Please help! Terrified for Brutus.

[GreenTea]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.5 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 75 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Kept at 75 in my room.
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? Every day or everything other day, a few pellets.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 100% once a week, adding some old water to keep good bacteria going.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water cleaner/toxin remover

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite: low
Nitrate:low
pH: 7ish
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
I bought a "King betta" aka large betta splenden from petco about a week ago, he was silverish and black, looked grumpy and awesome, brought him home. I have had a betta before, and know how to care for them. He was thriving in his tank, built a huge bubble nest, had a live plant, very active and friendly, eating tons. He began to change colors as he got healthier and stronger.

However, Friday night I came home from dinner to discover he had jumped from his tank! He was dry, hot, and barely alive. I put him back in his tank and he slowly became more active. However, this morning I noticed a white cottony fuzz on one side of his body. Now the fuzz is gone, but where the fuzz WAS, his scales appear to be falling off! His fins looked ok yesterday, and now appear to be fraying and falling apart. I am wondering if this is all stress from him jumping out? He could have been out for two hours but has so far survived.

What I have done so far: Removed him from his tank and put him in new, clean water in a large transparent green tupperware container (to reduce stress and allow me to monitor him.) I treated this water with a 1/4 teaspoon freshwater salt (which I had not been using in his regular water, I got it today to help medicate him) betta revive (for whatever that fungus/ fin rot might be) and his normal water purifier. He hasn't eaten for two days. I plan on keeping him in the tupperware container for a few days, cleaning out his tank, and continuing this regimen for a week or until he gets better.

Does anyone have any insight/information/recommended other things I should do? Also, he seemed fine until today when he has literally began to fall apart! I love this fish and am doing anything I can think of to help him, including joining this site and asking you lovely folks. Thank you for any help/advice/consolation you can give!

[Biomess]

How sad, poor fishy! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will comment, but in the mean time, make sure he is kept at an even temp. I'd say 80 degrees, and with the salt treatment it should be 1 to 2 teaspoons per gallon of water and do 100% daily water changes to keep it clean. Don't use the salt for more than 10 days, it could do more harm than good.
Since he was on the floor and dried out, you might need to help with the slime coating they have on their bodies, very important for all fish.
If you do buy it make sure it is Stress Coat and not Stress Zyme.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/Product...x?ProductID=43

Hope he gets better soon! Good luck!

[GreenTea]

I filter the tap water through a Britta water filter as well before I treat it, so his water is well cared for. I'm trying to raise the water temperature now.

When should I try to feed him again? I tried once with his pellets and once with betta flakes and no dice with either food. I don't want to muck up his water, and I also don't want him to starve to death! What should I do to make him more interested?

[Biomess]

Again, I am no expert, but from what I have gathered from other posters is that you can soak the pellets in garlic juice to make them more appetizing, apparently they like it...Anyway, you won't starve him even if he misses a weeks worth of food, apparently they can go a couple of weeks without though not recommended. I would hold off a couple of days and then give him one soaked pellet and see if he won't be tempted by that.
And I wasn't saying your water isn't clean, it is just that when you are doing the salt, it is recommended that you do a full water change daily, if that is too much, do 50-75%. Because in a tank that small the ammonia can build up quickly.

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and sorry you are having problems....

I would do a 10 day aquarium salt treatment

For aquarium salt treatment-I like to pre-mix my treatment water so that I can also add tannins to steep-this also help make the correct dosage and daily water changes easier....what I do...

In a 1gal jug (I use a clean 1gal milk jug) fill with dechlorinated water-ADD 1tsp/gal aquarium salt and the tannin source-steep for at least 1 hour and shake well before use
On day 2 of treatment increase the aquarium salt to 2tsp/gal...if he is not improved by 50% by day 3 I would increase the aquarium salt to 3tsp/gal

Tannin source-naturally dried and fallen from the tree Oak leaf (10-12 crushed/gal) or Indian almond leaf (1 med/gal crushed) or decaf green tea (1bag/gal) use only one of these-the longer they steep the more tannins released the darker the water the more the Betta likes it...each day the Betta will get more tannins with the daily 100% water change.

Use this pre-mixed treatment water for the 100% daily water changes for 10 days

It is important to get the treatment water within a couple of degree in temp with the QT water the Betta is in...what I do....I use two cups-one the Betta is in and the second QT container I will fill with the treatment water about an hour before the scheduled daily water change and float it in the heated tank to come to temp-I use a thermometer and check the temp and once they are equalized I net the Betta and place him in the second QT container of treatment water....dump and rinse the first one to be ready for the next days water change....

I also attach the QT to the side of the tank with duct tape so the QT will not sink or get knocked around by the filter

Anytime I treat a fish I also like to use plastic veggie wrap over the top of the QT to help keep the air above the water warm and humid for the labyrinth organ and maintain a water temp in the 76-77F range and I keep the tank lights out as well to create a dimly lit low stress environment

Nutrition is also important and I like to feed really small amounts several times a day, however, if he is refusing food don't worry at this point he will be fine for a while without food-he will start to eat when he feels better-but offer food daily before you plan the daily water change so you can remove the uneaten food.

I would use your tap water without the water filter-the filtration process only changes one Ion for another that is not good for the fish....usually your tap water with a good dechlorinator is fine and has the needed minerals the fish needs for long term health.

[Biomess]

Yes, listen to Oldfishlady, she has some really good advice. But OFL, what do you think about getting some API stress coat, or does the tannin do the same thing?

[turtle10]

After Brutus is better, just remember to do daily water changes. Once a week is not enough with a tank that small.