Trying to help my poor fish!

[Turtle]

Hello...

I have had my betta, Turtle, for about 4-5 months now. He has a 1.5 gallon bowl, no filter. I always change his water 1-2 times a week with bottled water, same type every time.
He has been perfectly happy and healthy until about a week and a half ago he suddenly got pop-eye. He stopped eating altogether, barely swam around at all. He stopped reacting when i came into the room, and only went up for air every now and then. I immediately changed his water and went to the pet shop to get some treatment. They gave me Sera Omnipur, it contains malachite green. I treated him with this for the whole week, changing the water and putting in a fresh dose every 2 days. It actually helped, after a week, his eye started to look almost normal and he finally started eating and was quite active. He wasnt 100% yet but definitely much better. 2 days after his recovery started, he got sick again :( This time his colour seems to have faded around his head, he has 1 or 2 little white spots (i don't think it's ich - some sort of infection maybe?) and a sort of bump on his forehead. He has stopped eating and swimming again. Today his gills seem to be a little swollen, they don't close fully. No colour change in his gills as far as i can tell.
I've just changed his water again and put him in a yet another fresh bowl just in case. This time no medicine, I've already been using it for almost two weeks, worried it's too much.
Please help! I don't want to lose the little guy!

Thank you!

[Romad]

Are the white spots fuzzy at all? It sounds like you might have a bacterial or fungal infection there. Pop eye is not necessarily a disease of it's own, it's a symptom of other problems and illnesses.

What other meds do you have on hand? Do you have any aquarium salt or epsom salts on hand?

What's the temp. of the water? Do you test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? If so, can you post those levels?

And bottled water isn't necessarily a good thing. There are certain minerals in tap water that are helpful to your fish. You should switch to tap water with a good water conditioner like Seachem Prime that detoxifies ammonia and removes the chlorine/chloramines that might be present in your tap water.

[Turtle]

Hi,

I don't test my water for any of those things. This is my very first fish so I have to admit that I am a somewhat ignorant Betta parent
I live in Romania at the moment where a lot of the medications, treatments, water conditioners etc that I've seen mentioned while researching this online are not available here. At least not under the same names. So it's hard to know what to get... Believe it or not i went back to the pet shop today to get some aquarium salt and the guy said he has never heard of such a thing!!! I tried another much bigger shop which was closed, and won't be open till Monday (being Easter) so I'm stuck for the time being. Not too keen on the idea of using table salt, too many contradicting opinions. White spots not fuzzy, and actually one has disappeared.
All I have on hand is this malachite green stuff.
Will definitely look into water conditioner and switch to tap water.

[Romad]

You can use Epsom salts too. That's pretty easily found although I have no idea about Romania.

I agree about the table salt. Skip that.

[brancasterr]

I would also look into getting some sort of water testing kit. I know you said it's difficult finding things like that in your current location but it will help you greatly. :)

[xxabc]

I agree with testing kit. It may not be same in name, but look for anything that's liquid(not strips), and contains ammonia and/or nitrite and/or nitrate and/or pH.

I also agree with using tap water over bottled.

[brancasterr]

I wish I could use tap water. :( I'm stuck with bottled spring water because my tap water is currently unsafe. Now that I think about it, I hope that isn't what harmed my betta. =x

[xxabc]

Brancasterr, I never really understood why it's not safe. Did the city put nasty nasty stuff in it? (Like what?)

[brancasterr]

I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with it. But we've been recommended, by the city, not to use it for the time being. So I would assume that if it isn't even safe for me to drink I shouldn't be putting it in a fish tank.

[xxabc]

I'm not sure, I wouldn't exactly look at it that way. Like chlorine. Not exactly dangerous for us, but beyond lethal for fish. However it's not really always in that direction, though. It could be bad for us but good for them? Who knows. Have you ever been curious enough to call them and ask them exactly what's wrong? Hopefully it'll get fixed fast though.