Hello, I need some help. I love betta fish but find them to be such dramatic heart breakers. The story- I first noticed my little lady Finnessa had minor unilateral popeye about 3 weeks ago. I did a water change and added an almond leaf. A week later it seemed a small amount worse, so I started treating her with kanaplex. I did two rounds of kanaplex according to the instructions and it seemed to worsen further. I also noticed 3 days ago that she seemed to have streaks of red between her white scales, so I pulled her out, put her in a small hospital tank with Epsom salt and started treating with fin and body cure.

Today is day 3, I took this video right after the water change and third dose. She is still lively, still stalking me, still eating, and still trying to pick fights with the water test strips I’m using while treating her. The granules at the bottom are the fin and body cure pellets that hadn’t fully dissolved yet. By the time of posting this, they’re fully dissolved. 

The red streaks look maybe a little better, but her eye legitimately looks like it’s going to fully exit her body. It’s not cloudy and she doesn’t seem bothered by it. What more can I do? Is she a lost cause?

Her normal tank is a heated 5 gallon, fully planted tank with some neocaridina and snails. I think she bumped her eye on a piece of betta furniture I have near the surface for her to rest in. I do 25% water changes once/month at least, twice/month at most. The tank was fully cycled before adding her, I’ve had her for 8 months, she was pretty young when I adopted her so she’s likely only about 1 year old.

Medical advice