Help needed for my Betta!!!

[Rosalie Yandoli]

Hi. I've read and tried everything, yet my Betta has worsened and idk if he has minutes or hours left.
I'll try to be informative, detailed, yet not too lengthy here. Please bear with me...
I HAVE OVERFED HIM. He ate pellets, too many, and very occasional blood worms. After adding tankmates oh about 3 months ago, I switched to betta flakes. A lot of them. ( thinking they could All eat them.)

Symptoms: For about 2-3 weeks he has been swollen. Then his head enlarged. ( I wondered if he had grown quickly) After it started, as quick as I changed the water, the tank was engulfed in algae. (2-3 days) Guessing sun the reason, I kept my curtains closed. It worked. This didn't allow for close monitoring for apx. 10 days also... The swelling eventually centered in his stomach. He was as voracious as ever and behavior normal. Although he completely refused to eat the descalled frozen peas. - Now he only moves to gulp a breath of air when prodded and is on his side on the bottom, refusing to eat,,, even when I put the frozen baby shrimp ON his mouth. ( he did take a bite but didn't chew or swallow, as 5 minutes later when he moved, it floated out. Last night he started breathing differently. The part that protrudes when they flair under and on the side of jaw he now sticks out slightly to breathe. Laboured breathing and gasping under water occassionally.
Other issues:
2 months ago, his fins started shredding, breaking and their color changed from deep burgundy to grey. His body is white. His body also developed grayish areas. -- I treated him for fin rot, (fungal) and he improved. I also treated bacterial issues while in quarantine for constipation just in case. If Lady Godiva lives, those issues will heal...

Living Conditions:
Never even seeing a fish tank, I bought my partner a Betta for Christmas. Now,, being thorough I purchased everything I saw to provide a healthy, happy life. Im adjusting as I go, eliminating much excess, and I believe there's a good mix in his tank. Which is 5 gallons. 2 live plants, moss and some decoration/diversions for him. It has the filter that came with it (charcoal) and a heater. The theromastat shows the water at a constant 74°. The test strip for 5 areas shows all close to perfect. ( I don't understand what they mean, but the colors match.)
I change water 75% weekly. Use Aquarium starter and water conditioner. Inbetween , 25% change. Completely wash well everything in tank every 2 weeks. His tankmates are a corycat and another cory fish who either burrows or swims in endless circles. I can not see any reason for stress. He Did stop making bubbles 2 months ago thou. I attributed it to water movement from filter and attached foam around it , which worked.

Treatments:
He's been quarenteened for apx. 12 days. Water temp raised to 79°. Fasted 4 days. ( then 3 more, 3 more, etc.) No poop. Refused peas. I've been giving nightly ebsom salt baths and using mirror to make him flair. He did poop a tiny brown string,, which took a couple of hours to come out. That was 5 days ago. I gave him brine shrimp and he ate two bites. The next day a teeny tiny ball of poop. He remained huge above anus. ...Now,, I left for 2 days (making 4 since his poop.) and returned last night to find him on the bottom, on his side, motionless, non responsive ( except to move away from any disturbance I make In water.) He's floating with water motion, not any momentum of his own. Won't eat anything. Ignores mirror. Ebsom bath,, no effect. --- *There IS one "remedy" that I've not used as I would have to order online and thought the other treatments would work. I just ordered some: Daphnia - He doesn't have drowsy. Slight pineconing only where grossly distended.

A surprise to me, ..I've grown to love my little guy. I've combed the web, but found no treatment past what I'm doing. I won't except this! Does anyone know any further steps to take? I'm frantic and at my wits end. Thanks so much and Thank you if you've read this far...

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short 20 second video of the fish?

If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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In future if a fish gets sick or seems unwell, start a thread straight away. The sooner we see the sick fish, the sooner we can offer advice and potentially save them.

The following link has information about what to do if your fish gets sick. It's long and boring but worth knowing. I recommend printing it out and reading it in bed to help fall asleep
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/

Don't add medications unless you know what the problem is. Most chemicals/ medications harm the fish a small amount and if you start treating with all sorts of things you end up poisoning the fish.​

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Don't wash everything out every 2 weeks. Get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link, and use that to clean the gunk out of the gravel when you do a water change.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

When a filter is established and more than 2 months old, you can clean it every 2 weeks. However you wash the filter materials in a bucket of tank water, and wash the filter case under tap water. When it is clean, you reassemble the filter and put it back in the tank and get it running again.

If you have carbon in the filter, it will adsorb chemicals/ medications from the water until it is full, then the carbon won't do anything. You are better off having sponges in filters and leaving carbon in its box on the shelf.

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I would stop adding things to his tank and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next week or until we know what is going on. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Check the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH and post the result sin numbers here.
If you don't have test kits, take a glass full of tank water to the local pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Write the results down in numbers and post them here. If the shop says the water is fine, ask them what the results are in numbers.

Post pictures and video asap.

If the fish has stopped eating and is bloated up, then it is probably dying. However, we might be able to offer more help when we see him.

 

[Alleycat009]

Is your fish rising to the top or sinking to the bottom? If he is, he may have swim bladder disease, which is easily fixed.

 

[Alleycat009]

And if he has white spots he may have ich. This is easily treated as well. I am happy that the fin rot is better and at lease he has improved on that. Could you post a picture of your fish?

 

[Alleycat009]

Ich is a bit harder and a bit of a bigger process though.