My Pixels' right gill is always flared.

[ohstephyy]

Remember me? months ago I was complaining how Pixel would not flare. Now he does it all the time and normally. But, a few weeks ago he started having problems flaring his right gill (but he always got it flared after a few tries.) And now, ever since yesterday his left gill seems to be stuck 'flared'. I'm really nervous, what if he's having problems breathing?? What could this be, and what can I do for his gill?? I'm going to put up pictures in a bit, but he's acting completely normal, he just has one gill flared. At first I thought it was adorable, but I'm really nervous after he's been doing this for a while.

My tank specs. I did a 100% change yesterday.

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gal
What temperature is your tank? 79 F
Does your tank have a filter? Not atm
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? Top Fin Color enhancing Betta bits (pellets) and Freeze dried blood worms on Fridays.
How often do you feed your betta fish? Two pellets in the morning, one at night

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
Week one: Friday 100%
Week two: Wednesday 50%
Week three: Friday 100%
Week four: Wednesday 50%

What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%, 50%

What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water dechlorinizer and aquarium salt.


Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Left gill always flared (not sure if it's inflamed or not)
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? He's acting normal
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Yesterday
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Had SBD once
How old is your fish (approximately)? Around 6 months?

[Thunderloon]

He may have torn it a little, it could be inflamed or injured. Treat as normal possible surface infection.

Aeration, aquarium salt and tannins if you like.

The Penn-Plax small world filters can be used with just a sponge instead of their little cartridge and will add aeration, controlling the amount of flow they produce in the tank is as easy as adjusting the filter's height in the tank.

[ohstephyy]

I have melafix, which treats like infections (manly fin rot and open wounds) should I give him that? I already put some aquarium saltin his tank.

[ohstephyy]

Update****

Okay, so 'Xels gill still is flared. I've been doing a lot of research to find what medicines would treat an inflamed gill and they say ampicillin. I'm so confused, I'm not sure if it's nitrate poisoning or anything because I just did a full water change on Friday, should I isolate him again and go out and buy that Ampicillin? On all my research it says that inflamed gills will cause death after a while. This freaks me out.

Right now he's acting completely normal. His breathing isn't labored and he's eating and swimming like his normal Xelly self. Ugh, I'm so worried. I'll put up a pic next post.

[Thunderloon]

I'm betting he just "bent" himself. If no other signs are present I'd not worry about it but do your inspections and keep track of it.

I have one concern about ampicillin... it isn't carried at big al's and big al's carries neomycin and kanamycin. That leads me to believe its not currently legal in the US.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html is my fav link, it is good reading. (I am NOT saying your boy has columnaris, just browse around that site to learn awesome stuff) Instructions lead off from that for other infections. But, like I said, I think your boy just kinked a crown.