HELP!! Very sick looking Beta!!

[mumford]

My beta for over a year recently passed a few weeks ago so I cleaned out his bowl and bought a new beta less than two weeks ago. He is a beautiful turquoise color with a large flowing fin. Since the day I got him I noticed that he would eat his food and spit it back up, but I didn't think anything of it because when I would go back a few minutes later the food would be gone. Yesterday he was very in active and lying on the bottom of his tank. This morning he was doing the same thing but now he is lying on the top of the tank (his tank is a normal fish bowl, no filters, with just one plastic plant in the middle), so he's been lying on the branches of the plant just lying on the surface of the water. His face is VERY pale and is seems that his has some white spots and is losing his color.

Please help!! I don't want to lose this little guy so soon

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and sorry your Betta is not well....

Can you post a pic and you say white spots....is it Ich....

We need some more information...

What size in gallons is the container, how much and how often are the water changes, water temp, additives used.....

[mumford]

To my luck my camera died just as I was taking pictures.. but I managed to get a picture of his tank so you have an idea to the size of his tank. He's currently lying on the bottom of the tank again so I cannot get a picture of the spots but I will try and get one up here ASAP.

Here is his bowl:

(As you can see the blue blob at the bottom is my beta)

I always clean my betas once a week with spring water, though I have only had him two weeks so he has only had one cleaning. I feed him once a day with four pellets of beta food. I also add this Beta Water Conditioner by the brand API. I'm not sure of the water temperature by I keep my air conditioning on around 75-80 degrees

[Oldfishlady]

I would google Ich and see if that looks like the spots you are seeing

I would get a thermometer to check the tank water temp and to check the water temp of the replacement water used for water changes too....its important to try and keep the water temp between new and old water within a couple of degrees of each other to prevent temp related shock problems....

In that size container he needs more water changes and I would use your tap water along with the dechlorinator...you need to find out how many gallons the tank is so you can properly dose the dechlorinator

You need to dose the dechlorinator for the full volume of the tank even with partial water changes....

Once you rule out ich and check the temp to rule temp out as the cause...you need to increase the water changes to at least twice weekly...1-50% water only and 1-100%...if this is a half gallon I would make 3 water changes a week-2-50% and 1-100% to maintain water quality....

Right now I would start by making some 50% daily water changes with tap water and dechlorinator for 3 days, check the temp and get this in the 76-80F range and see if this will perk him up....

If it is Ich he will need a treatment...keep us posted.....

[mumford]

I finally got some pictures of this little guy!
The spots and lack of color look much worse in person, but these are the best pictures I could get for now since he's been pretty immobile at the bottom of the tank






His face used to have so much more color than the grayish color it is today and there are a few white spots on both sides of him (though it is kind of hard to see in my pictures, i apologize for the low quality)

[mumford]

I googled Ich and the spots don't really resemble it (which is hope is good!), from what I saw ich is multiple small white spots kind of like chicken pocks for fish? My bettas spots are more blob like and there aren't that many.

[Irishdancer]

I'm not an expert on fish dieseases, but that looks kind of like a bacteria infection to me. In the future, the best way to prevent that is to clean the water more often and keep the water warmer (without a heater, it's probably slightly under room temperature).

PS. If it is bacteria, you'll have to get a medicane to treat it. Hopefully someone else can recommend something, because what I used for my fish didn't work.

[mumford]

What medicine to I buy to treat him? Do they sell them in pet stores?

Oh and this afternoon I looked at my bettas bowl and he was lying on a plant leaf with his head out the water! I heard of making hospitals tanks where you move the beta too a shallower bowl so they don't have to swim so far to breathe so i did this.

[dramaqueen]

A bacterial infection can be treated with tetracycline.

[Sakura8]

Your guy also is probably suffering from some ammonia poisoning and he may be a bit cold. Also, the spots may be ammonia burns. I would first suggest keeping him warm, at around 78-80 degrees, and also keeping the water super clean following OFL's instructions. Then get the Tetracycline and begin treating him for a bacterial infection. But by far the best thing you can do for him is keep the water clean and warm. Best of luck with him, keep us posted. :)