[sarahmayc]

I have searched everywhere on the internet for symptoms that match my Finn's symptoms, and nothing.

Finn has been changing colour (maybe even losing colour) in small patches on his body, on his dorsal fin, behind one of his pectoral fins, a tiny bit on his ventral fin and a patch on his back. He is naturally royal blue but has faded to a light pink in these areas!

He is acting completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary including eating normally. He lives in a bowl (I know he should be in a bigger tank but that isn't possible right now) but I have a heater in it that keeps the water temp at 25*C constantly. It is a 4L bowl that he appears very happy in. I condition the bowl with BluePlanet Betta Shield every water change. Two weeks ago, when I skipped a water change I began to notice these changes.

Before the change: http://i62.tinypic.com/2yxqk92.jpg
No photos at 1wk
2wks into the change: http://i61.tinypic.com/ou1cnq.jpg
3wks into the change:http://i62.tinypic.com/2e2hwck.jpg (he looks sick but he was just sleeping when I took the photo)

I previously posted a thread and some suggested marbling - since he is a darker fish I couldn't find much information on darker fish marbling but this doesn't seem to be it. NOTHING on the internet is helping me!

Since discovering that whatever he has is spreading, I took photos of him into an Aquarium shop and the owner did not know what was wrong but suggested Aquarium Salt and BettaFix, which I am now using with no results after half a week.

I do not have testing kits unfortunately.

What's happening to my boy??? Please suggest anything you think may be wrong (except buy a bigger tank because I'm already aware of that).
Thank you!

 

[jarabas]

Hi Sarah,

Can you please answer as many of these questions as possible? It will help us help you.

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

Why do you think this is not marbling?

 

[sarahmayc]

Hi Sarah,

Can you please answer as many of these questions as possible? It will help us help you.

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

Why do you think this is not marbling?

Housing
What size is your tank? 4L
What temperature is your tank? 25*C
Does your tank have a filter? No
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? Hikari Betta Bio Gold Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2x a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Normally once a week or more, immediately prior to noticing the issue I hadn't changed his water for 1.5 weeks
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? BluePlanet Betta Shield

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? I don't own a testing kit.

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Losing colour/turning pale pink in patches, more severe at bases of fins
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Hasn't changed
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Aquarium salt with every water change and BettaFix (active ingredient: Melaleuca)
Does your fish have any history of being ill? None at all
How old is your fish (approximately)? 8-9months

I don't believe this is marbling because no one I have sought opinions from thinks it is and I'm under the impression the marbling colour change happens much faster than what is happening here.

 

[Fenghuang]

Darker fish do marble and the speed of marbling does vary from fish to fish. Some fish marble very slowly and subtly, others turn into completely new fish over night.

I believe in Finn's case, judging by the pictures, at least some of it is marbling and colouring up with age. In fact, even in the first picture he looks like a marble. I have seen bettas with roughly the same colour and pattern as him. However, he also could be suffering from slight ammonia burns. Hard to tell from the lighting of the pictures, but that could be the reason why it looks worse than it is. Especially since you said that you had went a little longer than normal without a water change prior to him changing.

In a 4L unfiltered bowl, you should ideally be performing water changes twice a week. If it is just marbling, of course you don't need to do anything. If there are ammonia burns, all he needs is clean water and time and they will go away on their own (though the patches will turn black because they go back to normal).

 

[jarabas]

I suggest more frequent water changes. 4 L is pretty small, so your fish is being exposed to some ammonia between changes, which irritates his gills. It's not good for his long term health. Try syphoning out 25 % of his water including any waste on the bottom of the bowl every day. You can make up a gallon of new, conditioned water ahead of time so it will be easy to add the water after you do your cleaning.

You can also make a little cleaning cartridge that can sit on the bottom of the bowl to help absorb the ammonia. Get an empty pill bottle and punch holes in it. Fill with some quality filter medium like api ammocarb and screw the cap on. Replace the chips according to the package instructions.

I think it is marbling. He's at the right age. He's developing a pattern. There isn't any sign of disease or parasites. On another forum a betta owner published photos of her veiltale marbling from blue to pink over the course of a couple months.

I would watch and get back to us if you notice any signs of illness--lethargy, hiding, losing interest in food, fuzzy patches, disolving fins, sores, etc.

 

[sarahmayc]

I suggest more frequent water changes. 4 L is pretty small, so your fish is being exposed to some ammonia between changes, which irritates his gills. It's not good for his long term health. Try syphoning out 25 % of his water including any waste on the bottom of the bowl every day. You can make up a gallon of new, conditioned water ahead of time so it will be easy to add the water after you do your cleaning.

You can also make a little cleaning cartridge that can sit on the bottom of the bowl to help absorb the ammonia. Get an empty pill bottle and punch holes in it. Fill with some quality filter medium like api ammocarb and screw the cap on. Replace the chips according to the package instructions.

I think it is marbling. He's at the right age. He's developing a pattern. There isn't any sign of disease or parasites. On another forum a betta owner published photos of her veiltale marbling from blue to pink over the course of a couple months.

I would watch and get back to us if you notice any signs of illness--lethargy, hiding, losing interest in food, fuzzy patches, disolving fins, sores, etc.

Does anyone think this could be columnaris? To me, the patches don't appear "cottony" but then I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Since columnaris is quite serious I'd have to start treating him very soon if he's going to live!

 

[jarabas]

Does it look like any of these photos?
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/images/graphics/columnarisbetta.jpg

http://files.asoc-colombiana-de-acuariofilia.webnode.es/200000086-b3b95b58b4/COLUMNARIS2.jpg

http://fr.discu.org/images_fr/0/0b/Coquin_cadavre.jpeg

 

[sarahmayc]

Does it look like any of these photos?
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/images/graphics/columnarisbetta.jpg

http://files.asoc-colombiana-de-acuariofilia.webnode.es/200000086-b3b95b58b4/COLUMNARIS2.jpg

http://fr.discu.org/images_fr/0/0b/Coquin_cadavre.jpeg

Definitely not the first photo.
The second one kinda, in the fact that it's discolouration on his back in the same area but the you can't see the edges of his scales like you can in that photo.
Not quite the third one either but it's still lighter discolouration in patches, just not that big or in that area of his body.

 

[jarabas]

The best way to fight off early columnaris, IF that is what it is, is to destress your fish, meaning regular water changes with conditioned water, excellent diet, and calm environment.
Some Aquarium Salt added to his water might be a good idea as well--try making up a gallon of new water with conditioner and a tsp of aquarium salt dissolved in as well. Use this to do a small--maybe 10-20% change every day. If you make up the little water cleaner cartridge I mentioned put it right in his regular tank. That will help keep ammonia and nitrites under control. You'll want to replace the ammocarb according to the package instructions.