# Help me not kill my GF’s betta



## Savi_g (22 May 2021)

Hi guys. Rather than searching around for hours and end up not knowing any better, I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea as to what’s going on around the cheek area. The flow is a little high so I’ve turned it down after I noticed but if someone could please check the picture, I would really appreciate the help.  I’m hoping maybe a little optimistically that he’s just grazed his face but I think it’s something more serious.  Due to a load of new fry, I no longer have a quarantine tank at the moment and the tank he's in is full of shrimp. Just in case anyone suggests a course of treatment, please keep that in mind if it 100% requires me to separate him. Of course I will but I need to know incase I kill all her shrimp.  May only take you a minute to look and reply but could save us a lot of heart ache.  Thank you guys, yet again. 🙏🏻


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## mort (23 May 2021)

It's a bit of a cop out but maintaining good water quality and monitoring the area is what i'd do first. It's always hard to diagnose from a picture because it could be a number of things and we just have to go with our gut. From that picture I don't think it looks like a normal scrape, but someone else might, to me it looks more like angry tissue in the first picture but the others make it look like it could be healing. This is why I'd monitor it, if it looks to get even slightly worse then you have a symptom to which you might narrow down the coarse of action, if it begins to heal over then you know it was probably just a scrape.


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## castle (23 May 2021)

Morts advice is sound, but I’d err on side of caution and treat with Melafix.


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## shangman (23 May 2021)

I don't know what it is either, but if it was my fish, I would do a 50% water change every 2 days, and add a lot (2 big handfuls minimum) of dried leaves (oak, beach, catappa, etc) to make the water more acidic (which bettas like), and which have anti-bacterial & fungal to heal with healing. You can buy big bags of dried oak leaves on ebay for very cheap if you don't have your own.


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## Savi_g (23 May 2021)

All great answers and pretty much where I was at.   But I’ll definitely be trying the oak leaves. I worry about the big water changes every 2 days though...  would that not be too much?  Currently do a 50% change every week and use about 10% ro. Also, thanks for the melafix. Only new about the beta fix and that’s only for the us so thanks


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## shangman (23 May 2021)

When you have injured and sick fish, you can't have too many water changes, clean water helps fish heal as quickly as possible, and it makes it less likely that they will get a secondary infection. They shouldn't find the waterchanges stressful, fish love clean water, and the more big very regular water changes you do, the more likely the water is to be very similar to what you're adding (aka nice and clean)

Thinking about it, another thing I would do (if you have a very local fish shop/can order online/have a waterbutt) is to feed live food a few times a week to make sure they get the best quality food to heal. Basically when a fish is sick you just treat it the best you possibly can to give it the best chance at healing. And if it doesn't seem to be healing, at least it will enjoy the treat!


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## castle (23 May 2021)

Savi_g said:


> All great answers and pretty much where I was at.   But I’ll definitely be trying the oak leaves. I worry about the big water changes every 2 days though...  would that not be too much?  Currently do a 50% change every week and use about 10% ro. Also, thanks for the melafix. Only new about the beta fix and that’s only for the us so thanks



I wouldn't be doing daily/alternate water changes, I'm not convinced fresh (tap) water is always better than tank water, it's an easy way to shock weakened fish. 10% daily sure, but 50% every other day is just going create instability, unless you're airing it over night and getting it to tank temperature, and treating it (just in case) else I'd go for 10% daily.

Make sure you boil the leaves first, as if the fish is weakened and there is anything nasty on the leaves you'd be in for trouble.


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## three-fingers (23 May 2021)

Differing opinions on water changes but I'd personally always do extra water changes if I saw an injury/illness. A 50% change every day shouldn't create any instabilitites or fish issues IMO unless the tank is improperly set up, or you have drastically different stats in your tap water compared to tank water, and also have very poor quaility tap water for fishkeeping...at which point I'd be looking into RO or other filters. Obviously this may not apply to some very sensitive wild fish with unusual water stat requirements, but domestic bettas should thrive with very large frequent water changes (they are commonly stored in cups/bags that get 100% of the water changed every day, which is a terrible practice, but shows thier resiliance). So don't be scared of big water changes .

Melafix is quite good for external wounds, but be careful with bettas as they are labyrinth fish that breath air, and Melfix has been known to cause issues due to the tea tree oil vapour that sits in a layer above the water surface and can hurt the betta when they go up for a breath. It also makes the water surface foamy which makes it harder for bettas to take in fresh air. They actually make a version called "Bettafix" to prevent this, but I don't know how it differs chemically, and IME Indian Almond leaves are much more useful and effective for keepings bettas healthy anyway.

Oak leaves will be better than nothing if you can find some clean ones locally (ideally not from the side of a busy road), Indian Almond Leaves from eBay or a LFS would be more effective and safer than Melafix if you can can get them though.  Alder cones could be useful too if you happen to be able to collect some locally. Also I wouldnt advise actually boiling the leaves, doing so would remove most of the beneficial tannins you are adding them to provide in the first place. A dry leaf is not going to have any fish pathogens on it to worry about, if you are really worried you could quickly rinse them in a sieve with boiling water from the kettle, but don't steep them.

I wouldn't worry too much though! From the pictures, it looks like he has just lost one of the scales from his gill cover (operculum). I would guess he got his face stuck in somewhere searching for food and just scraped it - should heal quickly as long as the water is clean .


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