Help Me Keep My Betta Alive!

[hung6445]

I have a betta (I have had him for a little over two years) who is very sick and it makes me feel terrible that I don't know what to do to help him. I am a college student, so I have moved around a lot, and over breaks I am gone for long periods of time. I actually have two bettas (in separate tanks)and I usually just take them every where I go. I have come up with a great way to get them in the car without having to remove them from their tanks, and I never have them in there for more than a few hours at a time. For the past two years this has worked great and I have never had a problem with it. However, over Christmas I took both fish to my parents house for about two weeks. They were fine for the first couple of days, then one of them started to become very inactive and would spend most of his time laying at the bottom of the tank or burying his head in the rocks. He would eat, but very little and did not see him usual active self. He then began to float at the top, but was leaning to one side a bit. I changed his water and continued to watch him. I brought both of them back home for a few days and he seemed to be doing better. However, I had to leave for a few days and could not take them with me. I bought those tablets you put in the bottom of the tank that slowly dissolve and placed both of the fish next to the heater so they would stay warm. I was gone for about 5 days, and was surprised by the condition of my fish when I returned. The originally sick fish is now floating vertically and I thought he was dead at first. He does move around, but it looks like it is a lot of effort. He has seemed to have a slight fungus on his fin that hasn't gone away. When I feed him he tried to get to the top to get the food, but almost seems to give up from too much effort. My other fish was also vertical when I returned and was a pale gray color. However, after a clean tank and some normal food he seems to be doing better. Is there something I can do to help my sick fish survive? I hate knowing that there has to be something out there I can do to help, but I feel I have tried it all. I bought melafix(I read that this is a great natural medication to help heal bettas)and I clean his tank regularly. Is there anything else I can try to keep my betta alive?

 

[snazy]

I have read numerous comments about melafix being bad for labyrinth fish like bettas, as it affects their breathing organs and can kill them. I think that's why they created the bettafix for bettas, which is the weaker option.
At the same time, many people have used it on bettas, and haven't had problems. So hopefully your fish recover.

It's strange that both of them have issues, although in different tanks. You said you put them next to the heater, so are there heaters in the tanks? Maybe they got too cold which made them sick?

 

[the_lock_man]

The "Holiday" tablets, as I understand it, can cause water quality issues, the dissolution of them leading to ammonia spikes. This may well have caused the "healthy" fish's problems, and made the other fish worse.

As to the original problem, it does sound like further water quality issues to me. Perhaps one of the moves allowed the filter media to dry out, and you lost the bacteria?