Lathargic Betta

[Sarahlydear]

Hello; first here's this info:

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5gal
What temperature is your tank? 78F
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? non

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? 1NLS, several bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? I try to feed him every day but he refused until I gave him some bloodworms yesterday.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%, 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime, Aquarium Salt

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

Ammonia: N/A
Nitrite: N/A
Nitrate: N/A
pH: around 7 I believe
Hardness: N/A
Alkalinity: N/A

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He no longer has fin rot
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? I've only had him for a little over a week and he has been severely lethargic and getting worse
When did you start noticing the symptoms? when I bought him little over a week ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Aquarium Salt
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Fin rot
How old is your fish (approximately)? No idea, from Wal-Mart

So when I bought this little guy he was nose down and was very depressed, I felt bad and bought him.
Since being with me I have treated him for fin rot, which has gone away, but the thing I'm worried about is he is severely lethargic. All he does is sit there; he's stopped moving his fins while he's just sitting there and now looks dead.
At first I thought because he was recovering, but he's only gotten worse. He ate a single pellet on the 6th day I had him and two days later (yesterday) he had some bloodworms. That's it.
I've seen him poop once....
I'm really worried about him especially because I'll be moving to college this Friday and I don't want to lose him over the 4hr trip.

He's in warm, clean water with Aquarium Salt and is offered food daily. Today I'm going to try soaking the pellets in bloodworm blood to see if I can get him to eat some of that.....
Is there anything else I can do?

[Oldfishlady]

Is he still in the Qt and salt......if so, start acclimating him to his 2.5gal unfiltered tank by adding small amount of tank water to the Qt over 30 min...be sure and dump the QT/salt water...you don't want this in the tank......

If you treated him in the 2.5gal tank-start making some daily 50% for 2-3 days to get the salt out and see if that will perk him up....

Dose the Prime for the full volume of the tank even with the partial changes.....

Make a 50% water change on his tank before you re-acclimate him and then start making 50% daily water changes for 2 days once he is back in the tank......

If you have some fresh garlic-try lacing the pellets in some of the juice and see if he will eat that or find some live food like mosquito larva-rinsed and see if that will stimulate his feeding response....

Keep us posted.....

[Myates]

I hope he gets better :(

[Sarahlydear]

Thanks! I put some Stress Coat in the water and he perked up a bit but almost started swimming funny so I think I'll start adjusting him to no-salt water right when I get done posting this.

Would putting garlic Powder in the water and soaking it work alright? The only live food I can get are flightless fruit flies and they're an hour away....unless a bait shop would have some?

I have gallon jugs that I fill up and leave overnight with full Prime in and I pour that in the tank when I do the next water change. Is that all right?

[Sarahlydear]

Crap he's getting worse......I've moved him to a small container with about an inch of water because all he was doing was sitting on the thermometer breathing from the surface. His eyes are starting to look sunken and he refuse to eat Anything.
I tried soaking the pellets in garlic and nothing, soaking them with bloodworms and nothing, now he's even refusing bloodworms...

I really need some help here, outwardly nothing seems to be the matter and he looks in good health, if not skinny. He just refuses to eat and barely moves......

[Sarahlydear]

So after getting him in some different light I noticed a white, fuzzy patch coming out of his gills.
Now I'm treating him for a fungal infection, I can't go back into town tonight but tomorrow I will pick up some medicine and if it doesn't get better I'll stop the AquS and just do the medicine correct?

[Sarahlydear]

He died last night.

[dramaqueen]

I'm so sorry about your fish.

[Sakura8]

I'm sorry, sarahlydear. But at least you gave him a fighting chance, which is way more than he would have had at the pet store. You did the best you could and you let him die in clean water with someone who loved him.