S-shaped spine, need some clarification

[callistra]

Ball means constipation. It's okay that it's not so ballish anymore.

I would look for a different pellet to feed him, because Hikari are full of wheat and fillters.. depending on the one you have it's either primarily fish meal (fish byproducts.. think McDonald's Chicken Nuggets) or wheat which is the worst. A good quality pellet should have the first two or three ingredients as whole fish. If you can find New Life Spectrum Betta you can feed 5-8 split up into two smaller meals and one fast day a week. Since he has been on so few (2 is really minimum and pretty low) I would start lower at 4-5 and see how he does then think about adding more if he stays regular.

Sounds like Ich actually. I'd start with that.. salt at 1 tsp per gallon predissolved and increase temp slowly to the 86-88 range with one degree per hour and no more than 5 degrees per day. Leave the temp this high a week past the last sign of ick and the salt can be used up to 10 days then you will need to do a series of water changes to remove it.

I'd also be looking for ways to boost his immune system by vitachem, or IAL, or getting some garlic guard or fresh organic garlic and crushing it and soaking his pellets for 10minutes in the garlic juices.

Maracyn 2 will not work for internal infections.

[Azurelove]

Really? I've never heard of Ich causing spinal contortion. It's certainly better than nothing at this point. My first betta had Ich, just like you said, I put the temp to about 85 and added salt.

How about water changes during treatment? Should I be doing them every day or every other day to help remove the parasites? I know the heat should kill them off and keep them from continuing their life cycle, but would water changes help?

[callistra]

He may be holding himself like that due to stress but what you are describing physically on the outside is ich, and I don't have anything better to add for what might be going on internally since you say he looks normal and poops normal.

You could do a couple 50% changes a week but I wouldn't do it every day. It's not needed in your cycled tank and you don't want to cause more stress.

[Azurelove]

Ok. I've been raising the temp 1 degree per hour and it's now gone from 78 to 81. I'll increase it two more times before I go to bed and raise it the other two degrees tomorrow.

I went ahead and did a 50% change before adding the salt (he was due for his weekly change today anyways, I just increased it for the illness). I put the salt in the new water and dissolved it and only added his water treater additionally.

I really don't add the kH/gH booster much (Microbe-Lift is the company that makes it), just about every two months, if that, and it's a very small amount, only half of the recommended amount for my tank. With its help though, the pH has stayed at 7.5 (when I first got him, my testing kit was showing 5.0, but that was the lowest it could read, so for all I knew it could've been lower) and nothing else has changed since.

All the same, I'll stick with your advice of aging the water from now on, I have my clean-water bucket sitting with some water aging now, I just didn't have it on hand for the change today.

[Azurelove]

Update! Increased the temp to 86 today. He's still the same, but seemed a bit more active, actually tried to come to the surface when I approached the tank. Tomorrow I may increase it again to 88 just to be safe.

I opened his lid and took a close look at him. The white spots still haven't spread to his body, maybe because they're already responding to the heat. His scales look a little white and flaky on the back of his head in small patches though.

[callistra]

This could be the start of columnaris.. Look for Kanaplex, Triple Sulfa or Furan 2, preference in this order.

unfortunately columnaris thrives at temperatures over 80, so it's possible that in trying to treat probable ick you jump started it.

It's a hard choice because you can't treat ich in low temps but if he has bacterial infection as well you don't want to speed it up. I have to say that both are conditions of fish stress/poor water quality. I know you didn't like doing more than a small water change weekly, but I really think long term it's needed.

I would definitely be looking for ways to boost his immune system.. vitachem, crush organic garlic and soak his pellets in the juice.. something..

[Azurelove]

I already did the Vitachem starting Sunday. As of just a half an hour ago, he's dead. It had to have been TB, the timeframe of death from the emergence of the spinal twist fits and he had almost all the other symptoms.

The water quality was fine, I had no reason to up the changes. 25% removed the nitrate that was present. My other fish are perfectly healthy and I've had them almost the same amount of time (minus Carnage, who I got to replace the fish that jumped out of his tank).

So now I have to throw everything away that ever touched his tank since it was probably TB and I have no reason to think otherwise at this point.