Bluey has been sick for bout 3 weeks...I thought he was old and dying. Please help

[Daisy4bluey]

Hello All;
I have a betta (not sure what type, sorry) and he has been sick for about 3 weeks now. His name is Blue Suede Shoes, Bluey for short. At first I thought he was just dying but my guts is telling me after all this time something else is going on and I need help. I feel so bad for the little guy.

I saw on another post that the below info will most likely be helpful.

Housing
What size is your tank? 10 gal
What temperature is your tank? 85
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none


Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari pellets and sometimes dried blood worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day about 3 pellets (occasionally my boss overfeeds him 5-8 pellets a day)

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a week to every other week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? nutrafin just about 1 drop (per fish store instructions)

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? Yes, I took a sample to our local fish store (very reputable) and they said water was great no bacteria

Ammonia: everything clear
Nitrite: everything clear
pH: everything clear
Hardness: everything clear
Alkalinity: everything clear


Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His stomach looks a little bloated, and his gils are kinda grey (like a beard on a man would get) and his fins have sort of shrunken and are not fanned out
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He is lethargic. Usually, he is hiding in a corner. He sometimes lays on the bottom, on his side. He will sometimes float vertically with his head up. He also goes up for water fairly often. Seems disoriented at times. But always seems to swim over to me when i visit the tank to say hi. Although he seems to have a problem swimming like he's off balance or something.

He did not eat for over a week and just this week started to eat about 1-3 pellets a day.

When did you start noticing the symptoms? probably about 3-4 weeks ago.

Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no, the fish store guy thought that he was just old and dying so he recommended nothing.

Does your fish have any history of being ill? No, never

How old is your fish (approximately)? 2 2.5 years?

Just today I noticed a small white dot/patch on his back left area that is sort of fuzzy and from the side it looks like there is fuzzy growth (but it's very very small and just showed up today).

I have attached some photos of the fish. The first photo "bluey" you can see I have circled the white patch. Sorry I cannot get a better shot, photo was taken with my iphone.

[Daisy4bluey]

edit to post;

Water temp is about 80

[turtle10]

It could be a water quality issue. You should do two 50% water changes a week if uncycled.

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I think the best thing to do would be to cycle the tank since it's a 10 gallon. An uncycled tank needs 100% water changes about once a week. A tank that big would be a pain in the backside to do 100% water changes on.

[turtle10]

Oh true I forgot to say you need to do 100% on uncycled… brain fart. If you just do 50% you will only get half the ammonia out, it will always keep building up.