King seems to be doing worse since I started treating him for fin rot

[gargleknobs]

A couple days ago I started treating my crown tail for fin rot. I bought a heater for his tank and I am now keeping it at 78-80°. I also bought some aquarium salt and gradually added up to 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt with his water changes. For the past two days of treatment, he as been lively and has had an appetite. However, today when I came home, the water looked a bit cloudy and his fins were very clamped. I poured his water into a bowl and kept him in it, and cleaned his tank thoroughly and refilled it with water with the same temperature and salinity of the water he was in. I put him back into his tank, but he has showed no improvement since this afternoon. His fins are still very clamped, and he is mostly hanging out at the bottom of his bowl. He doesn't have an appetite.

Housing
What size is your tank?: About 1 gallon (I ordered a 5 gallon tank today)
What temperature is your tank?: 78-80
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?: None at the moment

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?: Aqueon Betta food
How often do you feed your betta fish?: a couple pellets, two times a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?: Full change every 2-3 days
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?: 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?: Tetra BettaSafe water conditioner and 1 teaspoon of API Aquarium salt

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

I've never tested my water

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?: Slightly lighter in coloration than he was yesterday, though he's darkened up a bit since this afternoon
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?: Tightly clamped fins, very lethargic, loss of apetite
When did you start noticing the symptoms?: This afternoon
Have you started treating your fish? Nothing new since I started treating him for fin rot 3 days ago
Does your fish have any history of being ill?: Not since I've owned him
How old is your fish (approximately)?: I bought him at the end of the summer, I don't know how long he'd been at petco. I've owned him for 4 months, I think.

Here is a picture of him a couple days ago, right before I started treating him for fin rot. He continued to look this way for the first two days of treatment.


Here is a picture of him as he is now.


I don't know what happened between yesterday and today, and I don't know how to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SharkyTheBetta]

Did you acclimatize King before putting him in the new water?

[gargleknobs]

Not quite correctly, as I've been told. I put him in the new water at the temperature he was used to and heated it about 2 degrees at a time. However, the new water conditions didn't seem to upset him at all for two days. In fact, he became more lively in the warmer water. Is it possible for the conditions to have suddenly hit him and caused him to become very lethargic? This is the third day in these conditions and he's only just now showing symptoms of distress.

[AyalaCookiejar]

They need to be slowly acclimated to both temp and water chemistry, meaning you would need to add small amounts of tank water into his cup in increments while floating him.

It's possible that he could have a secondary infection, now. Either that, or he needed a water change since you said he looks a little better since that water change. Is his stomach grey?

[gargleknobs]

It might be? It's hard to tell, as his body is a silver/gray color anyway. It doesn't appear to be a significantly different color from the rest of him, but he's not being particularly cooperative in letting me get a good angle on him.

If his stomach were gray, what would that mean?

In the light, his fins have sort of a golden tint that I don't recall having seen in the past. There is no gold on his head or body, and it doesn't look like dust. However, his behavior seems resemblant of velvet. I'm trying to get a picture, but of course now that the camera is out, he refuses to sit still.

EDIT:
I couldn't get a picture that depicted the color change that I'm talking about, so I took a video.
http://s1021.beta.photobucket.com/us...2b9a8.mp4.html
It's not extremely clear, but there is obviously a change in color from my previous photos of him. This appears to have happened over night.

[gargleknobs]

King's coloring is lighter again than it was yesterday. He appears to still be uninterested in eating, though I don't have enough time before work to spend with him to see if he would.

So far no one has said anything beyond that I didn't acclimate him properly, but no one has been able to tell me whether or not this is even a reasonable thing to assume is causing this, seeing as he was fine in his new water for two days prior to these symptoms.

I'm very worried about him now and I'm scared that I might lose him if I can't figure out how to help him soon. He's not perking up like I imagined he would. Does anyone have any idea what I can do?

[SharkyTheBetta]

If there is no improvement, I would do a water change, but be very careful not to stress him too much. I would remove decoration since you don't know exactly what is happening with him. If you have one, leave only the hammock inside. Rinse the tank very well with warm water. Put new, conditionated water. While the water change put your betta inside a plastic cup.

After you change the water in the tank put the cup with your betta into the tank and let it to float. In this way the temperature from the cup will become the same with the temperature from the tank. Let him to float this way for a while. Then start to add small amounts of water (teaspoons) from the tank into his cup every 10 min-15 for at least an hour. Do this process very slowly. Then add the fish gently.

I would not add any more salt inside, because you said he reacted this way after you introduced it. Just warm, clean water. The acclimatization process should be done for this reason very slowly. He needs to adapt from salted water to fresh water. Be very gentle as his condition is not the best.

Hope he will be alright. If not, maybe you should send a private message to OldFishLady or Sakura and kindly ask one of them to have a look at this threat. It is very possible to have a bacterial infection...

Another question... Did he poop?

[gargleknobs]

I cleaned his bowl and acclimated him properly yesterday, but his condition has only worsened, it anything.

Why would the salt only start to affect him after he'd been living in it for a couple of days? No one seems to be able to answer this, and I'm very curious about the answer, as I'm skeptical that it's not something more than water conditions that's the problem.

However, if it's the consensus that it's the water, I will try switching him back to freshwater tonight.

I'm not sure. When I changed his water yesterday there was some poop, but that could have been from one of the previous two days. I don't know if he's pooped since his condition declined.

[AyalaCookiejar]

No one is able to tell you exactly what it is because it looks like stress. Color loss, lethargy, clamped fins... Those all indicate stress and they are also all symptoms of many diseases so its hard to tell what it is with so little signs.

A grey belly means stress. It could also mean internal parasites. Combined with swollen eyes, it could be the beginning of dropsy. Watch for grey patches, fuzzy patches, raised scales, uncontrollable floating.

If its bacterial it will likely progress very quickly. I agree that Sakura8 and OldFishLady may be able to give you better advice.

Edit: what decor do you have in with him?

[SharkyTheBetta]

Originally Posted by gargleknobs

I cleaned his bowl and acclimated him properly yesterday, but his condition has only worsened, it anything.

Well, in this case it is not necessary to change it today. It will stress him even more. :(

Originally Posted by gargleknobs

I'm not sure. When I changed his water yesterday there was some poop, but that could have been from one of the previous two days. I don't know if he's pooped since his condition declined.

What color was the poop? Was it brown/white/black?

It is not easy to find out exactly what is wrong with him. It may be a bacterial infection, parasites, something wrong with the water and many more. But I know for sure that at the stage of fin rot that he had in the first photo, it wouldn't have been necessary to add aquarium salt. Only warm water and clean would have been enough. Anyway, I am sure there is something else which bothers him and time is crucial, maybe a bacterial infection or parasites. You should really ask Sakura8 or OldFishLady opinion about this...