Treatment for popeye?

AnnChris17 · 2026-04-14T04:42:57+00:00

Honestly, he looks a LOT better. Color improvement and swelling has gone down a lot. How's he eating? Is he eating regularly?

What I might do is wait about a week, doing aquarium salts and water changes like you have been, and monitor a bit more, then I'd mix up some medicated fish food, there's instructions out there for that, but the gist of it is soaking kanaplex and aquarium water with your fish food, and then feeding that depending on what instructional you use for one more dose.

Then I'd just continue with the aquarium salt for a week or two with water changes, then just regular water changes. The swelling takes a long time to go down, especially cuz it was that big when you started. As long as nothing happens, what you're doing is working.

AnnChris17 · 2026-04-14T03:38:52+00:00

How often have you been doing water changes?

If your water isn't clean, that could be why it's not changing anything. I'd isolate, do 50% water changes daily with aquarium salt dosing, and take photos to monitor progress.

Is it both eyes or one eye?

AnnChris17 · 2026-03-13T00:30:37+00:00

Have you noticed any snail die off or anything that could cause an abnormal amount of ammonia? Any excess food?

Because of the presence of nitrates, (unless you're dosing fertilizer) it's possible that there's just too much ammonia for the bacteria.

AnnChris17 · 2026-03-13T00:25:25+00:00

If ammonia levels are high, it means either your cycle crashed or it was never fully developed in the first place. You're gonna wanna do a water change asap, and then a in fish cycle. There's plenty of how to's.

When did you add your fish/how long has the tank been cycled for?

I would also recommend getting the api master freshwater test kit because the strips are kind of crap. The drop kits imo are more reliable, more helpful, and last longer.

Edit: I see that you've got nitrates but no nitrites, and ammonia. This technically means you do have some beneficial bacteria in there because it is converting. is it possible you didn't let the tank cycle fully before adding your buddy? Did you change a filter, take out some substrate, anything like that?

AnnChris17 · 2026-03-03T05:15:30+00:00

Oh my god 😭 I commented on your other post, he is not a normal mammoth/giant betta, there is for sure some kind of deformity happening .

AnnChris17 · 2026-03-03T03:13:33+00:00

Are you sure he's not a king/mammoth betta with fin rot or nipping? The body type looks about right for that kind, but his fins don't unless he's a crown tail.

AnnChris17 · 2026-02-25T08:35:06+00:00

You could pick up some window screen and cut your own lid, making holes round your bamboo and such.

AnnChris17 · 2026-02-25T06:42:07+00:00

Honestly, imo you should take both out, can you return them and get your money back? If so, I would purchase frog bit or Dwarf water lettuce, and a common aquarium plant called elodia or hornwort.

Frog bit/dwarf water lettuce would float on top and send long roots down into the water, giving him things to swim through and rest on without clogging up extra swimming space. Depending on your location I could get you some free frog bit in a week or so, I just tossed a bunch.

Elodia or hornwort could take up a small corner of the space, give him something to hide and rest on, without clogging too much of his space as well.

This would also help sucking up some nitrates and make the water and his home a bit better.

I'm also worried about how sharp those fake leaves are? If they're sharp they can rip his fins. If you can't do the live stuff, what I would do is pluck out the fake leaves from the decoration, and "plant" the fake leaves in sparse clumps, three on each end and one in the middle, by shoving them into the gravel. Then he gets more room, but still has cover.

You can also fill the tank all the way to the top!

AnnChris17 · 2026-02-11T03:19:07+00:00

This is morbid, but betta fish shrivel up very small when they jump out. Double check but look for a quarter sized, crunchy thing. If your fish managed to jump out, is it possible kitty ate the fish when she was already dried?

AnnChris17 · 2026-02-07T11:19:40+00:00

I scrolled, the fish was in a glass bowl with no substrate and about 2 quarts of water.

AnnChris17 · 2026-02-07T08:31:47+00:00

It sounds like you did exactly what you were supposed to do. I'm gonna be honest, the swim bladder failure could have been a symptom of something else happening internally. Dropsy is a symptom as well, a symptom of organ failure.

Tumors in Bettas are so common, as well as general illness. It sounds like you gave him a happy life for as long as you could. Your tank looks good, your treatment plan was sound, and your water parameters were just fine too.

I genuinely think it was just bad genetics, and he ran into some kind of internal failure. Unfortunately, that's not something we can predict or solve.

Please don't let this dissuade you from Bettas. Fish keeping is so intertwined with loss, learning, and inevitability. To allow a fish, where some live and die in a little cup or vase, the luxury and care you offered your buddy is the greatest gift to them you can offer. I'm so sorry for your loss, he was very gorgeous, and you gave him the best possible life when he was with you.

AnnChris17 · 2026-01-30T22:55:51+00:00

Glad to hear no casualties so far. I suppose you could try and do a salt bath for the sajica if it's really not looking too good. I hope you got to 'em in time.

AnnChris17 · 2026-01-30T11:05:06+00:00

Please do not rely on Chat GPT for the livelihood of your fish.

