Sorry to post this here, but my friends Betta isn't looking well at all. I don't know the information about the tank, it's a little one, larger than normal "betta bowls" I'd say about a half gallon-a gallon.

Her fish is black with blue/green fins and she just noticed this spot on him. I went and looked at it. The area is over his left gill, his scales are white and look a little flaky. Then around the white scales, are red ones...these also don't look too healthy, these are more predominant upwards towards the dorsal fin.

If you can help my friend it would be so appreciated. If not, does anyone know of a good betta site where I can try and see what's wrong with MarcoFish.

Thank you

hi, love the name btw babe. my aol screen name was "imissspaceboy" back in the day.

but as for your question, does your friend have a way to test other parameters of the tank like nitrites and ammonia? try and find this information out if you can, and i know this is probably difficult as it is not your tank. also, perhaps a picture would help in this diagnosis, because based on your descriptions, it could be caused by a number of things, ranging from physical trauma to bacterial infection or parasites.

i don't personally know of any betta sites, but maybe someone else on this site might be able to give you better help

-good luck

No she doesn't have anyway of measuring the parameters of the tank. She found a little pamphlet that came with her fish, and apparently it might be a fungal/bacterial thing. She just cleaned the tank and he is swimming a little more. Anyway, in the pamphlet they recommend a betta medicine thingy and she going to be getting that tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will help. I really appreciate the response, it helps.

About the name, thank you. My friend got me into Roswell, and one of the characters names is Michael (sometimes known as spaceboy). My goldfishes name is Michael (aka Spaceboy). That's where it came from.

Again, thank you so much.

Well what you've said sounds like a number of things. Its most likely caused by bad water quality. Just because the water looks clean, doesnt mean it is. if you friend doesnt want to spend the money on a test kit, petsmart does free water tests if they bring in a sample. I highly recommend this. Although they might treat the problem, ultimatly, if the water istn in proper condition, the fish will only get sick again.

here is a link on kokos website, and goldfish disease, but tropicals and bettas pretty much get the same type of diseases, and they look the same, and are treated the same. Look at this, and this will help alot.

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/disease.html

Hi,Welcome! sorry to hear about your friends Betta. She is keeping him in a very small amount of water.When you do that,ammonia,Nitrites,etc. build up rather quickly,so she needs to probably do water changes every other day or so.It's guessing without the test for water Params though. A water conditioner needs to be used to rid water of chlorines/chloramines/metals,etc.Water replaced should match temp of the water in the bowl.If she chooses not to do this,then she'll be dealing with problems .The illness as mentioned could be a few different thingsGill infection/Dropsy,etc.It's really hard to tell without seeing pics of some Figuring out Meds is also really hard to do for that amount ofd water.If you pull up the main Betta Section on the forum,You will see 2 things that are pinned that you can look on.One is Betta Meds Made Easy-which helps you figure out the dosage amounts of Meds that you may need,the other is Betta M.D.-You might want to take a look at those 2 sites. Hopefully,this will help you out somewhat.If you have any more questions,please,post away. Good luck!

I would try keeping the water really clean. Clean water helps heal fish and sometimes that is all it takes. With a small tank, you will have to change the water every few days, as Devs mentioned. An easy way to do that, is to use a small watering can and keep it filled with enough water to fill the tank and let it stand for at least 24 hours. Then scoop the betta out of its tank, wash the tank in warm water (no soap), and fill with the water that has been standing out in the watering can. Add a good water conditioner such as Prime or Amquel +. Put the betta back in the tank, and fill the watering can for the next time.

As Devs mentioned, there is a betta section on this forum with lots of info on bettas. Good luck and please keep us posted and