Betta Illness Help

[emsbetta]

Hello!
I got my betta Neptune four months ago and he has been doing amazing until this past sunday (five days ago). I noticed he was tending to the corner of the tank and didn’t sleep in the leaves of my java fern like he normally does. I noticed a bulge towards his tail and that he would tend to float on his side. Figuring it was constipation and SBD I fasted him for two days and tried to give him a pea but he refused to eat it. I continued to fast him until this morning (day 5) after trying to feed a pea last night again to no avail. I got nervous once I saw the white on his face and that he would be too weak to fight an illness so I fed him three pellets which he quickly ate. I am having trouble identifying what the white on his face is and also how to proceed with his SBD. He shows no pineconing, slight lethargy, normal appetite, bulging in his stomach and caudal (towards tail) abdomen, and side floating. I ordered freeze dried daphnia which arrive tomorrow to try as a laxative after soaking them to prevent further expansion in Neptune’s stomach. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[hansgruber7]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but have you tested your water? What are the readings for ammonia, etc? Would need better pictures to try to assess what is the problem.

 

[emsbetta]

My water parameters are:
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 7.0
KH: 0
GH: 120

Here are some pictures:

 

[hansgruber7]

What about ammonia? The pictures don't look too bad. Almost looks like two different fish though.

 

[emsbetta]

I ran out of testers last week and am using my spare strip tests right now so I don't have ammonia levels. The pictures look different because one of them is with a light on him (he has green reflective scales) and the other is regular lighting.

 

[hansgruber7]

Cool. I would get the API Master test kit and test for ammonia. In my experience, that's the most common reason for trouble with bettas.