# Male Betta with a sore behind his head



## LizbethDawn (May 22, 2013)

I looked through the list of illnesses and I didn't see anything that looked like this. I just tested the water in all my tanks today and his was perfect so I don't think it's the water.

He's in a 2 gallon hex tank that stays in the 80-82 degree area. I've had him in this tank for about 6 months and he's by himself. No filter because it's such a small tank but he gets 25% weekly changes and he does have a heater. He is getting over a swim bladder problem that was my fault I was using flakes and must have over fed him so now he gets one Omega One Betta Pellet every morning and once he can swim normally again he'll get two twice a day.

I didn't see the sore when I fed him this morning around 10am but when I went to do the water test at around 4pm I saw it. The only things I can think of is he got himself on a plant (mine are plastic and because of this incident I have some silk ones on the way for him), or it's a dried out patch from sitting at the surface of the water. It is the highest point on his back and it does sit just above the water and because of the swim bladder he's been at the top a lot. Otherwise I have no idea what this is.

I did give him a dose of API Bettafix and Stress Coat+ shortly after I saw it.

This is the picture I got when he was resting on his hammock a little bit ago. His fins are still a little messed up because the swim bladder had him really stressed and his fins were clamped up tight for a good week.
He's acting as normal as fish recovering from a problem with his swim bladder does I suppose. He eats his pellet, swims around the top, breathes normal, doesn't seem stressed, uses his hammock like he always has.










The green lump on his hammock is a piece of frozen pea. I had heard it could help empty his system out so his swim bladder could return to normal.


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## Pearl2011 (May 21, 2012)

I don't think its dried out, because he was in the water and didn't jump out. I don't know if fish can get tumors, but maybe some kind of abscess? I would research it some more.


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## LizbethDawn (May 22, 2013)

Pearl2011 said:


> I don't think its dried out, because he was in the water and didn't jump out. I don't know if fish can get tumors, but maybe some kind of abscess? I would research it some more.


I'll google around for both of those. The reason I was thinking dried out is because he hasn't been swimming down into the water because he can't stay down he just floats right back up and that part of his back is almost always out of the water.


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## LizbethDawn (May 22, 2013)

I'm not sure what happened I think my cat walked across my keyboard


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## LizbethDawn (May 22, 2013)

It's gotten worse overnight It's bigger and now it's white. Still eating,swimming and acting normal though. And his swim bladder is barely showing now I would hate to have got him over that swim bladder problem only to have this kill him off. Treated him with bettafix again following the directions. I can't find this anywhere.


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## Pearl2011 (May 21, 2012)

Betta-fix is essential useless for anymore then a little bit of fin rot, so it probably wont help. Any helpful info you've found online?? I believe my friend had a problem like this, but shes camping right and gets back Sunday so I'll ask her them. I've found Fungus Guard by Tetra to be a more powerful medication. I'm not sure if that would help in this case, though. I Google it.


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## Pearl2011 (May 21, 2012)

Betta Care 101 - Protozoan Disease

At the bottom of the page, does it look like a white cyst?? This might be it.


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## LizbethDawn (May 22, 2013)

No luck with google but I did take this over to bettafish.com and there between me and a few others we figured he either got caught on the plants or a sharp piece on his tubes so I went and got silk plants and pulled his tubes and found even the tiniest sharp edges and smoothed them out with aquarium silicone and it's sitting to cure right now. That white cap popped off sort of like a scab would on a human and it just looks like he got a chunk taken out of him now. 
He got a 50% water change today because over at the other forum they also told me that betta fix is useless and actually toxic to bettas in some cases so I've stopped that and just put in a half dose of salt and let it dissolve in the bucket before it went into his tank. The only other thing that was suggested was to up the water changes and just watch him.

On the other hand his swim bladder issue is gone finally. He doesn't float up sideways anymore and he swam to the bottom of his tank twice today without to much of a struggle. No one in my house understands why I was excited about that lol.


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## Pearl2011 (May 21, 2012)

If it looks like a chunk was taken out of swim then keep the water very clean to prevent infection, because that leads to a whole whack of other problems.Time will tell in this case.

Haha I get what you mean when nobody gets why your excited, my dad thinks fish should be used for dinner and dinner only. And when the bettas jump its because they want to go in the frying pan. >.<


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