air bubble coming out of gills..

[Meg215]

Going to try to explain this..bare with me. I've been treating my betta, Sidney, with aquarium salt and daily water changes in a 2 gal critter keeper for Ich for about 3 days. I noticed also that when he takes a gulp of air often a medium to large air bubble will immediately come out of one gill. :(

This same thing happened to another betta I had awhile back and he eventually died. It seemed like something wasnt working right. Anyways Im super freaked out that this is happening again. Has anyone had experience with this before? Does it really mean something is not right...?

[kelly528]

No big deal... whenever an organism inhales it has to exhale, right? Even assuming the gill wasn't functioning, plenty of humans and animals get along fine on just one lung. Your other betta likely died of another cause.

[bettakeeper91]

Oh my betta does that all the time! I didn't really think much of it. Should it?

[Biomess]

My betta started acting like that after I had him for about a month, I put him into quarantine for the 10 day salt treatment per a couple of mods, but at day 10 my Indigo gave up the fight to breathe.
He started out gulping at the surface and the air would roll right out of his gills, so he would attack the surface harder and every 15 seconds or so to get air...and it would roll out again. Very frustrating and sad we he died a week and a half ago. I don't know what caused it, and I don't know how to fix it. But hopefully your guy will pull through it.

[Meg215]

Biomess, thats exactly what happened with my other betta too. It was absolutely horrible to watch. I'm so sorry you lost your betta the same way.

Seeing it happen again with Sidney scares me. It's not bad yet since it doesnt happen every time but it definitely worries me. :( I cleaned him again today and did Aq salt, nothings looking any better but at least its not worse right....

[Biomess]

Well I hope everything turns out okay with Sidney. I don't know what can cause that to happen, I wish someone knew so we could prevent it from happening again.

[bettakeeper91]

Awwww, I'm scared now!!! My betta doesn't seem to be in pain or anything. But she swims around really fast and un-graceful and jumpy. But she does have bubbles coming out of her gills. As I said, she is in a very very small bowl, but hopefully tomorrow I am getting her in a 2 gallon. Nobody knows how to cure the bubble problem?

[Biomess]

So far it doesn't seem like anyone can explain it, I think all we can do is start a salt treatment or whatever people suggest. Another poster LuvMyBettas is going through the same thing and they posted a couple of videos of their crowntail. There is a link in my original post of my betta and the air bubbles too.

[Meg215]

I'm going to go look at those topics. So far I've bee following OFL's advice to another person regarding ich. His water is at 86 degrees right now and I'm abut to change it again. Actually once I made the water warmer it appeared that most of the ich on his face/eyes came off! Thank God! I also have not seen as many bubbles coming out! Hopefully things will be looking up from here!

Edit:ok...of course I say that then look at him again and it seems every breath results in a big bubble coming out. :(

[bettakeeper91]

Ok guys, I have a question. My betta has this whole air bubbles coming out of gills thing. I just bumped her up from a 0.5gallon tank to a 2 gallon and it had a bubbler and I have a heater. Should I put the heater in? And will the heater be okay for my MS (Mystery Snail)? What temp should it be at? Sorry I have a lot of questions.