Twink is very sick, please help!

[sseward]

About three days ago my fish Twink randomly became very lethargic. He was fine in the morning, and when i got home six hours later he was laying at the bottom of his bowl not moving. The day before i bought him a plastic plant and put it in his bowl, is that what could have made him sick? I had just changed his water before, same thing i've always done...rinse out his bowl and fill it with new distilled water.

I took him out of his small bowl and moved him into a two gallon one. I purchased a heater for him, i've been keeping the water around 80-82. I also bought him betta revive, and nutrafin betta plus. I've been treating him with both of those.

He's just been laying at the bottom of the bowl, his gills are out and it looks like he's breathing through his mouth. He's also lost a lot of his color, he was normally a pretty light colored fish, he was light blue and pink, now most of his pink has faded to grayish white. When i put his heater in his bowl he swam over to it and was laying on it. He responds to when I go over to his bowl, he tries to swim around but it seems like his equilibrium is off and he is having an extremely difficult time swimming. He tries, but then he just tips over and floats back to the bottom.

Today, he's made a little progress. He swam to the top of his bowl, but only stayed there for like ten seconds and then swam back down to the bottom. He's completely lost his appetite and is just laying on his side on the bottom of the bowl.

Is there any disease he could possibly have? and more importantly is there anything else i can do to try and save him? I don't care how much it costs, I just want him better.

Attatched are two pictures of Twink, sorry about the quality...only have a cell phone camera. Help, please

[LittleBettas]

Sounds to me like swim bladder disease (SBD)... how often do you clean out his bowl and how often do you feed him?
The treatment for SBD is 1tsp of espom salt per gallon (you can buy a big bag at walmart for like $5)

[sseward]

I change his water once a week. And I feed him twice a day, a little pinch of flakes each time. Thats what I thought it could have been, I'm going to go out and buy some of that tomorrow before work. The clerks at my local pet shop weren't very helpful, so I've been doing what I can to make him comfortable.

[LittleBettas]

For now, keep him in a dark warm place, try to keep the noise and stress arund him to a min. and for a 2 gal. tank you may want to clean it ouw a bit more, I do 20% daily and 100% once a week

[sseward]

Yeah I just bought it for him when his symptoms started. Hopefully he gets better soon because I don't know what I'd do without him! How often should i put the salt in?

[LittleBettas]

If you already have the espom salt, what I do:
I keep all fish in QT or who are sick in 1 gallon tanks/bowls, 1 tsp for every gallon, I do 100% water changes every day (when I change th water, I make a gallon pitcher of the new water so it has time to get about the same temp.)
do this for one week, if he seems better, dont stop! you may want to also do it for 2 weeks
if he is having trouble getting to the surface, dont fill the tank up all the way and continue with 100% water changes daily

[sseward]

Alright! I was going to change his water daily, but I didn't want to stress him out more. So hopefully he gets better! Thank you so much!

[LittleBettas]

When you go to change water, scoop him out of his old water with the cup he came in, set that off to the side, add new water, put the cup in the tank with te new water and let it sit for 5mins (if you make the water the day before the change it should be the same temp)slowly add the new water over 10 mins

[sseward]

thank you so much! one more question, is it better to keep bettas in distilled or regular spring water? everyone website has a different answer hah

[LittleBettas]

never use bottled water... I use regular tap water with de-chlorinator (water conditione and coat plus, brand is API) and let the water sit out all night, all day (with meds) I change water at 7:30pm EVERY day