Help!! Urgent!!! Sick betta :(

[sugahbabe]

Housing
What size is your tank? 3.5 gallons.
What temperature is your tank? 79 degrees.
Does your tank have a filter? yes, Whisper Internal Filter 1-3 Gallons.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No.
Is your tank heated? Yes, 25W.
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None.


Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NutraFin Max Betta Floating Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day, 1-4 pellets.. Yesterday I fed him two times and he seems very hungry still.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? NutraFin AquaPlus & Aquarium Salt - 1 tsp.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: Ammonia meter is yellow indictating its safe
Nitrite: N/A
Nitrate: N/A
pH: N/A
Hardness: N/A
Alkalinity: N/A

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He is loosing color rapidly, white patch by face, protruding eyes or maybe just one eye.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Lays by the bottom of tank alot... Stayed in one corner water level last night barely moving, Been darting around. He will jump for his food when u feed him.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? July 14th 2012
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes, giving him 9 drops of BettaFix in his water.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not Sure.
How old is your fish (approximately)? I purchased him March 2nd 2012.

Here are some pictures of him healthy:




Than here are 3 pictures showing him how he is right now:

[Pogthefish]

I would say that is fungal, and popeye. The pics are not very good quality. The best way to treat both is to use clean water and aq salt, BUT prolonged exposure to aquarium salt causes kidney damage (prolonged exposure being 10 or more days) so now I would say do a 100% water change and add an extra 50% water change during the week, permanently, because even a little bit of amonia can hurt bettas. Find some anti-fungal and give him that at the correct dosage and keep the water pristine,

[sugahbabe]

Do I continue using BettaFix as well with the fungal medicine too?

I just added a filter today into my tank as my old one was too powerful for the Betta. And I have forgotten a couple times to clean out his tank in the last couple months or so :( I feel so bad that I've been such a bad Betta mommy :( Trying desperately to bring him back to life like he was when I got him.

Should I be feeding him more than once a day? Should I be adding Aquarium Salt in his tank everyday or just with water changes?

[Pogthefish]

Do not continue with the aq salt because it probably has already damaged his kidneys, but continue with bettafix and antifungal. Once a day is fine for feeding.

Don;t blame yourself, you can't change the past, just the future. :)

[Aus]

Okay. This very definitely looks like a bacterial infection.

Get some Furan-2, or Kanaplex if you can find it. Treat according to directions. Either of those medications will help kill the gram-negative bacteria causing this.

Quit using salt altogether -- his eyes look swollen, it'll make him worse. Use salt as a medication for mild diseases, not an additive in regular water.

Quit using bettafix too - it's not the greatest product as far as this kind of bacteria goes, and can sometimes make things worse.

You -can- add 1 teaspoon per gallon epsom for the swelling in his eyes, in conjunction with the medication. But as he's already been given a pile of stuff, maybe see how goes just with the antibiotic for now.. medication overload is hard on a fish.

Keep his water -pristine- clean. Do as many changes as needed per week to keep ammonia at zero. 2x 50% minimum, I'd say.

Hope your little guy feels better soon.

[Pogthefish]

^ agreed, except I would put my money on fungal

[Aus]

Popeye = bacteria (actually, if in one eye only it might be injury, but in both it's usually an infection)

"Fungus" = gram negative bacteria

saprolegnia = true fungus which grows where there's dead flesh = probable bacterial infection