Popeye AND a fungal infection

[Sceven]

Hi guys,

Basically I found this guy on Aquabid, he was exactly what a friend of mine was looking for so I essentially brokered the transaction as she was afraid of losing him and did not already have an account set up. So she bought him and he was not the color she wanted, I think that is the point that she lost interest. Well I came into work after a very trying weekend and was presented with this little guy, with what I initially thought was a case of dropsy. His belly is not so bloated and some yellow came back to his belly vs the scary gray and he has not pine coned. So I am thinking its Popeye. Now he is doing a bit better, the swelling has come down and his eye has come down a bit. But now he is scratching up against EVERYTHING and has a new fuzzy coat. What I am unsure of is if I should stop the ES for his popeye and start with AQ Salt for the fungal infection, or keep up until the popeye goes away. Any advice? I have included a terrible picture.

My Phone Le Sucks:


Housing
What size is your tank? Was in a 1g with no heat. Now in a 1g hospital tank
What temperature is your tank? 82-86
Does your tank have a filter? Not filtered
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? None
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets and Blood worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2-3 pellets in the morning and at night and some blood worms (2-3) before bed

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Right now every day. He never had his water changed (aprox 2 months)
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Now 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Conditioner and Epsom Salt

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? Not tested yet, I need a test kit getting a master kit this weekend But sence I changed the water everyday I would assume 0's across

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Left eye is swollen, looks like a bobble over his eye
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Scratching against substrate and plant. He was never really active most likely because he was so board, there was nothing in his tank, just substrate.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Tuesday Afternoon
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes, daily water changes, higher temps, ES 1.5 tsp per gallon
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? I am not sure I would say 10 months to a year

NOTE: I feel terrible for basically putting him in this situation, please don't flame me for it. I am responsible for his condition and it hurts that I played a part in his suffering. I can guarantee he will never be in that situation again.

[TheCheese909]

Grab a flash light or bright light and shine it on him. Scratching sounds like he might have ick, which looks like tiny little white dots.

Take your time and see if you can get more photos so we can see how the rest of him looks.

If he is just a little bloated right now then don't feed him for two days, then you can feed him some frozen (thawed) brine shrimp or Daphnia. Those are both natural laxaives, feed him that every other day for 5 days along with 1 or two pellets in between. Discontinue the blood worms for now and in the future only feed them to him about twice a week, since they have no nutritional value.

ES is to be used as a bath, for about 20-30 minutes at a time, but can be used daily. 1 tsp per gallon of unscented ES with no dyes. You should be fine in using both salts at the same time.

Clean his tank thoroughly and add water conditioner and 1tsp of AQS. Change his water daily.. You can set up another hospital tank and add the ES in there and place him into that tank while you're cleaning out his AQS tank. It'll give you about 30 minutes to set it up which should be enough time. Once his ES bath is done you can place him back into the new AQS tank.

[Sceven]

Originally Posted by TheCheese909

Grab a flash light or bright light and shine it on him. Scratching sounds like he might have ick, which looks like tiny little white dots.

Take your time and see if you can get more photos so we can see how the rest of him looks.

If he is just a little bloated right now then don't feed him for two days, then you can feed him some frozen (thawed) brine shrimp or Daphnia. Those are both natural laxaives, feed him that every other day for 5 days along with 1 or two pellets in between. Discontinue the blood worms for now and in the future only feed them to him about twice a week, since they have no nutritional value.

ES is to be used as a bath, for about 20-30 minutes at a time, but can be used daily. 1 tsp per gallon of unscented ES with no dyes. You should be fine in using both salts at the same time.

Clean his tank thoroughly and add water conditioner and 1tsp of AQS. Change his water daily.. You can set up another hospital tank and add the ES in there and place him into that tank while you're cleaning out his AQS tank. It'll give you about 30 minutes to set it up which should be enough time. Once his ES bath is done you can place him back into the new AQS tank.

Thank you for the response, i really didn't want to bump the thread :)

Unfortunately, that was with a flashlight, and lightening up the picture, I took a few of him but the others are so horrible that you can't even tell he is there, its my phone. I am working on getting a decent camera this weekend.

I haven't noticed any white dots on him, but I have noticed this morning a white chunk (looks like a really thin kidney bean) where the bloating has gone down on his eye, looks cottony.

[TheCheese909]

Hm..

Well, in he mean time go ahead and treat him with the AQS, it'll treat the fungal infection he has and if he has any other external diseases/parasites.

You can sit down next to him and take your time and see if you can get acouple other photos of him so I can see if I can figure out if here is anything else wrong with him.

Do you happen to have any Maracyn, Maroxy or API Fungus Cure? You won't be needing any of that for the time being but they are nice to have in case if the 10 AQS treatment does not work. They all fight fungal infections and all work pretty well in my experience with them.