sick betta fish

[Jessn]

weve had our betta for almost a month and yesterday we noticed he had a few white dots on him. we started treating the whole tank with jungle lifeguard all in one treatment immediately. now today he has white stuff coming off his fins and on his face. weve tried looking up all possible causes online but cant pin point what it is. he doesnt seem to be doing good at all now, hes lying at the bottom of the tank, not moving too much besides to get air off the top and to rub against the plants/driftwood in the tank and as of today hes not eating. hes also been hiding in a small ship. we have a 30 gallon tank with a few other fish in it. no possible way of quarantining because we dont have another heater. we got our water tested today and the pet store said it was great. i have attached a picture, please let us know what you guys think

[veggiegirl]

He may have a parasitic disease called white spot, if so copper based medications are quite effective such as Mardels Coppersafe or if you can get Aquamaster rapid white spot remedy I know that works quite well.

If it is parasites it is important to treat as soon as possible as they can kill quite rapidly, doing a large water change will help him and increasing the water temperature during treatment will quicken the parasites life cycle which will mean that the treatment is more effective. He also may have fungus but the Aquamaster whitespot remedy contains malachite green which should also help the fungus. Some fish like catfish and invertebrates may be sensitive to some medications so be careful of that too.

[Jessn]

we have been treating it with an all in one that treats ich which is the same as white spot right? we really need help because he doesnt look like hes gonna make it through the night... we thought it was ich at first but now he looks like hes shedding on his fins and some other spots

[Tikibirds]

I wonder if the stuff comming off of him is his slime coat shedding or maybe columnaris...

does it look like he has anything fuzzy on him?

[Jessn]

yeah but he died :(

[callistra]

That was bacterial.. I'm sorry :(

Just for future note, bettas need to be kept in 2 gallons minimum with a reliable heater that will keep the temp between 78-80F without any swings. An in tank thermometer should monitor temp. In this size twice weekly water changes are needed of 50% and 100%. Conditioner (preferably liquid) which remove chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals is a must. They should be getting two small meals a day, at least a couple at a time and one fast day a week. A pellet should have the first two or three ingredients are whole fish and not fish meal or wheat.

[Jessn]

Thank you for the information! but i think it was actually fungal. We have a 30 gallon tank and had other fish with him and they all got it soon after the betta died (even though we did end up figuring out a way to quarantine him and still keep his water heated, it was just too late i guess) we had been doing a lot of research on it and finally found something that matched his description. we treated the tank with Jungle fungus medication and all our other fish recovered very quickly :) I just wish we would have figured it out sooner