Something is wrong with Vespasian.

[Aluyasha]

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 78 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
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? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Aqueon Betta Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3 pellets every morning

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? About 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water conditioner

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Has a bloody looking patch on his face
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Lays around alot, barely responds when I am near the tank.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Two days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Changed water and gave him AQ salt
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? 8 months?

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Some more info:
He was originally in an unfiltered 2 gallon and was doing fine until about two days ago, then around the time he started acting weird the tank became very cloudy. I went to change the water and when I took off the lid a very strong odor which smelled of gasoline. I called my local fish store and they told me not to worry just change the water. :/
day before yesterday at night I put him in a 2.5 gallon with filter to see if that would help with the water quality but the next morning that tank was cloudy too and also smelled of gasoline. I took the decor out to find clues and the only thing that moved into the new tank with him was a log cave a bought at a petstore which I had never bought fish decor from there before. The log cave turned out to be the source of the gasoline smell and since I have taken it out the tank has not been cloudy.
My problem now is Vespasian is still acting weird and as of today has devloped a red bloody looking lump on his face, it also appears slightly swollen.
I tried taking some pictures:




Please help, I do not want him to die

[callistra]

Poor boy :(

Chemical poisoning of some kind... I would do a series of 50% water changes with same temp and pre conditioned water and then finally do a 100% change to get him out of it. I would also add epsom salts - predissolved at 1 tsp per gallon. You only need to readd with water changes. Needs to be 100% pure magnesium sulfate per ingredients label - no dyes perfumes or additives of any kind. Also needs to be predissolved and add slowly over an hour+ to avoid shock. Also, if you can run carbon that might help.

If it were me I'd also bring pictures and the log back into the fish store you bought it from and try to stop this from happening to any other fish.

[Aluyasha]

So should I do a 50% water change everyday? When would I do the 100% water change?

I was already planning on going back to the petstore, they will most likely deny it but I will still try. When I called a few days ago when I first noticed the smell and cloudiness the fish guy told me for sure he knew it was not the cave, he said it was because I did not clean my tank. When I told him I had 4 other tanks with no problems and have had fish for years and have never experinced this he just kept saying it was me letting him have a dirty tank. :/

[sainthogan]

Originally Posted by Aluyasha

So should I do a 50% water change everyday? When would I do the 100% water change?

I was already planning on going back to the petstore, they will most likely deny it but I will still try. When I called a few days ago when I first noticed the smell and cloudiness the fish guy told me for sure he knew it was not the cave, he said it was because I did not clean my tank. When I told him I had 4 other tanks with no problems and have had fish for years and have never experinced this he just kept saying it was me letting him have a dirty tank. :/

Does the cave smell when it's dry? If not, perhaps put it in a container with water and seal it before you take it back to the store. Even very dirty water shouldn't smell like that.

[Aluyasha]

Originally Posted by sainthogan

Does the cave smell when it's dry? If not, perhaps put it in a container with water and seal it before you take it back to the store. Even very dirty water shouldn't smell like that.

No, once it is fully dry it has no odor.
I know that very dirty water can have a smell, but not gasoline, and it really did smell like it was soaked in gasoline.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

Callistra - why a series of 50% water changes, rather than a 100% with a really slow acclimation? (I understand not wanting to shock him, but I'm also thinking that the sooner he's in clean water, the better. I sure wouldn't want to swim in gasoline-type stuff!) Also, how long should they wait between each successive WC?

Switching him to Epsom salt is a good idea. It should help the swelling, and also has some antimicrobial activity (which might help the red patch).

The odor may have come from either the resin or sealant on the decoration. I once put a decoration in my tank, and noticed a chemical smell the next morning. I immediately removed it and did a 100% water change. (After that, I started making my own decorations!)

Poor little guy.

[callistra]

Just another way to do the acclimation - other than cup + tablespoons for over an hour, which is a much slower acclimation than 50% repeated. Doesn't have to be too slow, just watch for increased signs of distress in between changes and wait maybe 10min. Was also trying to avoid too much ph swing since we don't know about ammonia build up in that either.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

Originally Posted by callistra

Just another way to do the acclimation - other than cup + tablespoons for over an hour, which is a much slower acclimation than 50% repeated. Doesn't have to be too slow, just watch for increased signs of distress in between changes and wait maybe 10min. Was also trying to avoid too much ph swing since we don't know about ammonia build up in that either.

OK, thanks for the explanation!

[Aluyasha]

Thank you for all your help everyone! Thankfully he is doing much better today, he actually ate food this time and greeted me when I walked up to the tank. Now I am sitting on the couch across the room I can see him swimming around. :)
Of course I will still keep treating him, the red patch on his face still looks as it did yesterday.

[Captain Jim Dandy]

That's excellent he's better. Callistra is pretty good, huh?