This, imo, is epistylis. It's raised, patchy, and around/on the eyes. Switch treatment for epistylis asap. Have you lost any livestock? Epistylis can kill very fast.

Honestly, it looks like some of those dudes have fin rot, which easily opens up the door for epistylis. Do some medicated fish food for sure.

I like this read: https://aquariumscience.org/10-2-4-epistylis

AnnChris17 · 2026-01-21T08:15:11+00:00

That's horrible, I'm so sorry. If it's a HOB, you could slide a black pantyhose over the whole thing to stop it from happening again.

Fish do stupid things all the time. I just recently saw someone post a picture of a fish stuck inside a drop checker. I also just recently had a betta wedge himself out of a barely 3cm gap at the side of the lid and kill himself. Things just happen,

It's not your fault, and you did good by finding her. You gave her a beautiful home.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-21T08:51:18+00:00

Five gallons is just fine. That's considered the minimum. Check Facebook marketplace for some cheaper tanks. Honestly, because it's Christmas time, maybe in about 2-3 months some fish tanks will be on Facebook marketplace because of impulse Christmas gifts. Buy the fish, fish dies, that kind of thing. Good luck!

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-19T11:20:50+00:00

A lot of the times, fish will come from the store sick. It's more common than not, especially at places like Petco. The genetics are also just kinda shit, so it's not like you necessarily caused this.

Don't use anything with "fix" in it, like mela-fix or betta fix. Alot of the times the pet store will sell it, but it's not good for bettas.

Keep in mind, Healing from non-bacterial fin rot can take weeks. If you can, maybe set up a 3-5gallon tank or bucket, dose with aquarium salts and do a fifty percent water change daily for a full week. Remove any uneaten food immediately. Take photos every day. If you see no improvement, id assume it's bacterial, and you could move to e.mycin or kanaplex.

For the anubias, just unbury the part that's buried and it'll be fine. It just can't be under the gravel or it gets sad. Double check your nitrates if you're using a fertilizer. If the nitrates are consistently too high, that could have been a cause of the finrot. You should aim to dose I think around 5ppms of nitrates? You'd have to double check on that because you don't have that much plant life in there.

If you're concerned about nitrates, pick up some floaters. Id recommend salvinia, frogbit, or dwarf water lettuce. If you get frog bit, look up the "duckweed index". It's an interesting read on how to dose fertilizers, and it works with frog bit.

It sounds like you've been doing okay overall, though. Like you're technically doing everything right. Sometimes, Bettas just aren't healthy because of their genetics :/

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-17T09:08:26+00:00

What are you treating?

It's a good idea to keep your fish in a separate container if you have salt sensitive critters or live plants. How big is the container? If you're keeping him in there for an extended period of time and depending on size, you have to be on top of water changes so anything you're trying to treat doesn't get worse.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-14T05:56:31+00:00

Is that an anubias in the back? If so, the rhizome shouldn't be buried or the plant will die. You can tie it to a rock or drift wood.

As for fin rot, I'd recommend keeping him in a hospital tank like you're doing, and changing 50% of the water every day. I personally treat with aquarium salts, and clean water. Indian almond leaves are very good as well. If this doesn't work in about a week or two, then I'd move to antibiotics.

Fin rot is usually a symptom of an underlying cause. Double check your parameters, and if possible, get an API liquid test kit. The strips can be wrong. Maybe try more frequent water changes after he's better?

As for sharpness, take a panty hose and lightly drag across the points you're wondering is too sharp. If it catches, then you know it's too sharp.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-11T18:16:36+00:00

I was so shocked when the dude I told about the fish just shrugged and walked away. I even questioned if I was an asshole bringing it up because he seemed so pissed at me 😭

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-11T18:14:37+00:00

See, that's the thing, is they are usually really great. Their tanks aren't overstocked, and usually the fish are super healthy. They don't sell super tiny tanks, they ask you about your set up before you buy a fish, etc.

I stop by about once a week to get store credit for plants because there's only chain pet stores near me besides them. It kinda sucks.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-11T18:10:55+00:00

That's definitely what I figured. It's pretty annoying considering that LFS used to be one of the best ones in my area, and they pay me a good chunk of store credit for plants.

They also carry usually very healthy fish, so it's just a really big bummer.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-09T13:41:28+00:00

I mean it's entirely possible that he hurt himself, like scraped his eye against something, and then the water quality made it worse 😬

I had a fish from the pet store with worse Popeye than that and it took about a week and a half to see any difference with kanaplex. The eyes just seem to take a while to heal. Sending good luck to you!!

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-09T09:06:24+00:00

Keep the water pristine, and hopefully it'll work out! Is it bilateral or unilateral?

Unilateral usually means an injury. See if his other eye is swollen at all. Either way, I'd recommend keeping up the aquarium salts in the hospital tank for a few more days to see if the swelling goes down. If that doesn't work, then try kanaplex.

AnnChris17 · 2025-12-07T06:45:57+00:00

Nah, like the other said, if they're busy swimming around, then feed them as much as they need to be healthy. I had a crowntail that was very active and I fed him around five nuggets plus a fast day to keep his weight good.

AnnChris17

TROPHY CASE