My inherited betta is very sick and I can't figure out what's wrong

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Beachside

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Hi all, I am trying to figure out what's wrong with my poor fish and I'm having no luck. Backstory: teenage nephew bought a male betta fish, Poppy, about 8 months ago from a pet shop. Nephew took really poor care of his pet, including alternating overfeeding/forgetting to feed, not cycling the tank AT ALL before putting the fish in it, and very rarely doing water changes. My sister (nephew's mom) gave up and gave Poppy to me about a month ago.

He is in a grubby 3 gallon tank. I'm not an expert at pet fish, but I've tried to clean it up and get the water parameters as good as possible. I'm not sure I've succeeded very well, since it is a small tank and was neglected so badly. The API master test kit is currently showing 0 - 0.25 ammonia (the color is in-between), 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. Poppy's new home will be a 10 gallon tank- it's cycling right now (though given that he's really sick I don't know if I should transfer him to it right away when it's finished). Tank temp is 79/80 degrees.

On November 2, Poppy suddenly stopped wanting to eat (very unusual, he's usually a little piggy!) and mostly wanted to sit on his favorite plant near the top of the tank. He did still swim around, just less. He looked absolutely fine though. The water test did not show anything unusual. I treated him with melafix. By November 6 he was back to his old self again. I continued the melafix til November 9.

On November 10, I noticed that Poppy was not as interested in his food, though he did eat. On November 11, he was suddenly doing way worse. He ate just one pellet and would only sit under a plant at the bottom of the tank. He was always a really nosy/friendly betta, but this is when he stopped being interested in anyone coming near the tank. 11/11 is also the last day he ate anything.

Since then, he's had NO interest in any kind of food at all. His fins have become ragged (they started looking like they had small bends at some of the tips, and now look worse.) He developed popeye too- this went away at first when I treated him with kanaplex, but has returned more severely in the past few days. He also looks slightly discolored? Like his scales are duller than before.

I treated him with kanaplex for one week. Besides making the popeye go away it didn't seem to make much difference. A friend of mine who keeps fish told me to treat him with metroplex too "just in case" and I'm doing that, because I don't know what else to try. Poppy has now not eaten for a week and a half. I can't imagine he can go on forever without eating.

Does anyone have any ideas on what he could be sick with, or what I could try next? Should I treat the popeye with kanaplex again? I'm not clear if it's okay to do two treatments. Is there any secret to getting him to eat something? I wanted to try the garlic juice thing, but he won't even take any notice of any food I offer.

The only medication I have on hand (besides the kanaplex, metroplex, and melafix) is erythromycin. So if he needs some other treatment I'll have to order it- the pet shops where I live don't have much.

I added a picture to show just how badly he's doing. His fins and his eye look especially poor. But I somehow think there's also an underlying problem. He seemed to go from being normal to very ill all at once.

192657.jpg
 
Hi all, I am trying to figure out what's wrong with my poor fish and I'm having no luck. Backstory: teenage nephew bought a male betta fish, Poppy, about 8 months ago from a pet shop. Nephew took really poor care of his pet, including alternating overfeeding/forgetting to feed, not cycling the tank AT ALL before putting the fish in it, and very rarely doing water changes. My sister (nephew's mom) gave up and gave Poppy to me about a month ago.

He is in a grubby 3 gallon tank. I'm not an expert at pet fish, but I've tried to clean it up and get the water parameters as good as possible. I'm not sure I've succeeded very well, since it is a small tank and was neglected so badly. The API master test kit is currently showing 0 - 0.25 ammonia (the color is in-between), 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. Poppy's new home will be a 10 gallon tank- it's cycling right now (though given that he's really sick I don't know if I should transfer him to it right away when it's finished). Tank temp is 79/80 degrees.

On November 2, Poppy suddenly stopped wanting to eat (very unusual, he's usually a little piggy!) and mostly wanted to sit on his favorite plant near the top of the tank. He did still swim around, just less. He looked absolutely fine though. The water test did not show anything unusual. I treated him with melafix. By November 6 he was back to his old self again. I continued the melafix til November 9.

On November 10, I noticed that Poppy was not as interested in his food, though he did eat. On November 11, he was suddenly doing way worse. He ate just one pellet and would only sit under a plant at the bottom of the tank. He was always a really nosy/friendly betta, but this is when he stopped being interested in anyone coming near the tank. 11/11 is also the last day he ate anything.

Since then, he's had NO interest in any kind of food at all. His fins have become ragged (they started looking like they had small bends at some of the tips, and now look worse.) He developed popeye too- this went away at first when I treated him with kanaplex, but has returned more severely in the past few days. He also looks slightly discolored? Like his scales are duller than before.

I treated him with kanaplex for one week. Besides making the popeye go away it didn't seem to make much difference. A friend of mine who keeps fish told me to treat him with metroplex too "just in case" and I'm doing that, because I don't know what else to try. Poppy has now not eaten for a week and a half. I can't imagine he can go on forever without eating.

Does anyone have any ideas on what he could be sick with, or what I could try next? Should I treat the popeye with kanaplex again? I'm not clear if it's okay to do two treatments. Is there any secret to getting him to eat something? I wanted to try the garlic juice thing, but he won't even take any notice of any food I offer.

The only medication I have on hand (besides the kanaplex, metroplex, and melafix) is erythromycin. So if he needs some other treatment I'll have to order it- the pet shops where I live don't have much.

I added a picture to show just how badly he's doing. His fins and his eye look especially poor. But I somehow think there's also an underlying problem. He seemed to go from being normal to very ill all at once.

View attachment 148565
That picture is giving me flashbacks of my own betta right before he passed... Salt is a good all around remedy but I dont know the dosing amounts... Anytime you see ammonia or nitrItes go above 0 do a 50-75% water change... You are doing a fish in cycle which in your circumstances is the best you can do... I'm not very experienced so I will leave this to others who can add on
 
Get rid of the Melafix as it will slowly kill him....or at the very least make his issues far worse to the point of killing him.

It is unrefined tea tree oil and it destroys his labrynth organ.....that is essential for him since he is a surface breathing fish.

I would suggest 75% water changes every day for the next 10 days. Do not use any further medications on the fish since you are not 100% sure of why he is not doing well. The Melafix will have caused his decline to increase since it would have been slowly suffocating him. The other medications used will likely have just exacerbated the effects of neglectful husbandry.

The daily water changes will help get the water free of toxicity from ammonia and nitrites too, which again in such a small volume of water will be seriously affecting his health

The water needs to be clean, dechlorinated and as close to the temperature of his existing water as possible. Salt may or may not help but at this stage in the game, its fresh clean water that will help the most...any other issues can be handled once the water is in a better shape.
 
Stop adding chemicals and anti-biotics and euthanise the fish. It is dying and you are only wasting your money trying to keep it alive.
 
For future awareness, @wasmewasntit 's point about Melafix is 100% accurate and using this might have finished off an already stressed out fish. :(

Whilst it is usually true that just clean water is the best medicine, Aquarium Salt provides minerals absent from tapwater and essential for an effective immune system. It also counters fungi and most pathogenic bacteria.
A normal maintenance dose would be 1tbsp per 5 gallon, but for therapy, this can rise to 1tbsp per 3 gallon.

On the subject of stress, a lack of security and/or fluorescent plastic plants and gravel, for example, do not help.
Natural surroundings and dim light would be less stress-inducing.
 

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