes.

Fish infected with velvet usually refuse to eat and may be dull and have clamped fins. They may scratch themselves on things in the tank because of the irritation caused by the parasite and this can cause secondary infections if the area becomes an open wound.

Velvet takes a long time to go away because of its life cycle. Keeping the tank blacked out is necessary as the creature that causes velvet is able to use photosynthesis. Also malachite green is light sensitive and won't work if exposed to light. Bumping the temperature up as other posters have mentioned helps to speed the life cycle up.

Going by your picture I would say what your seeing is natural colouration. Your betta looks to be physically fine and if he isn't acting abnormally I wouldn't bother with any further treatment for velvet.

[moonsand0wls]

Thank you. I thought maybe it could be because it looks like gold dust. It looks like a very weird pattern - but I will leave it for now. If he suddenly get's worse, I will resume treatment. He's never been ultra ultra active since I've had him, though. Maybe that's because he's a Delta tail and it's harder to swim for long-tailed Betta. He doesn't seem to be scratching or anything and has a real guts. I will watch him and see what happens. :) Thank you.

[LittleBettaFish]

When my fish got velvet they went from being quite active and friendly to hiding almost 24 hours of the day. They would eat (this was with live foods) only very sparingly and they had these massive gouges in the sides of their heads where they had been rubbing themselves raw. When you shone a bright flashlight over them you could see specks of velvet on the edges of their gills and in the fin membrane (particularly the pectorals). It was only when it was more advanced that you started seeing it on the body.

I also lost several of them within about two weeks and had to euthanise a whole breeding colony when they didn't recover. I only finally got rid of it out of my fish room. Nasty thing velvet.

I think it would be rare for a fish to have a prolonged velvet infection and for it not to cause any ill-effects. Some of my splendens have been quite inactive (except when they see their pellets coming) so it could just be how he is. I think it must get tiring having to lug heavy fins around all the time so it makes sense that males of these tail types tend to appear less active than their shorter finned counterparts.

I do have one thought. What you are seeing could be his natural iridescence. I have betta species that are very iridescent and it can be difficult to distinguish between the two.

[moonsand0wls]

Wow - that would suck having to euthanise them all. Sorry for your loss, especially since you probably had put a LOT of work into them just to have to lose them. Sigh. I hope I never get it!

And I think it probably is that - though I was a little concerned as his head wasn't like that when I first got him. He was un-masked in a white sort of colour but now it's REALLY gold/orange.

I have taken some photos, that aren't really good, but yeah.
Also looking i've noticed his belly at the front is grey. It's never that colour. Is this bad?

Sigh. I'm really stressing out because I've never had this problem with any of my fish before... but I guess there's a first time for everything. :(

Should I euthanise him? (That would suck though because he's a Delta tail and they are rare here)

[moonsand0wls]

This is such a horrible, blurry picture! Sorry. But you can kind of see the dark part on his belly at the front. It's grey.


I found this online. It sort of looks like the grey in this. But darker.


This is how orange his head is -



\

Sorry, my camera is really crap and doesn't pick up on details (e.g scales etc) so it goes blurry.

Sigh why do I have such trouble with him, when my sister who doesn't even look after her Betta has better luck! :/

[LittleBettaFish]

No I wouldn't euthanise him! I only made the decision to euthanise the fish in one of my tanks because even though the velvet went away after treatment they were not eating, got extremely skinny and essentially just sat on the bottom of the tank not doing anything for three or so weeks.

With that said, my two year pair of wild bettas got velvet (their adult offspring were the ones who died) and after a successful treatment they have now given me around 20 more fry. So if by some chance your male does have velvet, be aware that is not necessarily a death sentence.

Also does the 'velvet' patch look like the yellow colouration on the head of my white CT male?



Having a yellow or orange looking discolouration on the top of the head like shown in the picture above, is perfectly normal.

Marbles are constantly changing colour. I have had blue and white bettas end up blue with red fins so just because a colour wasn't there originally doesn't mean it isn't going to crop up later.

Personally, I think you have nothing serious (at least in terms of velvet) to worry about. If you are concerned, just keep eyes on him and don't share any of the equipment that you use on his tank on any others you might have.

[moonsand0wls]

Oh, thank goodness! I got really upset thinking that I might have to. I get too attached to my pets sometimes for my own good.

Sorry, it probably is normal, this is just me freaking out! I have never owned a marbled one before so I haven't seen colours change. It probably is just that.. It's just slightly worrying to me because it doesn't look normal. But in saying that you said that it could be a very very strong iridescent.

I would like to breed this boy when I am confident that he is okay - but do you know why is belly is grey? Could that be colour changing, too?

I just saw this! This is what his head looks like, sort of, except he has a clear patch in the middle (you can sort of see it in the pictures) and over it goes his blue and some black spots.




Thank you so much for your help. :)

[moonsand0wls]

Also, sort of like these, except his look raised. (might be just how his scales are).

http://www.deviantart.com/download/1...ttleHooves.jpg



But it looks almost exact to the first picture I linked in my previous reply.

[moonsand0wls]

SORRY! The first picture went HUGE.

[LittleBettaFish]

No worries. I know what it is to be worried sick about something. I spend so much time staring into my tank at my fish with a flash light that I am sure the rest of my family think I am insane.

His colouring looks perfectly normal. The grey could be that he has food in his stomach that hasn't been digested or could just be his natural colouring. You mentioned that he pigged out while in the tank with your other fish so it might just be undigested food you are seeing.

Also, here is an example of what velvet looks like so you can see the difference between what is normal and what is not.