please help diagnosing my fish

[Sir Fishington]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? n/a (slightly above room temp tho.)
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? pellets (i think its nutrafin)
How often do you feed your betta fish? once daily

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 3 week intervals
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 70-90%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Nutrafin Betta Enviro-clean and Betta+ tap water conditioner

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

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

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Yes, left side (pectoral?) fin looks like the cookie monster took a bite out of it
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? usually hugs the bottom or top or hides in his castle, also not eating (occasionally takes a bite but spits it out)
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? bought him just over a month ago

so i did get some pics ill post. but i am really new to this and am going off of advise from pet store employees(for care, havent talked to them about the illness). he seems slightly more active as of late but he is still not eating and his fin looks worse. i think it might be fin rot from what ive read elsewhere on this forum(which is really nice btw) but im also seeing faint white spots on his head. theres 4 of them so far. could ick be causing this? i dont know if i can get clear pics of the spots but ill try. thanks for any help.

[Kytkattin]

First and foremost, you need to do much more frequent water changes if I am reading that right. With that size, one 50% and one 100% change will go a long way towards keeping the health of your fish.

Second, 99% of petstore employees don't know jack about how to properly care for these fish. You obviously talked to one who is among that 99%. If you go back in there with questions he will probably suggest something like bettafix, which is actually toxic to these fish.

Instead, for treatment I suggest aquarium salt (someone will post the dosage, I don't remember it off the top of my head). You have to use actual freshwater aquarium salt, not table salt, not Epsom salts, not ocean salt. You can do this for 10 days, doing daily water changes of 100%.

Also, what type of heater do you have? Get a thermometer so you know how warm the tank is, and if the heater is adjustable, boost the heat to 82 while doing the salt treatment. After the salt treatment is done, the tank needs to be kept at 78-80 to help prevent further infections.

Edit: Oh, and turn off the air stone/undergravel filter or whatever is making the bubbles. Bettas prefer still water, and while some do like to play in bubbles, a 1.5 gallon tank isn't enough room for him to get away from them if he doesn't like them. Plus the water movement will cause the temperature in the tank to drop, which is not what you need right now.

[cjayBetta]

Originally Posted by kytkattin

first and foremost, you need to do much more frequent water changes if i am reading that right. With that size, one 50% and one 100% change will go a long way towards keeping the health of your fish.

Second, 99% of petstore employees don't know jack about how to properly care for these fish. You obviously talked to one who is among that 99%. If you go back in there with questions he will probably suggest something like bettafix, which is actually toxic to these fish.

Instead, for treatment i suggest aquarium salt (someone will post the dosage, i don't remember it off the top of my head). You have to use actual freshwater aquarium salt, not table salt, not epsom salts, not ocean salt. You can do this for 10 days, doing daily water changes of 100%.

Also, what type of heater do you have? Get a thermometer so you know how warm the tank is, and if the heater is adjustable, boost the heat to 82 while doing the salt treatment. After the salt treatment is done, the tank needs to be kept at 78-80 to help prevent further infections.

Edit: Oh, and turn off the air stone/undergravel filter or whatever is making the bubbles. Bettas prefer still water, and while some do like to play in bubbles, a 1.5 gallon tank isn't enough room for him to get away from them if he doesn't like them. Plus the water movement will cause the temperature in the tank to drop, which is not what you need right now.

agree!

[Sir Fishington]

ok loud and clear on the water changes. ill look up a little more on that. i do want to upgrade to a 20 gallon tank soon but again dont really know jack about this stuff any good literature out there that anyone can recommend.
whats the best way to post pics here?
oh and its a marina heater we bought it cause it said it had an internal temp regulator and it was specifically for bettas in tanks less than 5 gallon. i think that was the size anyway

[Sir Fishington]

best shot i got of the pectoral fin with the missing chunk

this one you can kind of see the little spots right above his eye

this is just a shot of Sir Fishington with the heater in the background and bubble tube.

thanks for the help ill look into the salts

[callistra]

You have a serious water quality problem if you're only making a partial change once every 3 weeks.

Two changes minimum of a week (some will even say more) in something that small is necessary - 50% and 100% and the 100% needs to include a thorough rinsing of the gravel. http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=115758
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....e=0#post633594

If he's spitting out his food he may have developed an internal infection from the poor water quality. What color is his poop?

Are you not using a separate in tank thermometer to monitor temperatures? This is very important as those preset heaters tend to overheat or not heat evenly and cause lots of fluctuations which are very hard on fish.

Those little specs are hard to see. Are they fuzzy or do they look like salt? Salt is ick. Fuzz is fungus or columnaris. All tend to rear due to fish stress with poor water quality issues. Fin rot can usually be treated with salt. Ick is best treated with salt and a larger container with an adjustable heater than can be set up to 85. You can't treat ick with salt unless you can control heat like this because the treatment is based on the lifespan of ick which can be over a month in lower temp water. Columnaris and Fungus I always treat with Kanaplex as salts are rarely effective, but Kanaplex won't help ick so make sure you know which it is http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=73332

Here's how to do large changes without shocking

To do a water change, use a little cup like a plastic solo cup - this cup must be only for him and have never been used with soap or other chems. Scoop him up in this cup (keep him in the cup about 1/4 full of water - it doesn't need to be much because he won't be in it for long) and leave him in the cup while you change his water. To do the 50% use a turkey baster - dedicated only to him that has never seen soap or chems - and drag it through the gravel and try to suck as much of the poop out as possible, in addition to 50% of the water. Use a thermometer under the running tap to get it to be the same temp as the water that is normally in his tank. When the thermometer says the flowing tap is the right temp, fill back up his tank. At this point, add the conditioner (dose for how much water you change - if you change half the water you add half gallon worth of conditioner, If you do a 100% water change dose for the full gallon change). Float his plastic cup with him in it in the new water. Slowly add a couple tablespoons of the new water into his cup every 10 minutes for at least an hour. Finally, dump him in gently but try to get as little of the old cup water back into the tank as possible. When you do the weekly 100% you will do mostly the same thing except empty his tank fully and rinse everything in it very well under warm water but never use soaps or chemicals. Once it's fully cleaned/rinsed you can refill it and repeat the cup/acclimate phase.

[Sir Fishington]

i went to the pet store and picked up some freshwater salt and a in tank glass thermometer. i talked to the girl there and all she told me was bettafix. so i didn't get that. Ive got a 1 gallon tank set up for treatment i added the conditioners that i mentioned in the original post plus 1tsp of the salt. the thermometer is showing 83*f or 30*c with the heater on.
the spots on his head kind of have a salty appearance in my opinion(seem more clear and smooth than fuzzy) . so it might be ick. does my treatment tank sound up to snuff? thank you for all of you patience and help it is greatly apreciated. oh and his poop is a kind of peachy colour similar to the colour of the food going in.