Betta Fish: Black spots on head – jumping gene or something wrong?
Black spots on head – jumping gene or something wrong?
https://i.redd.it/uw6pmtg1c3id1.jpeg
Posted by livinunderwater
5 Comments
livinunderwater on
Does anyone have any idea of what these black spots can be on my betta? I’ve asked once before and I have thought they could just be his freckles/coloring but they’ve since got darker and he’s only ever been a white and blue fish for all of his life. His body is getting more blue speckles, too, and when he was looking his best and fullest when the last owner got him from the pet store, his body was all white and fins were blue. When I rescued him, his body was more speckled blue like this.
He was suffering from severe fin rot since December and the has finally made massive improvements there with his fins growing back beautifully, but still not as full as they used to be. Thank goodness I finally figured out that it seemed to be because of stress from seeing my other betta and from not feeding him enough. (I tried antibiotic flakes and that made it way worse).
I do know he is still Way too skinny though! It’s been at least two months of me feeding him a hearty serving of frozen brine and mysis shrimp in the morning and NorthFin betta bits (about 8 pellets) or freeze dried blood worms in the afternoon, all soaked in Selcon for more nutrition. So I’m also completely open to ideas on how to get him to gain weight! My other betta has always been healthier and is also skinny but not as much (I’ve been feeding them both a lot more with no changes that I can see).
The water parameters are perfect (some nitrates, no ammonia no nitrites), he lives with Malaysian trumpet snails in a 29 gallon split tank which I know is Not ideal (learned after it was established), but I can’t change it right now (I don’t want to downgrade him to a smaller tank because he really loves all of his space and tall plants and uses it) and I have done a lot to improve it like adding a lot of plants to block their view of one another (I know they can still sense each other). He has a voracious appetite and is extremely active, so he certainly doesn’t act sick, but I don’t want to wait until he does to do more for him.
I love him very much and care deeply for his health and wellbeing so please be kind!
Honestly, those look like scales to me. My betta is a koi so I knew to expect the color change but even I was unprepared for how much he would change.
Since your lil fishy is living a happy, active life then I wouldn’t worry too much about the scales.
Supernova5827 on
It could be a couple of things. Are you sure the ammonia is really at zero? Do you have strips or a kit to test ammonia by mixing solutions? The solution ammonia test is more accurate.
It also could be velvet disease. The best way to find out is to turn the lights out and flush a light on your fish. If it has good speckles on it, you need to get Coppersafe immediately. Also, a simple google search also showed this for a reason: https://www.thesprucepets.com/black-spot-or-tang-disease-2920812
Interestingly enough, I just bought two bettas from Petco last week which I never do. They both were obviously siblings. It hasn’t even been a week and they both have dropsy and one that has severe dropsy also has black spots on her…
Supernova5827 on
Also, why is your betta so skinny? Is it eating?
Tsukuna1 on
Not sure in the scales, but your friend needs to eat.
5 Comments
Does anyone have any idea of what these black spots can be on my betta? I’ve asked once before and I have thought they could just be his freckles/coloring but they’ve since got darker and he’s only ever been a white and blue fish for all of his life. His body is getting more blue speckles, too, and when he was looking his best and fullest when the last owner got him from the pet store, his body was all white and fins were blue. When I rescued him, his body was more speckled blue like this.
He was suffering from severe fin rot since December and the has finally made massive improvements there with his fins growing back beautifully, but still not as full as they used to be. Thank goodness I finally figured out that it seemed to be because of stress from seeing my other betta and from not feeding him enough. (I tried antibiotic flakes and that made it way worse).
I do know he is still Way too skinny though! It’s been at least two months of me feeding him a hearty serving of frozen brine and mysis shrimp in the morning and NorthFin betta bits (about 8 pellets) or freeze dried blood worms in the afternoon, all soaked in Selcon for more nutrition. So I’m also completely open to ideas on how to get him to gain weight! My other betta has always been healthier and is also skinny but not as much (I’ve been feeding them both a lot more with no changes that I can see).
The water parameters are perfect (some nitrates, no ammonia no nitrites), he lives with Malaysian trumpet snails in a 29 gallon split tank which I know is Not ideal (learned after it was established), but I can’t change it right now (I don’t want to downgrade him to a smaller tank because he really loves all of his space and tall plants and uses it) and I have done a lot to improve it like adding a lot of plants to block their view of one another (I know they can still sense each other). He has a voracious appetite and is extremely active, so he certainly doesn’t act sick, but I don’t want to wait until he does to do more for him.
I love him very much and care deeply for his health and wellbeing so please be kind!
https://preview.redd.it/6xxp37w4c3id1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e59a8ec06a74c77dc8a3f0bdd0b563ee1e392cf5
Honestly, those look like scales to me. My betta is a koi so I knew to expect the color change but even I was unprepared for how much he would change.
Since your lil fishy is living a happy, active life then I wouldn’t worry too much about the scales.
It could be a couple of things. Are you sure the ammonia is really at zero? Do you have strips or a kit to test ammonia by mixing solutions? The solution ammonia test is more accurate.
It also could be velvet disease. The best way to find out is to turn the lights out and flush a light on your fish. If it has good speckles on it, you need to get Coppersafe immediately. Also, a simple google search also showed this for a reason: https://www.thesprucepets.com/black-spot-or-tang-disease-2920812
Interestingly enough, I just bought two bettas from Petco last week which I never do. They both were obviously siblings. It hasn’t even been a week and they both have dropsy and one that has severe dropsy also has black spots on her…
Also, why is your betta so skinny? Is it eating?
Not sure in the scales, but your friend needs to eat.