Saving sick betta with fungus

[Senshine]

On Monday I will be rescuing a fish from work that hasn't been doing well at all. All the information that I have is second hand so it might not be completely true, but I will be able to confirm when I get him.
I've been told he hasn't been eating or pooping, he's very listless, and he has a sort of fungal growth on his gills and under his 'chin' area. This has all been going on since the beginning of January.
I looked at the thread about treatment for diseases and got the list of medicine I can use, and I have some aquarium salt but its probably 6 or so years old. Will I need to get new salt?
What is the best first step to helping this guy?
I can get anything I need to treat him over the weekend, so a list of supplies would be wonderful.
Thank you.

[callistra]

If he's a work fish he's probably been neglected in horrible water for a long time.

He'll need something you can treat him in, which doesn't need to be big but it needs to be big enough you can heat it with a proper heater, which means at least a full gallon, ideally 2 so you can use a good adjustable 25w heater. Are you needing a list of supplies or meds?

Far as meds go I would look for a broad spectrum antibiotic that also works on fungal infections (this could be fungus or columnaris) so that would be Kanaplex or Furan 2.

[Senshine]

From what I know he hasn't been too terribly neglected other then not being treated probably from lack of knowledge.
This is the list of meds I got:
-Jungle 'Fungus Eliminator'
-API Erythromycin
-API Fungus Cure
-API Triple Sulfa
-Mardels Maracyn II
So between those and the two you listed, which should look for first? Or should I try treating him with aquarium salt first?
I was thinking about getting a smaller bowl (probably at least 1 gallon) if I'm going to be changing the water everyday.

Do I start treating his water for a couple days before I try to figure out his eating problems?

[callistra]

sodium chloride, nitrofurazone, furazolidone, potassium dichromate? Try the Jungle if yes.

I'd go with Erythromycin as a backup if you don't see major improvement after a week. I would treat a full week a minimum and count on going a second.

[Senshine]

If you're asking if those are the ingredients in it I have no idea haha. The list is from a stickied thread on here and it didn't list the ingredients of each.

[Lyshymo]

Well, I'm not too terribly sure since I haven't seen the fish, but pending on the fungal growth, if it looks like cotton coming out of his gills it's actually a bacterial growth called Columnaris (I bought a fish that had it and he only survived for 4 days in my care, however I wasn't aware he had it and everyone kept telling me he was stressed and would be fine in days so I never started a treatment although my gut instinct told me to do something -.-).

If it ends up being Columnaris, I was recommended to do a mixture of Maracyn and Maracyn-Two as well as using Aquarium Salt. If it's Columnaris, the temperature should be about 75-76 degrees as bacteria grows in warm conditions (and as a common sense rule, the water needs to be clean, but I'm sure you could figure that out).

I'm not too knowledgeable about other diseases as I haven't came across any others. :S Hope that helps (if that's what he has).

[Senshine]

I was asking someone about him just now and apparently it's not cottony at all like I was first told.. It is a white growth (like opaque white, not translucent like the cottony stuff is) under his head on his "chin" area.

[callistra]

Maracyns in combo are not your best bet. A lot of columnaris are resistant to that, which is why I suggest other meds which are more likely to work. The med most likely to work I believe is Kanaplex, followed by Triple Sulfa then Furan 2 (JFE is like Furan 2 plus some extras).

Well you said you have the meds.. so look on the box?

[Senshine]

I never said I had any meds.. it is just a list that was on the treatment thread.

[callistra]

When you said "I got" I thought you actually had.. My mistake.

Well in that case look for Kanaplex, followed by Furan 2 or the JFE would work as well. IMHO it's kind of a toss up between the Triple Sulfa and Furan 2. Just depends on how your strain is working. You can also combine Kanaplex with Furan 2 for a more rounded approach.