Need help... its been a while

[cjconcepcion]

Hey yall i know its been a while since i last posted here! been busy with school and stuff. Well anyways, my friend needs help with his fish, he used to be my fish, but i gave him to him a few months ago...

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 77
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? yes
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? omega one betta buffet, tetra betta floating mini pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1 pellet in the morning, one pellet at night

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? every 3-4 days
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50-60%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? water conditioner

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

no

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

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? clamped fins
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? lethargic, clamped fins, less active, air bubbles "leak" out of his gills when he breathes, decreased appetite
When did you start noticing the symptoms? a few days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? added an airstone to the tank for increased oxygen in the water
Does your fish have any history of being ill? i rescued him him when he had what i believed to be popeye, i treated him with antibiotics, however his eyes never went back to normal, so i attributed it to be a genetic mutation, (there were some fry in my spawn like this) he has always had difficulty seeing.
How old is your fish (approximately)? ive had him for about a year now, i would guess 2 years

my fear is that he has a genetic mutation that caused his eyes to be that way, and that he is now experiencing organ failure.

[babystarz]

Poor guy :( I would turn the heat up to 80 to help his immune system out. Otherwise, my guess is old age/genetic issues catching up with him.

[Tikibirds]

It might just be age but I would do a 100% water change and rinse out the gravel and everything in the tank. Maybe add in 1 teaspoon per gallon of plain epsom salt- to help draw fluid away from the eye. Premix it and make sure its disolved before adding it to the tank

[callistra]

You need to be doing weekly 100% water changes with one 50% mid week with a bowl that small. Never ever use Clorox wipes or other chemicals near or on or in your tank.. that is highly toxic to fish.

He looks like he's got some fin rot in addition to the clamped and he looks really skinny..emaciated..I would double his food.. 2 twice a day and only use Omega one. One fast day a week. What does his poo look like?

He could definitely use an increase in temp by a degree or two.. how do you know it's at 77.. do you have a glass in tank thermometer?

I can't really see anything wrong with his eyes. You mean they are black? Some fish just have black eyes.

[cjconcepcion]

The clorox tub is there for a spill in his room... wasnt used for the tank :)
he lost appetite in his food, he will only eat once a day now. his poo is normal, looks like the food but in "poo shape"

yes there is a thermometer in the tank

and this is what i mean by his eyes, theyve always been like this, through antibiotics and epsom salt. also, i am aware of the fin rot, it came on a while ago and is healing up

[callistra]

That's popeye and not normal. Most eye infections are gram positive and many antibiotics won't work.

Guy needs higher temp, clean water, more food, some epsom salts (1 tsp per gallon predissolved and make sure they are pure with no other additives per the ingredients label) and a good antibiotic like Kanaplex, Maracyn Plus or Furan 2. Meds will have to be diluted to the size contain he is in and be mixed up fresh every time you add them to the water.

[cjconcepcion]

Callistra, sorry if it was not clear in one of the previous posts. But his eyes have always been like this since he has been in my/my friends possession, which is well over a year. He has been an otherwise healthy fish up until these past few weeks. It is possible that he did have popeye in the past, recovered from it, and the edema never subsided. I find it to be very unlikely that he could be suffering from the original bacterial strain, assuming that was the cause in the first place. I have treated him with epsom salts in the dosage you recommended, as well as the maracyn, and "human grade" antibiotics.

He did eat two pellets today with coaxing, temperature has been raised 2 degrees, and i will switch him to Atisons betta pro for his primary food source.

[callistra]

No betta's eyes are naturally bugged out like that.

Maracyn is not Maracyn Plus. Maracyn would not be likely to work on this.

He was in 1 tsp per gallon or more of the epsoms for how long?

[cjconcepcion]

I had a few fry from my spawn that were like that, they also had spinal deformities and had to be culled. This is the reason i attribute it to possibly being a genetic deformity.

I treated with Maracyn and tetracycline on separate 10 day occasions, and i did the epsom salt treatment twice, with each treatment period consisting of one week with daily 100% water changes with the 1tsp per gallon epsom salt. But all of this was well over a year ago... here are some pictures from between then and now. (he sure liked those gumdrops on my table XD)

[callistra]

Neither of those meds were likely to work on popeye, however he looks nice and healthy in those pics..IDK about the eyes. They don't look so popped there.

Super cute with the gum drop :)