Please Help Jetta - Fungus? Ich? He's So Sad.

[eduller]

Long story short - I got Jetta on Monday of last week for my desktop tank at work. I picked him out because he had been at the very bottom of the "stack" of bettas at the store, and the guy next to him was dead. I figure being at the bottom, he probably wasn't going to get picked up any time soon. He wasn't very lively in the store. I acclimated him very slowly, took about 3 hours to put him in the tank. At first, he swam around a lot, explored, but he didn't eat that day. Tuesday he was fairly docile and hid a lot in a couple of different spots. Still didn't eat. I chalked this up to stress/shock from the move. 
 
His home - 4 gallon heated, filtered, cycled tank. Water parameters are all good (API master freshwater liquid test kit). Temperature stays around 76 with the heater I have - I bought a new heater today that is adjustable to make it warmer for him. He has 2 nerite snails as tankmates, bought from the same pet store and they were in an adjoining tank at the store. Water conditioner is Seachem Prime. Food is Omega One betta pellets and also frozen brine shrimp.
 
I got sick on Tuesday night with H1N1 flu, and I was out the rest of the week.I had done a 50% water change before I left for the day on Tues. My work friend fed him for me, but she didn't see him eat. I went into work on Friday morning long enough to do about a 90% water change and feed the fish and snails. At this point, I noticed a couple of pale spots on Jetta, and his fins looked slimy. Honestly, it was not a good way to start off his first week. I was able to give him 0 care and 0 attention other than the water change on Friday. I feel really bad about this, but I was so sick I couldn't even drive. I could barely stand.
 
So I went in early on Monday so worried that he wouldn't be alive. But he was alive and actually swimming around. However, he now has several white patches, his color has darkened and gotten very dull. He was a nice deep red/purple when I bought him, and now he's a dull brick color. His fins are clamped, he has some slime on the ends of them. The snails seem fine. I performed a 100% water change and tried to coax him to eat, but no go. All he did all day today was lay on the bottom of the tank, coming up every few minutes to take a breath, and then going back down. He does not appear to be gasping, but he's clearly in distress. 
 
I bought some fungus cure, some aquarium salt, and the more powerful heater for my arsenal for tomorrow morning. I'm going to head in as early as I can and see what I can do for him. His poor sad little pouty face is killing me. Please if someone can give me some advice I would take it very much to heart. I know I caused this by my inattention, and I hope I can pull him through. My game plan right now unless someone has better advice is to hike the heat up to 82 and treat with the fungus medicine first before trying the aquarium salt. I am worried about the salt affecting the snails. I have also read that pure rooibos tea/tannins can help, so I'm going to pick some up. I looked at the pet store for the "blackwater" extract for tannins, but they didn't have it. 

 

 

[Wildbetta]

I personally would not add the meds just yet.  Keep his water very clean and very warm at least 82F.  If he does not start looking better in a day or 2 with this method then I would add a broad spectrum antibiotic instead of the fungus meds because I do not see any sign of fungus on him.

 

[eduller]

Thank you very much. I'll do that. I am relatively new to fishkeeping and have never had a sick fish before. And this is my first betta. I will return the fungus meds and get the bacterial ones instead just in case I need them. Do you know if they high temperature will bother the snails? They seem to be very tough, hardy things, but I could bring them home and put them in the community tank or even a quarantine tank to keep them safe. They are nerite snails.

 

[Ryan10]

You can use catappa leaves instead of black water extract. You get more bang for your buck than buying the extract.

 

[eduller]

He actually is looking better on his own this morning. The white seems to be receding. Although, he is still hiding at the bottom of the tank and not really moving around except to go up for air. I added in a more powerful heater with a temperature control. I just ordered some Indian almond leaves from Amazon, and I bought some rooibos tea bags to use in the meantime. I hope he starts doing better.

 

[eduller]

I'm happy to report that little Jetta is doing better and better. I added rooibos tea, cranked his heater up to 84, and have been doing daily 80% water changes. He has really perked up, today especially. His white spots are receding, and his fins have mostly un-clamped. He was super active today, and he ATE! He ate 2 pellets and a little chunk of frozen brine shrimp. I'm so relieved for him. He seems sooo sick on Monday morning, and he is already doing a lot better. 

 

[tunagirll]

Are you sure the tank is cycled? What you describe sounds like a result of dirty water and normally after a week a cycled tank shouldn't show any problems. I have a 28litre betta tank here and normally only need to do a small change once a week. Did you happen to test the water when he was ill? That could tell you what's happening in the tank. If not, try testing it now and come back with the tank parameters (preferably before a water change).
 
Also if it's any help, I had to change from a 25W heater to a 55W one as the small heater wasn't handling the difference in room temperature to what it was being set for in the tank. The heaters will only raise the room temperature so many degrees per watt.
 
Glad to hear he is on the mend

 

[Hibiscusmile]

yea, reading this I thought he had no chance, but u seem to be helping him, good luck.

 

[eduller]

I am not 100% sure the tank is cycled, as I am relatively new to fishkeeping. But I thought so. After having it up and running for a week, the ammonia was disappearing overnight (with no fish/plants in it yet, using ammonia drops to test). So I called it good. Had I not been sick, I would definitely have been testing the water daily even thinking the tank was cycled. Unfortunately, I did not think to test the water when he was ill until after I had already performed the water change. I panicked and thought he was going to immediately die, so I just did what I could think to do at that time as quickly as possible. I also had a friend feeding the fish/snails, and uneaten food could have been contributing to the problem because I don't think Jetta was eating anything at all.
 
I have now been treating it as if the tank isn't cycled and testing daily (actually twice a day because I'm paranoid now). I'm registering 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, little bit of nitrates, pH staying at 7.2. Luckily, he is doing very much better, and I'm going to continue testing daily and doing a large water change on Fridays when I'm gone for the weekend. I thought I good water change schedule for now would be like 50% on Tuesday and maybe 70% on Fridays - or of course more often if needed according to tests.
 
He's doing great now. Super active, eating normally (pig actually, he keeps trying to eat at the snails' algae wafer), his color is totally perked up and brightened. I can't get a good picture because of the tint of the water from the tea, but I'll snap one after the water change tomorrow.
 
I appreciate, as always, everyone's input and advice.
I might add that I cycled the tank using mature filter media as well as about a pound of gravel from a very good LFS. And bottled bacteria for good measure (Dr. Tim's). I didn't just run the tank for a week and call it a day