Is this bacterial or fungal?

[AlphaNumeric]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 gallon
What temperature is your tank? No clue
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? no
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Freeze dried blood worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Full change
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water conditioner and recently just started Aquarisol

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? No

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? This white/gray film has formed on his body.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Lethargic. Floats by the surface of the water and barely moves unless I come feed it.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? When I came back from vacation.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I started using Aquarisol.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? 5 months


I went on vacation for 3 weeks and taught my sister how to change the bettas water and to do it once a week. When I come back I found out one of my bettas was sick and the other one died. She "claims" she changed it every week and did everything like I said.

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum...

Sound like excessive slim coat due to some type of irritant in the water...I would make some back to back water changes 50%...dose the dechlorinator for the full volume of the tank...get a thermometer and check the water temp...
May have been due to not enough or forgotten dechlorinator.....hopefully he will recover...but sometimes it can be fatal....
Your pic are too big for me to find the fish...can you post some smaller.....

[AlphaNumeric]

Interesting I thought it was some kind of infection. So increasing the frequency of water changes with water conditioner will fix this? I was planning on buying some aquarium salt today for treatment. Is a thermometer really needed if I don't have a heating apparatus for the tank?

I can't edit my original post. Here are some smaller versions of the pictures with the img tags disabled. If a mod would edit my original post with them it would be appreciated.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4eHBK.jpg[/IM]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/haDYw.jpg[/IM]

[Oldfishlady]

Its important to maintain a somewhat stable water temp in the 76-80F range....you need a thermometer to check the tank water temp and the temp of the replacement water for water changes....you may or may not need to add a heater but you do need to at least monitor the temp....

What do you want done with the pic......I can't see them but others may....I have an old computer monitor that is fairly small.....but I can delete the pic if you want.....

[AlphaNumeric]

Could you delete the pictures in my original post and replace them with these photos. Thank you.

[AlphaNumeric]

Would an excessive slime coat cause him to scratch himself against the rocks and plants?

[Oldfishlady]

It can,...have you been making the 50% daily water changes dosing the dechlorinator for the full volume of the tank and what is the water temp...did you ever get a thermometer......

New symptom of flashing or scratching on object...he still has the excess slim coat....any other new symptom or behavior changes...still eating, swimming okay....

[AlphaNumeric]

I never got a thermometer. I did full water changes every 1-2 days with water conditioner. He has stopped eating and barely moves. He just sits on the bottom of the tank all day. I think he's going to die soon.