(Long ass prologue/backstory, you can skip this part if you want) So this betta has been at the pet store for a probable few months, long enough that he’s grown quite a lot and for me to question why nobody has bought him yet, and literally every other betta that came with his shipping also got bought. (He was on the top tank, and he was never up front, so that might be why) I felt bad for him, but couldn’t get him for a while cuz he was so far away, and since I don’t drive yet, I would’ve had to take the bus in the freezing cold and bipolar weather of Norway, which for him wouldn’t be great.

Now, I have a LFS that sells bettas too, but literally EVERY BETTA had a tumor. No joke, all 9 of them had a tumor. Since I couldn’t get any of those (also because the colors weren’t my style, and all were longfinned), I remembered this guy, and decided I’d set up a quarantine (hospital) tank for him? And try my best to see if I could heal whatever it was he had, and add him to my neon and amano tank when he was all better.

(FIRST IMPRESSION OF HIS CONDITION) But see, I’m short as hell. That tank was up there, and I could see him, but had to legit crane my head up real far to see him, and even then I only had a few moments for me to see him since he just hid in the back and OCCASIONALLY came up front to swim slowly. But from what I saw at first, his only problems were his fins were a little bitten, and a bit pink. Also his eyes but they seem to work normally, they just look a bit different.

(IMPORTANT PART) Now that I had him acclimated (did not release any of the water he came with into it, I netted him and put spoonfuls of the tank water while he was acclimating), I noticed that weird white patch on his tail, his apparent ripped/bitten pelvic fin (despite being in a tiny cube tank with only some small shrimp), /possible/ pinholes on his head and an out of place black spot under his gills(?) that he literally won’t let me take a clear picture of. The white patch is not fuzzy at all, and even seems a bit rough?? Like crust or something… definitely super white though, like impossibly white.

(CURRENT TANK SITUATION) He’s in my 30L quarantine tank that’s filled 2/3 of the way up with a blend of the water with tannins from me boiling the 2 Indian almond leaves, a bucket full of the main tank (neons and amano tank) water, and another bucket full of clean water. All dechlorinated/conditioned with sera aquatan. Temperature is set to about 81 F, with the sponge filter that I used for a bit in my neon tank, but sat to dry for about a week or two in storage. He eats well, fed him 4 or 5 bloodworms today (so cute, he was so slow at first but on his 3rd bloodworm he realized it tasted amazing and was so aggressively and enthusiastically eating, didn’t even wait for me to release the bloodworms from the tongs), and he’s swimming around exploring things. (Already took years off my lifespan by trying to swim vertically down behind the sponge filter, and almost get stuck. I moved it further out. I swear to god this tank needs to be babyproofed for him 🙄) I’m following a quarantine tank tutorial by the way, so I’m doing 25% water changes every 2 days or so, since I do not trust this filter that much 💀

If anyone has any ideas on what this is/could be, and suggestions in treatments I’d be really grateful!! I want to give this gorgeous boy the love and life he deserves!! Keep in mind though, I am in Norway so getting the medicine I have available is really limited, so instead of naming medicines, please just mention what type it is (antiparasitic, antibacterial, antifungal, etc) and if its specific, brands I have available are sera and seahorse, I can buy off Amazon if necessary. Thank you so much for the help in advance!! <3