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Ok So I come home today and just happened to pass my eldest Betta boy's tank. Thought i'd say hi, and when I looked a little closer, I noticed a hair coming out of his gill!:%) It doesn't seem to be causing him any difficulties, but it obviously it shouldn't be there. So what do I do? Do I leave it alone and hope it comes out on it's own? Or do I remove him for a minute and attempt to take it out myself? Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

The picture i'm posting is of him but i'm sure you won't be able to see it so i'll draw it in.



Jessnick attached this image:

BTW I can only see the 2 ends of the hair....the part over the gill in the picture is the part I can't see...i'm assuming this is how it is routed in him.

Ouch! Oh... I don't know an answer on this one. However, I can point out that I saw something similar in one of my betta girls the other day. She had a tuft of algae hanging out of her gill. Looked for all the world like she'd gotten a mouthful and tried to breathe it out her gills. *winces*

I was pondering the same thing (taking her out and removing it), but I gave her another day to see what would happen. The tuft of algae is gone, but I can see that her gill/cheek is a bit swollen, as if irritated (and for good reason!).

Any recommendations on my girl as long as we're on the issue?

I'd suggest leaving it there and waiting for it to hopefully detach on its own, unless it's suggested differently. I was just terrified that if I removed the algae from my girl, I'd injure the delicate membranes of her gills!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

OK jessnick, leave it for a day, if it's not bothering her...if it is bothering her, try to carefully grab one end and pull it carefully, as long as it moves easily your fine i would think...

Then, Kitten come in now, treat them with some melafix/bettafix and just keep an eye on them...and jessnick, no more washing your hair in the betta tank


heidi michelle



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You don’t really know why
But you wanna justify
Rippin someones head off
No human contact
And if you interact
Your life is on contract
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

That's not a problem......

Jessnick attached this image:

So its all Jess' fault!

I would advise against pulling it myself. Judging by the length of her hair, that could be some of the way through the fish, and in you pull it, you may damage organs or linings of organs, and you would definately damage gill membranes.

I would wait, and if it is still there, i would clip the ends off and cross your fingers it either rots down to the point where it can be processed (they eat worse things than hair, its essentially just protien i guess) or it passes through whole.

I gotta say, thats not has bad as my piggy boys, thy swim around with blackworms curling out of their gills! Yours looks much tamer!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett