white spots on my betta

Question
Hi
 I have had my male betta for about a week and i have just seen some white spots on his body ,does he have ich or is he getting ready to breed although he hasn't made a bubble nest i have brought some ws3 white spot terminator just incase, he is in a small bowl as well but i don't know if that would cause it.
                thanks john  

Answer
Good morning John,

Being in a small bowl isn't the best environment for a betta. Sure, he can survive, but can he thrive? No.

The very best thing you could do for your betta would be to upgrade his environment. A 10 gallon starter kit would be ideal, but a 5 gallon kit would work. Usually these 5 gallon kits are acrylic and come with a hood and light and power filtration - all that you need to add is a 25 watt heater and thermometer to keep a constant tropical temperature.

Which brings me to my next point. Bettas are tropical fish, and prefer high end tropical temperatures. Your betta will not be happy and healthy in water that is less than 78-80 degrees. While Hydor makes a bowl heater that is 7.5 watts (go to google.com and type hydor 7.5 watt heater for a list of e-tailers) it would be far better to upgrade to a larger tank and add a 25 watt heater, readily available at chain pet stores. Ich can be treated using just heat and salt:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

What I would do is raise the temperature slowly (about 1 degree per hour) to 86 degrees. It's important to aerate the water as warm water has a low dissolved oxygen content. I've been able to raise my tank's temperature to 90 degrees in order to treat ich (without salt, in a planted tank) but I couldn't have done it without an air pump, airline tubing, and airstone to keep the water aerated. Add 1 tablespoon of aquarium/kosher salt per 5 gallons, in addition.

Are you in the UK? I see this is a UK medication but has the same ingredients as we yanks use - Malachite green, acriflavine - with the addition of quinine, new to me! If you choose to medicate the bowl (not what I would do, when a container of several gallons would be more suitable) then make sure you change 50% of the water beforehand to raise the water quality. There is a website with instructions on how to medicate in a bowl using copper salts (Aquarisol):
http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm
Just scroll down to the section on ich.

BTW, I believe you mixed up goldfish (with their white pimply tubercles which do look a bit like ich) with betta breeding behavior. White spots on bettas are definitely ich, white spots on goldfish, well, maybe not..

I hope that helps. Do check out the homepage, bettatalk.com as it is full of helpful information and advice.

Take care,
Nicole