Fin rot, lethargyc behaviour, fish stays at the top of the tank. I need help.

[Flyingjake]

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a great day.

I'll start by writing about my tank setup:

Housing:
How many gallons is your tank?
5gal
Does it have a filter?
yes, sponge.
Does it have a heater?
no
What temperature is your tank?
80F stable (live in tropics)
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Yes, on sponge filter
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind?
Only other tank mates are some invasor snails I'm still dealing with. Every time I see one I take it out of the tank but has been a nightmare.

Food:
What food brand do you use?
Northfin betta bits
Do you feed flakes or pellets?
Pellets
Freeze-dried?
no
How often do you feed your Betta? How much?
5 pellets a day, 1 fast day a week.

Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? Once a week
What percentage of water did you change? 30%
What is the source of your water? Tap water
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Vacuum
What additives do you use other than conditioner? What brand of conditioner? No additives other than conditioner, brand Tetra Aquasafe for bettas.

Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water before the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia:0 ppm
Nitrite:0 ppm
Nitrate:0 ppm
pH: 7.5ppm
Hardness (GH):60ppm
Alkalinity (KH):40ppm

Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms?
3 week ago
How has your Betta’s appearance changed?
Bloated and rotten fins
How has your Betta’s behavior changed?
His movement seems slow and sluggish. He has been staying at the top of the tank. Mostly in the corners. In fact, I'd say he is having trouble swimming downwards
Is your Betta still eating?
Yes
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how?
After researching, I started:
First round of treatment (2 days):
-Fasted him for two days, saw small difference in bloating.
-Added kattapa leaves.
Didn't see any noticeable changes so I started a "second round" of treatment by doing:
-Daily epsom salt baths.
-30% water changes every two days
-Daily dose of EM ERYTHROMYCIN (treatment says 4 days in box, still one day to go).

This second phase went on for 4 days.

After some feedback from my local fish store clerks, I decided to stop treatment and daily epsom salt baths and only added catapa leaves and did regular water changes. Its been two weeks now since then and I have to admit I dont see positive changes.

Attached you will find some pictures.

I really dont know what else to do...

Thanks for reading

 

[Rocky998]

This may sound silly, but try feeding him a mushed green pea without the skin. It helps with bloating if that's the cause. @StripySnailGirl04 made a good thread on how to prepare them. Here is the link: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/tutorial-on-how-to-prepare-boiled-mushed-peas.478756/

 

[Lynnzer]

I do this myself from time to time.
Mushy peas, fish and chips and hey presto. Farting all night long...........
It does work with fish though as I had to use this method for a bloated Molly once.

 

[Flyingjake]

Thanks for the help guys, I'll see if this helps inany way, at this point I'm pretty aure my betta cannot swim downwards at all, he keeps getting pushed to the surface.

Thanks again fo your help

 

[Rocky998]

This can be an issue with the organ in fish known as the swimbladder. Sometimes if a fish is bloated it can cause issues with it. What the swimbladder does is help control its swimming movements with buoyancy levels that help the fish go up and down. Other times its an actual disease they get in that organ. But hopefully its just that he is constipated or up bloated.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll see if this helps inany way, at this point I'm pretty aure my betta cannot swim downwards at all, he keeps getting pushed to the surface.

Thanks again fo your help

 

[Flyingjake]

This can be an issue with the organ in fish known as the swimbladder. Sometimes if a fish is bloated it can cause issues with it. What the swimbladder does is help control its swimming movements with buoyancy levels that help the fish go up and down. Other times its an actual disease they get in that organ. But hopefully its just that he is constipated or up bloated.

Thanks for the reply, I'm currently researching and already fed the betta a bit of boiled pea. Lets see if it helps with the bouyance issue. Next would be the fin rot which I'm clueless as how it developed given I take a lot of care with the water params

 

[Rocky998]

Thanks for the reply, I'm currently researching and already fed the betta a bit of boiled pea. Lets see if it helps with the bouyance issue. Next would be the fin rot which I'm clueless as how it developed given I take a lot of care with the water params

Hopefully the peas will help him! Adding some salt to the tank in doses if 1-2 heaped tablespoons per five gallons can help with infections that cause fin rot... Most of the time fin rot is causes by something damaging its fin and then the bacteria gets in there and makes the fin rot.

 

[Flyingjake]

Hopefully the peas will help him! Adding some salt to the tank in doses if 1-2 heaped tablespoons per five gallons can help with infections that cause fin rot... Most of the time fin rot is causes by something damaging its fin and then the bacteria gets in there and makes the fin rot.

I see, do you mean aquarium salt or epsom salt?

 

[Rocky998]

Aquarium salt

I see, do you mean aquarium salt or epsom salt?

 

[Essjay]

Post #2 in this thread is about using salt to treat infections, dosage rates, duration etc.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

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