Please help my betta!!

[sgoheen08]

Here is an update—we are on day 8 of the treatment process. I have given betta maracide on day 1, 3, and 5. I gave him a 50% water change on day 3 and added a half dose of maracide that day. He also ate a pea on day 3 and day 7. His stomach still looks bulgy a little and the fungus on his face is seeming to clear up a little..I still see the glitter specs on him and a few more tiny dots on his body. His activity is definitely improving, he actually flared his gills at me when I came home from my 24 hour trip this weekend which I think I have seen him do one other time before! Everytime I walk into the kitchen (his current home) he swims all around and goes to the top, gets some air, and then blows bubbles! Hes so silly and I am soo happy he is getting some energy back!

But I am worried he either caught a second illness from his immune system being so low or if I even got rid of the velvet…Should I do a full water change now at this point or should I keep him in the medicated tank with a 50% water change? Should I keep medicating him? Restart? The dot just under his eye actually got a little bigger at one point but is now seeming to go down a bit more now..and his face area has still got the slimy white stuff in the crevices of his skin,etc.

[vaygirl]

I'd do a 100% water change and do the whole treatment again. I've read that you sometimes need more then one maracide treatment for velvet/ich. I'm glad he's perking up and his bloat is going down too. :)

[betta99]

good luck

[sgoheen08]

ok, I will give him a 100% water change and add the medicine for a restart of treatment Day 1 later tonight when I get home. Do you think I could treat with the Rid Ich + now or just repeat the maracide treatment? I have both medications which is why I ask..maybe Rid Ich is stronger than maracide for both ich and velvet? Just wondering..

[vaygirl]

Yeah, you can switch. It might work where Maracide didn't. Good luck! :)

[sgoheen08]

An update: I ended up restarting maracide treatment. The gold stuff on his gills has never ever been there until a couple of weeks ago. I have had him for over a year now and have never seen the gold glitter (specks) doused all over his body either until a couple of weeks ago and his whole coat is a palish color, almost like an orangey brown color (not the vibrant red I am used to). The last few days, though, his color seems to be not as pale, like it is getting better. I am really strongly leaning towards columnaris or that mouth fungus from the white stuff on his face. There is still only one raised dot below his eye..it has lightened a bit.
Something happend last night that I am not sure if its what really happend: but I woke up yesterday to his tank being VERY cloudy, I mean you could barely see inside of it. I did a 25% water change because I literally just did a 100%water change the day before. I came home after work and decided it wasnt getting any better...I flashed a light on him to look at him closer and I was no longer seeing those glitter specks on his body.. I thought to myself, maybe the parasite had finally reached the free swimming stage and fell off his body and died in the medicated water which may be where the cloudy water was from? I really have nooo idea if this is the case but anyways I did a 100% full water change lastnight because the cloudiness was just bad and wasnt sure if my theory was totally true or if something just happend to drop in his tank.. He still had the white stuff on his face though, that hasnt really changed. I fed him his first serving of bloodworms since a week ago when i started the fasting and pea feeding. he loved them and accepted them happily. His swimming is definately alot better but still at times when he is stressed will float on his side..still not 100%...After doing the water change I flashed the light on him again and still do not see the glitter specks on his body anymore so i am really hoping they finally fell off and died in the medicated water!
With his new waterchange after all of that, it had his 2nd dose of maracide treatment#2. I plan on dosing the 5th day still (sunday) and on Monday, put him in his regular 1.5 and give him a good break from any meds. i plan on keeping the water pristine clean at all times and my every other day feeding regimen with one day fasting and a pea to follow. After a week or so, I may add the antibacterial but if anyone has any suggestions on that, it would be appreciated.
Here are the most recent pics of Betta (took them an hour ago) :
Sideview 1:

Sideview 2:

Dot on his face closeup:

Striped coat? :

Face:

Another closeup of face:

And another:

[vaygirl]

His color looks really good. I'm not sure about the dot on his face. It's hard to tell from the pics what it is. Maybe there will be more of a change with that and the white on his face when he finishes his meds. I'm glad he seems to be overcoming the velvet at least.

[sgoheen08]

Ok, it is now day 6 of the 2nd treatment process. Gave him his last dose of maracide yesterday (day 5). Symptoms still similar to the last post I posted with the pics. he ate 1-2 bloodworms yesterday.

I plan on going to petsmart today after work and finally buying the 2.5 gal tank for him. I am also going to purchase an adjustable heater for the new tank.

I plan on setting up this new tank with fresh conditioned water, a new filter, a new heater tonight and see how the new heater does. After 24 hours of watching the heater, etc--I plan to add him to this new uncycled tank (considering he has never had a cycled tank before-were pretty much starting over). I plan on giving him a break from any meds for now and keeping a close eye on him for a few days. The reason for the rush of the new tank is because given the situation were in (no adjustable heater with inconsistent temps), I want to make sure his environment is as stable as possible while I am gone for 4 days. I leave Thursday afternoon and will be back Monday afternoon. I am scared to what I will come home to but am hoping everything will be fine..and if he is in a stable environment, I will feel less anxious about him. Any advice about my plan would be appreciated!!

[sgoheen08]

Update (since its been about a week)
I got the new tank sat up as planned and betta was put in it and monitored. He seemed to be just fine. I think he actually swam around for the first 5 minutes..not sure if he was just adjusting or really enjoyed his new tank and was taking a look at everything. I have to say though, while monitoring the tank before I put him in, the new heater for the 3 gallon was heating my tank up to 85.7!!!!! I just dont understand these stupid heaters--it says right on the box that it is factory preset to 78 degrees!!! I didnt have the tank light on either! I decided to see what it did without the heater and to my surprise, using no heater actually keeps his tank at 77.5-78.5 consistently if I have the house temp on 74-75 degrees which worked perfectly. I left for my 4-day vacation and came back to a pretty happy betta. he was so happy to see me that he flared his gills at me :) I love this when he does it as he never used to!
He seemed to be in good spirits and swimming around alot more than usual. BUUUUUT he still swims at an angle sometimes and he found a spot in the corner of the tank where he just sits at the bottom most of the time. I have fasted him over andover again and have given him peas and he still seems to have swim bladder issues after 6 months of these ongoing symptoms. His belly does not look swollen at all and am wondering if the damage is permanent after having it for so long!?
The white fungusy stuff is NOT going away, no change what so ever..I also noticed silvery saltsize specs speckled on his body and am wondering what that is!? I will take more pics of him tonight and post them later or tomorrow.
I was thinking about doing a treatment of Jungle Fungus Eliminator, is this the right thing to do? I heard it works wonders for those secondary bacterial infections they might catch while thier immune systems are low (like when he had velvet). Oh by the way, the rust color on his gills have diminished!! Please help me?!

[fishman12]

Great! It seems he is getting better!