Betta - Ill?, And Fury!

[CeeJayy]

Well, woke up extra early this morning to have a look at my beautiful boy, but what?! Hes just got his mouth out the water and looks as if his body is being weighed down. He wasnt moving at all and then i started getting all But then he moved. Upon closer inspection i noticed some see-thru fur along his back and ending at the begining of his dorsal and then starting again from his dorsal to his tail.

In the past minute hes sunk and lying on the bottom to one side - then he came up for air and sunk back down

Water stats:

Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5.0

 

[LauraFrog]

How big is his tank and what temperature?
Can you get a photo?
What colour is the fuzzy stuff (is it totally clear?) and is there any sign of it on his fins or around his mouth?
Sounds bacterial to me - if you have any antibiotics I'd add them straight away. Apparently it's hard to get them in the UK... people have cured columnaris using Interpet No 1 (Anti Internal Bacteria). It would be better if you can get antibiotics - tetracycline/oxytetracycline, streptomycin/erythromycin/kanamycin, anything that says it's an antibiotic will kill columnaris pretty much, and that's what I think it would be. How long has he been like this? I have had a strain of this foul thing that kills in 18 hours and if that's the case it's already too late once they start showing symptoms. Fortunately that's the worst strain and most of them take about 48 hours, so if you can get some antibiotics right away it will help. Even melafix or salt will slow it down a bit if you have nothing else.