Is This White Spot?

[daveg6529]

This morning I noticed that Casper my blue betta was not acting his usual self. He was under a branch and appeared to be using it to prevent himself from floating upwards. When he did move he went to the surface and just drifted there.
I took a good look at him and noticed some white spots on his front fins, I've heard of White Spot but never encountered it. I have tried to take a couple of pictures of him to help.


 
Can some one please advise.

 

[the_lock_man]

I can just make out a whitish patch on the fin in the lower picture - it isn't whitespot. I would suggest daily 25% water changes for a few days, and see how he goes.

 

[Wildbetta]

What temperature is the tank?  How often are you doing water changes?  What are you feeding him?

 

[daveg6529]

Tank is 260L
Water changes 25% every 5 days
Ammonia - 0 
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 20
Water temp 26 - 27 degrees C (in the current heat wave (UK)
Food - Variable, Flake, Frozen and Occasionally Live.
The white part you can see in the second picture is exactly what I'm concerned about. There appears to be a similar small white patch on his fin on the right.
 
I have some white spot medication but don't want to use it if its not the problem. I also have a small hospital tank I can use but it will need filling.
Do you think I will need it?
 
The tank has been running for about a year, it is fully cycled and he has 60 tank mates (various Tetras).

 

[Wildbetta]

I would first of recommend you stop feeding him the flake food as it is bad to cause bloating and constipation issues with bettas.  Next -- if it is ICH (white spot) then moving him wouldn't be recommended since you will need to treat the whole tank. From the pictures it doesn't look like ICH to me.  ICH appears with tiny white spots that look like grains of salt or sugar.  It might be a good idea to move him to the hospital tank for a couple of days just for observation especially since he seems to be having swim bladder issues which would make it harder for him to swim down from the surface.  While you have him in the separate tank, fast him for a couple of days and see if he poops which will help determine if he is having constipation issues.  What else is in the main tank with him?  You will need to keep an eye on them just to make sure they do not start acting funny or showing signs of a problem too. 

 

[the_lock_man]

No, what your fish has is definitely not whitespot. Whitespot looks like grains of salt or sugar sitting on the surface of the fish's skin.
 
Obviously, the stocking in your profile is a little out of date. The "Sucking Loach" could refer to a number of different fish - do you still have it, and can you be more specific about what it is? One of the possibilities is the Chinese Algae Eater, which when it gets older, decides it prefers fish slime coat to algae. I just wondered if this is what had happened here.
 
If not, then as WB said, stick it in the QT and plenty of water changes.

 

[daveg6529]

I do still have the loach. I am not sure what species it is I'll get a picture of it and perhaps some one could identify it for me.
Caspers tank mates are Penguin, Glowlight, NeonTetras, Glass catfish, Pepper Cory's & Platys.