[Kumo]

I've read somewhere that if ammonia poisoning gets really bad, it can remove the scales of a betta fish. Well, the betta fish I rescued, it looks like some of his scales are missing around his face. It looks like he has a small wound on the top of his head, I'm suspecting because the poisoning got so bad. Does anyone know what the best way to treat it is? I have him in a heated, 2.5, filtered tank and he's been slowly getting more active and energetic in general. Whenever he's "relaxing", he's "sitting" on his side, generally against a corner of the tank or the wall of the tank. I've also noticed his pigment/brightness slowly starting to get restored. I use prime to condition the tank, and all the readings right now are '0' (nitrite, nitrate, ammonia) and the ph is around 6.8. He normally eats some blood worms, betta flakes, and shrimp pieces every night besides saturday and sunday (when i let his system "clear out").

I'm thinking maybe getting bettafix and/or aquarium salt. What do you recommend? Could ammonia poisoning cause open wounds? The spot on his head is NOT bleeding.

(this is not a picture of my fish, but this is what his face looks like, the spot isn't quite as big as in this picture http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Fish-1472/2009/11/Betta-Fish_6.jpg)

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

The best treatment for ammo poisoning is clean water. Not AQ salt or anything!

 

[JessiesGill]

Better quality food will contribute to his overall health. Freeze dried foods and flakes are known to cause bloating and constipation in bettas. The foods most recommended here are New Life Spectrum pellets or Omega One pellets. These offer complete nutrition without causing digestive troubles. With these, there is no need to fast and clean out the system.

 

[Kumo]

My two bettas (my healthy boy and the one I rescued) hate pellets. I've love to give them frozen food, but I'm going back home from my college dorms soon, so I'll wait on that for them and see if feeding my sick betta the frozen food helps any

 

[logisticsguy]

The best treatment for ammonia poisoning is Methlyene Blue. It allows the blood to start to carry oxygen again. If you treat via fish bath you will start to notice improvement very rapidly.

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

On the pellet front - They need to be taught to eat pellets usually. They'll eat when they're hungry...