What the hell is this???

[Fat Homer]

Okay, first of all, this is NOT my fish, just a post i came across on an FB page...

Anyway, my original thought was that its black beard algae question till i read the post and realized that blob was actually a betta covered in something...

So it got me curious, what the hell could cause this and what is it exactly as i’ve never seen anything like this on a fish or at least not to this extent???

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Looks like a decomp fungus to me. A few times over the years I feed peas to my fish. Mostly I try to squeeze the inside into the water and wipe the shell on a paper towel. I do sometimes manage to drop a whole pea. I have seen peas that looked like that after a few days when I fail to find them.

 

[kno4te]

Decomposed body with fungus.

 

[tlindsey]

Yes definitely a dead fish covered in fungus.

 

[fishhead0103666]

I’ve seen my fair share of dead bettas at walmart (who hasn’t?) but none of them looked quite like that. They all looked fuzzy yes, but it was a short fuzz. Not a long fuzz like the picture here.
Are there different kinds of fungus’s that can affect a dead fish?

 

[Fat Homer]

Thats what im curious about, this Betta was said to have had the fungus already growing on it before it passed, then by next morning it was like what was pictured above supposedly???

Im also finding it hard to believe that a fungal infection would take hold that quickly, but then again, i’ve never had tanks kept that badly i guess

 

[krichardson]

I'm with the others on the fungus covered decomposing carcass.The poor betta very well could have taken on a bit of fungal infection while it was alive,likely from languishing in a small bowl with dirty water.

 

[squint]

It's possible for some to grow on a living fish but not that much. I'd hope most of that was post-mortem...

 

[krichardson]

I bet that thing stunk up the whole room after it was taken out of the water.

 

[Fat Homer]

Okay, so more details, the tank was a 25G filtered tank with heater but according to a few other betta dealers that were commenting on the page, they said that it most likely was a very rare & extreme case of Columnaris...

Since according to at least 2 other betta dealers, they also said they’ve seen cases where it only took a few hours for them to see a fish go from no signs at all to looking like op’s photo after a shipment arrives...

Whether to call BS or not im not certain but definitely makes you wonder what the deal is and could the infection be that extreme to do so much damage in such a short period of time???