Algae in my bettas gill!

Question
My betta has a piece of algae stuck in his left gill.
I can see it's bothering him and he's looking at it breathing hard like he's trying to get it out.I think he's struggling to get air.
PLEASE HELP!! I don't want him to die :(

Answer
Hello Shelby,
This may actually be algae growing ON the fish, or some sort of bacterial infection that resembles algae. Do you keep your tank near a window? If so, take the tank out of direct sunlight. You should feed your fish and then do a 50% water change, and from here on out, do no less than 30% once a week. make sure not to overfeed him. Alagae feeds on sunlight, nutrients in the water, and other checmicals such as ammonia which all fish produce and which is also harmful to fish. If your water is green, you will need to drastrically change your routine, resulting in more frequent water changes, and possibly the use of a helping agent like Prime, to dilute the nitrates and ammonia left over in your tank after the water changes. Persistently green water can easily lead to fish deaths from oxygen starvation and ammonia poisoning.
As far as actually getting "algae" that may be stuck in the fish's gill, I don't see any option that would not risk harming the fish. If you can help to kill of the alage though then if a piece really is stuck in your fish's gill, is should become either small enough to dislodge itself while the fish is swimming, or hopefully disappear altogether.