What is possibly wrong with betta and how to fix it?

metropolis93fan

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Please see: Original Thread for the background on the tank situation with this betta
I need to do water chems on his 1.5 gallon (again, see link above. I'm cycling a new tank... actually it IS cycled. I inherited this fish.)

What I need to know is:
A. What is wrong
B. Do I contaminate a perfectly healthy, well-cycled tank with a dying fish?

Condition: I was gone for a week (no way around it) He eats little at a time and my mom was in charge of feeding him, her former fish. She didn't feed him the day we left. So 8 days no food in a tiny 1.5 gallon.

Came back to find him first floating normal-looking at top of water as he almost always is. Left the room for a minute, came back, and he was on the floor and it took quite a bit of coaxing to get him up. I got him to eat 3 pieces of food by putting them right in front of his mouth. He hasn't been on the bottom again since. Porblem is, he cannot swim straight. He's on his side when he swims. He can rest upright with no help, but swims on his side.

Someone suggested it was constipation causing swim bladder disease. What I've been reading partially adds up, but not totally. There is no distended belly. He can rest at the top of the tank in the correct position. However, he hasn't eaten much at a time in a long time. (no more than 3 pieces at once for maybe a month? More?)
His conditions are NOT good. I had to take his heater out of his 1.5 to use to cycle the new tank. I'm sorry. Please don't judge. I'm poor. I'm on disability. I already bought a really good set-up for him when I wasn't planning on a major project as I owe my parents money. So I put as much on my Amazon card as possible nearly maxing it and that is what I get my OTC stuff my doctors INSIST I take from! I'm bending over backwards but I can only do so much. I had an unexpected vet bill for my dog. Sorry, dog trumps fish. Another $25 heater was NOT in the cards.

I got a provided plant I know is safe put in his little tank and have been putting in seachem prime to help reduce ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. He has a nice big catapa leaf. I really wanted the new tank to cycle first.

Now I'm concerned he's going to contaminate it. It's PROBABLY not bacterial or parasitic but what IS it? I have two tanks. One with my fish and the new one for this one. (Well, both are mine now I guess). I don't really want to have to scrap a tank and cycle it again because this one contaminates it and then winds up dying. I'm GOING to have a fish in both tanks.

What do I do? What does this fish have? I hate to spend $9 on daphnia when I am not convinced it is constipation. First step in checking for that is not feeding for a few days. He had 8 of those. Got sicker. Please advise. Please.
 
There might not be much hope for the betta, sorry to say...I'd go ahead and move it to the cycling tank, check params daily, WCs as needed

If he is diseased or has parasites, just start again with the tank after cleaning it, if he passes
 
Aw man... I'm so sorry this is happening.

Have you noticed his poop at all? Is it white and stringy? If do it could be worms and you may need to treat him for that.
@Colin_T would know what to do.
But don't start treating for anything with medications unless you know what disease or infection it actually is.
Keep doing daily 75% water changes and vacuuming the substrate. This should help with whatever is happening to him
 
The fish might have injured itself when it jumped out and landed on the ground.

Video of the fish?
Upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here

If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally so the footage fills the entire screen.

Try to sum up the issue in a few sentences. It's 4am here and I can't see the screen properly :)
 

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