Bah, fungusssss

[Mowgli]

SO i saved a female betta from the local fish store. She was sitting next to a pretty red and white dragonscale hmpk that would have cost me 45$....but i got a black hmpk. But her time next to him made her awefully eggy. Perfect for my first possible attempt at breeding in a few weeks when the tank arrives.

ANYWAYS
ive had her for less than 48 hours...
yeah

epic
fungus
f***

anyways first off this is just a theory. Fungus
I mean, bad water params at the store (little cup on a cold day?)
And she was outside the little cup rows ( where they normally keep their betta cups. Lamp heated and thermometered...but quite well



So i have a picture of it.
And need to know what the best treatment would be
This is bm (Bowel movement cuz there was betta poop in her cup when i bought her, or big momma cuz she was mate ready when i bought her)

[Mowgli]

at the time of that photo (3 hours ago) she was swimming fine eating fine
having a good time
NOW...
she is shallowly floating at the top
drops bubbles like a ballast and sinking then viciously fighting her way to the top

She is in a quarantine container that i bought for 9$ at the pet store my girlfriend works as to not spread anything. i only have one thermometer right mew, the other one is in the community tank.

good news is she seems a bit more energetic than when i started typing this post?

[Myates]

Aww poor girl. It doesn't look like fungus unless you see white cottony patches over all of that.. to me it looks like she has lost all her scales.
(I would not recommend breeding her, especially until long after she is fully healed and has her scales back.)
For the life of me I can't figure out what is happening.. could be a bacterial infection or Columnaris (which can be mistaken for fungus) which is what I am leaning towards.
The disease is highly contagious and may be spread through contaminated nets, specimen containers, and even food. For this reason it is important to use sterile techniques to avoid contaminating other tanks. So take extra precautions just in case.

•Symptoms: White spots on mouth, edges of scales and fins, Cottony Growth that eats away at the mouth, Fins rapidly disingrate, starting at the edges
Gray areas around head and gills, As the disease progresses the gray lesions may change in color to yellow/brown/red, Lesions often occur in front of the dorsal causing a “saddleback” appearance, Lethargic, Loss of appetite, Clamped, Gasping for air
•Treatment: There are 2 versions of Columnaris: chronic and acute. Chronic Columnaris can take days to progress while acute can kill within a day. It is contagious so isolate sick fish. If more than one fish shows symptoms then treat the entire tank. Perform daily 100% water change in small tanks or ¾ water change in larger tanks. Make sure to clean the gravel. Treat with Aq.Salt: add 1 tsp/gal Aquarium Salt 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Do NOT raise the temperature as it thrives in temps over 85*F, however, lowering the temperature does not seem to help fight it. Combine salt treatment with Mardel’s Coppersafe, Maracyn I & II, API Erythromycin, OR API Triple Sulfa, combined with Jungle’s Fungus Eliminator (if possible).

But again, I am not 100% sure, I'd wait until someone else can confirm it or knows what else it could be.

[Mowgli]

well she was all fuzzy when i left to go to the pet store yesterday and ask the pet store owner what was up. said it was fungus and gave me melafix. Gave her melafix the fuz went away and thats where that picture was taken. thats the stage of no return though
i woke up today, all the scales in that area . gone . a bloody mess. and shes dead.
FML

[Myates]

Oh no =( I'm so sorry.. there was definitely something going on other then just fungus. Unless the fungus was with her for so long before you got it that it just eventually got to her. So sad.. she was beautiful =(