Please Help. Was bright blue; now brown. Lazy and struggling

[bettaHELP]

Hi everyone. I honestly don't know what else I can do to help my betta. I have had him for about a year. I keep him in a 1 gallon tank with a bubbler at a consistent 77 degrees F. I do a 50-75% water change every 3 weeks or so. I do a complete water change and tank cleaning every month.

He has always been fine and was at one time a bright blue color. About a month ago (with no changes in my care procedures), he just lays at the bottom of the tank, barely swimming at all. He has also turned a brownish color on his body and slowly his fins (see image below). It's almost like there is a coat of brown on him now, as I can see some shiny blue under it at certain angles. His scales seem to be deteriorating, as well. I have tried a bunch of things. I have tried calibrating the water temperature (it's right at 77 degrees), I have tried feeding him less, I have tried changing the water more frequently. Nothing seems to get him back to his blue color and swimming eccentrically as he used to. Nothing is working.

What can I do and what can be causing this? Any help would be appreciated. I hate seeing him like this.
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Housing
What size is your tank? 1 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 77 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? no, but a bubbler
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Top Fin betta bits and tetra bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? used to feed him twice a day (3 pellets, 3 bloodworms). Now I feed him 3 pellets as he is sick.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? see above
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? see above
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? chlorine removal drops

[twolovers101]

Well... I'm no expert, but you should be doing water changes every 2-3 days or so for a 1 gallon... 50% every 3 weeks is not enough.. and your problem most likely stems from poor water quality.

Don't freak out, many of us had made mistakes before, so you're not alone.

Go ahead and do a 100% water change as soon as possible. Try to do more frequent changes or get a larger tank that has a filter. :)

If that doesn't help then you might want to move on to using AQ salt but just try the water changes for now :)

[Shirleythebetta]

Is it just the picture or are his scales raised up?

[LadyVictorian]

You don't clean the water nearly enough. You should be doing 2 50% water changes and 1 100% water change EVERY week. Every three weeks is horrible. Once you start changing the water more he should improve, I am sure he is suffering from ammonia poisoning from living in filth.

Also his scales do look a little raised in that pic, could be the bacteria causing dropsy, I hear dirty tanks can cause it as well. If that is the case and the fish has dropsy he won't make it unfortunately.

[LadyVictorian]

Yes if the scales look like they are melting off it could be ammonia burns from dirty a tank.

[Aus]

He may also have velvet - I see a goldish sheen on him? If you shine a torch on him and see 'glitter' or a metallic shine, he may have parasites on top of whatever else.

Definitely pineconing, which is probably bacterial. Grab some Kanaplex for the underlying infection, and commit to way more water changes than he's been getting, is what I'd do.

[sainthogan]

It looks like velvet and ammonia burns to me. Both can happen from unclean tanks. Please see check this link on the forum about water changes:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=115758

But given the state your fish is in, you're going to need to bump it up to more than the recommended water changes. You're also going to need to treat him for velvet. When my fish had velvet, the medication I was using required a daily water change of at least 50%, then I had to put the recommended amount in after the water change.

Good Luck