HELP! Sick betta needs help!

[gahooie]

I've only had him for about 2 week and I started noticing a change in his behavior. This past Sat. I saw him almost floating on the surface. His fins are hugging his sides and he is breathing very slowly. His colors are on the pale side and that evening I had changed his water. I used warm water to clean the rocks but I later found out (once he was sick) that you aren't supposed to change his water 100%. So I put him in a little wine glass while his new water settled. I use Betta Plus for the bowl conditioner. Then after 12 hrs, I put him inside and he was back to normal! Well yesterday I noticed he was feeling a little blue around the gills again...I haven't washed his bowl since. And the guy at the pet store seemed to know a lot about bettas and he said this is more than enough for him. But I'm thinking that maybe he can't survive 2 liter 1/2 gal. tank.

I've been reading about Bettas and I've read that they should be in at least 2 gallon to 5 gallon tanks. I wish that guy at the pet store told me that! Because the same price for this stupid little bowl was the same price for a 10 gal tank!

I'm just really bummed because I really come to love my little fish but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's not cold here at all! So it can't be that he needs a heater.

Can somebody please help? He's not eating either...And he has these weird white bubbles on his body. I haven't tried to brush them off because I'm scared that my finger might hurt him or something.

[kelly528]

Do the bubbles look like little grains of salt? If so, it's probably ich. Fish are susceptible to this when kept at colder than optimal temperatures... even if it doesn't seem cold where you live, a fish native to Thailand would probably tell you otherwise! You need the water to be about 78-80.