Betta very very sick PLEASE HELP

[turtle10]

I have no idea what to do. I have only had him since about March 2010 but he has seemed pretty healthy up until a month ago. His fins started to rot and recede and now he is a lot paler than he used to be. He used to be a vibrant red and in certain light he would shimmer blue. Now he barely moves and rests up at the surface. He has a small filter and heater for tanks under 10 gallons. The heater keeps it between 75-78 and the outside thermometer always says its between 74-76. I had been giving him Melafix and that seemed to work for a while. I never really see him eat, he will just hover below the surface with the food touching his face. And recently I noticed that it looks like the flesh around his eye and forehead is getting eaten away. I am so worried and I really don't want him to die but it looks like he is suffering a lot.

I have included some photos of Turtle

Please help me I don't know what to do.

[shinybetta]

Move him to a QT tank and treat with aquarium salt. That is the best I can think of. Sorry

[Creat]

He is pine coning and bloating so I assume its dropsy the treatment for dropsy is epsom salt. Raise the temperature in the tank and give him 1tsp/gallon of salt and you can raise it to 3tsp/gallon. Dropsy is a hard issue to combat. I have only had to deal with it once so I hope someone with more experience can help you. Did you feed him frozen food at all that sometimes can be the cause.

[turtle10]

No frozen food. But his main food was blood worms which I just recently learned should only be fed in moderation. Im not sure if I have epsom salt, but I have aquarium salt, can I use that?

[turtle10]

Oh oops I didn't see shinybetta's post. I'll use some aquarium salt. Updates later.

Thanks everyone. Turtle and I really appreciate it.

[Creat]

Aquarium salt and epsom are different aq salt will work for open wounds and destroying bacteria and epsom will help with bloating and dropsy which i think your fish has. You can get epsom at alot of different stores i got mine in bulk at a grocery store. Its just plain magnesium sulfate. And I would hold off on feeding him he looks bloated. But aq salt wont do what epsom salt does at least not as well.

[shinybetta]

I don't think it is dropsy, he doesn't look bloated, but I'm not sure. But AQ salt should be helpful for the head wound still.

[turtle10]

It is just so sad, it looks as if someone took a bite off his face :(. Like something is eating him slowly.

[Creat]

If his scales look like this from the top and to me they do its dropsy. Frozen foods are believed to sometimes cause it

[turtle10]

I think it looks like he is pineconing a bit, his body doesn't look completely smooth.