Betta S.O.S. Lower lip partly missing

[Vashivian]

Please help, the second best lady in my life is losing her wonderful lower lip.

On Saturday morning I noticed she was hiding in the bottom of the tank where I was unable to find her for a good five minutes and when I did she looked unwell and would not eat her hikari pellets. So I checked her tank stats and everything turned out normal;

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
ph = 7.8
temp = 75 (now it is back up to 82)

Her only tank mate is a lone cherry shrimp (I think she ate my other cherry shrimp). I have had her 7-8 months she was a walmart rescue but has lived happily till now. Her 10 gal tank is fully cycled and has been for a while. It is filtered via a sponge system. The tank gets a water change weekly of about 20-25%.

I am at a loss as to what is eating away at her lip. Please help

Thank you

[Mister Sparkle]

What is your substrate?

[TigerLily]

I happen to know that he uses sand in his tanks. It was cleaned well (I helped) before being put into the tank months back.

[Mister Sparkle]

My only guesses would be abrasion and bacterial infection. You'd have to be able to look at it very closely to narrow that down any better, and it could possibly be something else. But those would be my top two suspects. I'd do a water change, increase temps a bit, add some salt, and observe. If there is no noticeable improvement, I'd do another water change and go the other way with the temps. If it's from abrasion, the higher temps ought to help. If there's an unknown infection present, the temps with only exacerbate it. I hope this helps you diagnose and treat the problem.

[Vashivian]

After a few days of 15 min salt bath's Trillian (my sick Betta) seems to be doing worse. She has yet to eat, there are now holes in her fins and her two front fins are starting to turn brown and she has not expelled waste in a few days either. I have been trying to feed her all kinds of foods Hikari pellets (her regular diet), freeze dried blood worms, and regular fish food.

I was also talking to the manager at the local fish store (he is a Betta breeder) and with the description of the situation he is at a loss of possibilities.

Would resorting to e.m. erythromycin be something that might help her situation? It is an anti-bacterial fish medication from API. Are there any better anti-bacterial methods of possibly treating her?

*Edited because I suck at spelling*

[Vashivian]

Talking with a worker at Petland, he suggested I try to feed Trillian via an eye dropper. No touching her, in no way harm her, but seeing as she has a hole in her chin and her air ways are open shoot some crushed food in her direction. Has anyone tried this before?

What I have tried already for feeding my Betta with an eye dropper:

For the crushed food I used freeze dried blood worms and crushed them into a small bowl (not a lot but enough that I can pick it up with an eye dropper) place the dropper with the opening in front of her and shoot some in her general direction. I will be doing doing more water changes because of the added waste in the water because of this, but I think she is worth it.

[Mister Sparkle]

In this case, I'd go ahead with they erythro treatment. I'm almost certain now that this is an advanced bacterial infection. I think your fish's best chance is aggressive treatment.

Replace any media in your filter, as well, since the nasty bacteria is most likely in it.

[Romad]

I agree with MisterSparkle. You should get started with antibiotics. Good luck and I hope she makes it.

Keep us posted.

[Vashivian]

I did a treatment of erythro last night, but it was not early enough. I came home from work today and she had passed on.

R.I.P my beloved Trillian

[Mister Sparkle]