Loss of Color and Lethargic

[LittleWatty]

I've been having some issues with Dov... (pictures in gallery)

Housing
What size is your tank? 6.6 long (Petco bookshelf tank) - currently in 1.75 gallon hospital tank
What temperature is your tank? 78F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes (hospital tank = 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? 1 Tiger Nerite, and maybe 1 or 2 ghost shrimp. I recently moved him to an empty tank, but saw no improvement, so now he's alone in a hospital tank.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? New Life Spectrum with the occasional frozen bloodworm
How often do you feed your betta fish? Every day ~3 pellets. I fast them on Saturday or Sunday as well as Wednesday.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Every few weeks. I know I should change more, but I do keep an eye on my tank parameters. All of my tanks are planted (not NPT though) and fully cycled. If anything is different from what they are stated below, I do a % change based on what numbers I get.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%-70% (occasionally 90%, if I have a diatom issue)
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? API conditioner (not stresscoat) with some cuttlebone for my snail in the filter.

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

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0pm
Nitrate: 20ppm (its 40ppm from the tap)
pH: 7.4
Hardness: n/a
Alkalinity: n/a

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Severe loss of color. He's a dragonscale, so his body hasn't lost much, but his pectorals, anal, dorsal, and caudal fins are very very pale. Almost completely flesh colored when they're normally a bright red or blue.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Grown very lethargic, staying mostly to the bottom of the tank. Unless he pins himself to something, his tail end tends to stick up significantly.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? He's been losing color for a few days, but didn't really notice until last night when he wasn't moving at the bottom of the tank.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Light treatment of AQ salt in a hospital tank with low water. I might switch to Epsom salts if I don't see improvements after a week (as he is currently trying to pass his food without much luck)
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? I've had him for just under 4 months. Purchased July 26th of this year.

As stated somewhere in there, he is currently trying to pass his food, and appears to maybe be having some trouble with it. I don't know if that's why he's acting so strange all of a sudden, though, so I'm starting with the AQ salt treatment. The tank he was in is fully cycled, and has been since early July (around the 4th).

He takes food fine normally (though he usually misses a few pellets because I swear he's either half blind or fully stupid! I love him for it though), but couldn't get him to last night. It could have been that I was trying to feed him in his cup while I was switching tanks, and he hates the cup. I'll try again tonight to see what happens.

I don't seem to have a good track record with sick fish, and this fish is my roommates favorite :( I want him to live more for my friend's sake than mine. If anyone can offer any help, I'd love to have it. I would post pictures, but my camera is MIA at the moment. There are past pictures of him in my gallery by the name Dov, to get an idea of what he used to look like when I say his fins are mostly flesh colored.

[LittleWatty]

Managed to track down my camera. He's actually regained a fair amount of his color since this morning, and I'm hoping that means he's on the mend. I added an image of what he's been trying to pass through his system for the past 15 hours or so. Starting to think maybe its just severe constipation. The semi-vertical position he's in seems to be what he's been favoring since I noticed him acting strange. I don't think its on purpose either, so maybe a little SBD. However, I'm not going to treat for the constipation or SBD until I have a more educated opinion on the matter, or the AQ salt does nothing. At that point, I'll switch to an Epsom salt treatment after giving him a few days of downtime.

[LittleWatty]

Well, whatever it was, it hit him fast and hit him hard. I came back from class, and found him in his usual position. Just to check and see if he was alive (as I have done several times) I brushed past him with my turkey baster. Didn't move like he usually did, so I moved his caudal fin with it a little bit. He was in full rigor, and when I picked him up with my hand I knew for sure he was gone.

[LoveMyCay]

Oh no

Unfortunately, I do not know enough about anything yet to share advice. But 4 months is quite a short time. Definitely sorry for your loss.

[BETTACHKALOVE]

so sorry, not even sure what happened. Can't really say anything by picture. He really looks fine on the picture. Just by symptoms that you described definitely something was wrong.
Sorry, too late any way, but just want to make sure that you know right instructions on aquarium salt. It usually 1tsp/gall up to 3 tsp/gall with 100% daily water changes for 10 days up max 14 days
Aquarium and epsom salt have anti bacterial/fungal effect. Usually aquarium salt for injuries, fin rot, ich. Epsom salt for buoyancy problem, sbd, internal parasites (helps purge them out ), pop eye, constipation. The same instructions as for aq salt. But epsom salt you can use for long time though.

You have other bettas so be careful don't share any equipment between them.

You will need to disinfect the tank and everything in the tank. Also live plants. Not sure how to disinfect them but i would not use them for another fish until you know how to disinfect them. Not sure how to disinfect the filter. I guess you can wash it with 50% vinegar boiling water and let it dry out for a few days.

Also you saying that you tank was cycle for about 4 month. I am wondering if you rinse your filter regularly. I think not all people realize that you need to take care of the filter also, which also can be cause of the problem

I want to give you a link about cycling i think you can fine a lot of helpful information there.
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=107771
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=115758

[Butterfly]

Do you still have the body? KEEP IT

When I saw the pics, it immediately made me think of this:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=90086

Can you take sharper images of his body? Possibly under light?

I'm very sorry for your loss. That looks really suspicious. The above thread says that whatever the disease/sickness is, it kills fast and quick. :( Hopefully if he did have it, you can save the body and get a necropsy or something in order to demystify this terrible thing. :(

[BETTACHKALOVE]

i am worry about other bettas that LittleWatty has

[Butterfly]

^ Lol, why are you worried? Obviously they care about the betta or they would not have posted here. And they have a tank, filter, heater, tested water, etc.

[whatsupyall]

So sorry to hear about SDFNAR from your betta. SDFNAR = sudden death for no apparent reason; happens among the best of us too.

[LittleWatty]

BETTACHKALOVE, Thanks for all the tips, but I know all of that already ;) I do my homework before buying fish. If there was anything in the water, my ghosties would be dead, so I'm not too paranoid about disinfecting everything. Those things are so sensitive that if anything's wrong in the water, they'll tell me before my fish will.

He also did not have the mysterious illness. There was no tissue die-off, and he doesn't fit the description of the fish that usually get that disease. I studied that thread well before I bought my fish, even though I never got a true-blue fish. Dov wasn't even technically blue, at least he wasn't in my opinion. He was more of a cambodian wearing a blue "jacket"

I just wonder if maybe its something he's always had, and it finally took him down. He's always been an... odd fish, compared to my others. He always seemed either half blind or stupid. At every feeding, I'd have to show him exactly where the pellets were floating, because he could never find them on his own. I dunno. Just seemed very strange to me.