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Red sores/white patches. Not sure best way to treat [pic included)

674 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Aus
Hey everyone,

One of my betta's has developed these sores? which started off red and then he formed a white patch on the top of his head. I don't think it allows him to eat. He reaches for the food but maybe it hurts when he opens his mouth so he can't eat. He only sits at the top of his bowl. I have him in a quarantine for now since he is sick. I've also noticed he has loss color. The sore spreading I believe has also caused a popeye which refuses to go away.

I've been treating him with tetracycline with no luck. I did one treatment of it. I also tried BettaFix.

You'll notice the water is a yellowish color..it's from the tetracycline.

Water Organism Pest Macro photography
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It looks like bacterial infection to me. Is he in the quarantine tank now? Is your tank heated and filtered? remove the carbon from filter if you have one (it will remove all medication if you keep it in and your meds won't work). I would suggest to try antibacterial food and/or another cycle of antibiotics and keep him comfortable. Keep water stable and clean + give him some place to hide (something he was familiar with if you moved him to quarantine tank). You may also try to cover the tank with towel to help him rest. Depending on the size of your tank (it looks like he is in a glass bowl right now), you may also want to lower water level so he won't have to swim to hard for air. Keep feeding him and vacuum uneaten food asap, to keep water clean.
Columnaris infection. Try and keep him at about 74F.. lower temps for this disease help slow it down. Some say it doesn't help, many say it does. I'd lower the temp a little, if it was my fish.

Forget the bettafix. It won't help this. Here's some suggestions from Darkmoon17's treatment sticky:

Perform daily 100% water change in small tanks or ¾ water change in larger tanks. Make sure to clean the gravel. Treat with Aq.Salt: add 1 tsp/gal Aquarium Salt 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Do NOT raise the temperature as it thrives in temps over 85*F, however, lowering the temperature does not seem to help fight it. Combine salt treatment with Mardel’s Coppersafe, Maracyn I & II, API Erythromycin, OR API Triple Sulfa, combined with Jungle’s Fungus Eliminator (if possible).

I have to be blunt and say your fish is seriously, seriously ill. Try all of the above, as he may pull through.. but yeah, he is one sick little fishy.
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