Scales Falling off In AQ salt treatment

[Karebear13]

My halfmoon started not looking so well. He always bites his tail and I haven't been able to control him from doing that. He started getting white stringy stuff on his body and the water would get all mucky and gross. I decided to give him a salt bath. He has been living in a cup with aquarium salt for7 days now I have been changing the water in the cup everyday with pre mixed aq salt water. He appeared to be getting better but now it looks like his scales kind of pine cone and stick out then fall off?

ANyone know what this might be? He also appears to be fuzzy.

I will try and get some pictures of him tomorrow but in the meantime here is the info:





Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5
What temperature is your tank? 76
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
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? No

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Omega Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? six pellets a day three in morning three at night

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 1-100% 1-50%
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Prime

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

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

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? fuzzy to scales falling off
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? seems fine is eating but is tailbiting again
When did you start noticing the symptoms? a couple of days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes aquarium salt
Does your fish have any history of being ill? He just tail bits
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[callistra]

How much salt per gallon are you using? It sounds like you are describing dropsy which can be caused by these salt baths, especially depending on how much you are using. You have almost reached the limit for what is generally accepted as a safe time for any amount of salt.

I would stop the aquarium salt and start epsom salt (100% pure magnesium sulfate with no dyes or perfumes). It needs to be predissolved at a rate of 1 tsp per gallon. He doesn't need to be in a cup. you can treat in the main tank.

Do you have photos of the white stringy stuff or the dropsy?

You were feeding a very high amount for those pellets. The more you feed the faster ammonia would build up and it's possible it was just building up too fast for your water change routine and causing the water to get cloudy and the stringy stuff on his body may have been him shedding his slime coat. I would cut down to 4 pellets a day and add a fast day a week.. all bettas need a fast day for their system to get cleared out.

What color is his poop? Is it round like a ball?

[Karebear13]

Okay so today was the first time I saw him. He lives with my sister and that is what she told me. He actually doesn't look too bad. I don't think its dropsy. But he is very fuzzy his whole body just looks fuzzy and has stringy stuff coming off. I can't tell if its slime coat or what. His poop is normal brown and round.

I acclimated him back to normal water...

Any suggestions of what to do with the fuzzy stuff? I don't want to stress him out by doing another treatment right away unless its really necessary

I tried getting a picture but you really can't tell with the pic

[Karebear13]

Im posting two pics I took earlier if anyone sees anything strange... you can see some fuzzy stuff but it is really hard to see

[callistra]

I don't see any signs of dropsy.. He is losing some scales. It may have had to do with how much aquarium salt per gallon you were using, since you didn't answer that..

I don't really see where the fuzzy stuff is.. but if it looks like this: http://imageshack.us/a/img21/7036/pectoral1r.jpg It is slime coat shed. Probably from the salt as well.

Can you share a fins pic?

Aquarium salt only helps with rot if it's biting it won't help.. but stress coat at 1 ml per gallon and vitachem at 2 drops per gallon will help with regrowth and possibly to stop biting.

[Karebear13]

I used 2 tsp of aquarium salt per gallon as advised by OFL once not in this particular case but it helped my other case and figured I would give it a try. Ill see if I can get my sister to take some pics. in the mean time I think I will try the stress coat. I Don't think its slime coat it looks fuzzy but I can't really tell if its a fungal infection or bacteria.