Bettas in tank have ick, help!

[BlueBetta17]

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gals
What temperature is your tank? Currently, 78 degrees.
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, and is automatic. I cannot adjust the temperature.
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? One male and one female betta, divided.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? I switch between blood worms and pellets.
How often do you feed your betta fish? I feed them every other day, switching between the two.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once or twice a week.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Some drops to keep the water clear, and Stress Coat.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? I am going to buy a test strip tomorrow. This is the first time in a while that I have used tap water with them, but I have the Stress Coat in. Normally I use drinking water but needed to do a water change right away.

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

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Ich, white spot has shown on them.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? The male has been darting around the past two days, and the female started today. The male has been hanging around the heater and the female darts and scratches but not as much.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Male is lethargic, and female just started clamping her fins.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I went and bought Stress Coat today and added it in.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? The male has never been ill. The female was attacked once and lost her color, only gaining half of it back. She has also had swim bladder in the past and also gets bloated often when I do a water change.
How old is your fish (approximately)? The male is about 9 months and the female is a year and a half.

Other: I have a 5gal tank divided in two and I have a betta on each side. The tank has a heater, and I use tap water but it has stress coat in it. There is no filter, but I do water changes once or twice a week.

What happened was that I was pretty dumb and went and bought two Platies from the store, and I put them in on one side of the tank. There was an ammonia spike, so I removed the Platies and my betta that was with them started acting funny a couple days ago. I thought he might have had ammonia poisoning. I added stress coat in today and did a 75% water change. I came home this afternoon and it looks like both of my bettas as just starting to get ick. There are a few small white dots on their bodies and fins. I thought it might just be from the bubbles in the water, but not my female is spazzing around and darting. I think I might have caught it at the beginning stages.

The last time one of my bettas got ick I went and bought some medicine and it worked. However, I don't have ick medicine on me at the moment, but I do have salt. I heard that Aquarium Salt also can help with ick as well as frequent water changes.

Should I try the salt method or should I go out tomorrow and buy some ick meds? I have also hear that I should clear out and quarantine the fish so the ich doesn't have a host? Any and all feedback is appreciated! Thanks.

[AyalaCookiejar]

Could you fill this out, please? http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233

I need to know if your heater is adjustable.

[BlueBetta17]

Bump! Just updated the original post.

[AyalaCookiejar]

Thank you. If there is any way you could raise the temperature, it would be a good idea, be it increasing the room temp or I've heard of some people wrapping the tank with a towel to insulate it and keep in the heat. A higher temp speeds up the life cycle of the ick and therefore gets rid of it faster.

I would start with the salt treatment since you have it on-hand. Some people swear off of certain medicines and others don't like the chemicals, so you could get other opinions on this, but personally I think it's best to start treating it before it has a chance to spread even more until you can get medication for it. Since you have to do 100% water changes, anyways, you could probably use it now and switch to medication when you get it. I know you've dealt with ick before, but make sure you don't discontinue treatment right after the ick seems to have disappeared so you can make sure any that is still in the water is gone, too.

Also, your one fish may have been affected sooner because of stress. The Platies could have stressed him out, lowering his immune system and causing him to exhibit signs before the other fish.

[BlueBetta17]

Thanks again for helping me out. How much salt do you recommend? I'm looking it up and for a 5gal it said anywhere between 1-6 tablespoons. That's...very broad to me. Also, should I just treat the whole tank or quarantine them individually?

[AyalaCookiejar]

Conservative: Add 1 tsp/gal Aquarium Salt 3 times, 12 hours apart so that you end up with 3 times the normal concentration. Perform daily 100% water changes to remove fallen parasites before they can reproduce. Replace the water with the right amount of salt. Do not continue this treatment for more than 14 days. If it fails or you do not want to use salt, treat with Jungle’s Parasite Clear, API Super Ick Cure, or Kordon Rid Ich Plus. If your betta lives in a jar/bowl, then it can be difficult to heat the water. There are heaters for smaller containers, but you can also float the quarantine container in a larger heated tank during treatment. Do a full water change every day and add an appropriate amount of medication to the water.
•Alternative Treatment: Personally, I have not found Ick medications very effective. I prefer to use PP to treat all external parasites. In the past, I have used 3 or 4 different ick medications unsuccessfully, and every time I resort to PP which works like a charm. Do lots of research before using PP as it is a more dangerous chemical than most.

So 3 tsp per gallon, added gradually. This is copied and pasted from here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=73332

[BlueBetta17]

Thanks! I read through it and added in 1 spoonful for now. All of your help has been HIGHLY appreciated!

[AyalaCookiejar]

You're welcome. Just checking, but you dissolved the salt first, yes?

[BlueBetta17]

No. ... Should I stir the water?

[AyalaCookiejar]

I would cup them for a very short time and stir it so it dissolves. I'm very sorry I forgot to mention that! You can float the cups in the water while dissolving the salt so that the water in their cups stays at the same temperature.

When you add another tsp in 12 hours, just dissolve it in a separate cup of the tank water before adding it. Any salt you add should be dissolved before added. I don't think it should take long for it to dissolve.