Help...Don't know what is wrong (Urgent)

[Jjjm]

I've never had any fish before and don't have any experience or much knowledge of them. A friend gave me a male betta for my birthday a couple of months ago.

At first he seemed fine. He was very active and would try to get my attention whenever he was hungry. He is in a "betta kit" tank, I believe its 1 gallon. I've been feeding him freeze dried red grubs once a day and changing his water and cleaning the tank once a week.

For the past couple of days I've been noticing he's not right. He hasn't eaten anything that I've given for the past 2 days. My parents were feeding and cleaning him for a while, as I was writing exams and was gone most of the day and night studying...according to them he hasn't eaten a thing for 4 days.

So he hasn't eaten anything for 4 days and he is barely moving. He sits under a rock all day or stares at his reflection in the corner of his tank. (Not flaring his gills, just staring.) I think something may be wrong with his upper fin. It looks a little thinner than it used to and there appears to be some white around the base of the fin.

I tried changing his food up yesterday, as I have some blood worm flakes on hand but he didn't even bother to check what it was.

I was thinking possibly fin rot, but from what I can find online, there should be dark stuff on his fins, not white. And I can't find anything about not eating with fin rot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...he needs to eat something or he's not going to last much longer.

[Myates]

Welcome, sorry to hear your little guy isn't doing well. Is there a chance that you could upload a picture of him so we can see?

Betta kits tend to be half a gallon- a picture would help as it will determine how often of a water change is needed. For a gallon size you would want to do 1 50% and 1 100% per week if there is no filter. For half a gallon it would be 2 50% and 1 100% per week.

Are you using water conditioner?
What is the temp of the water?
What these "kits" forget to mention is that bettas are tropical fish- they do best in water 76-82*F. Since they don't require a lot of space, some companies will use that to make those small kits. If it is a one gallon, you could look for a 7.5-15 watt heater to help keep him warm. Lower temps would result in lethargy, loss of appetite due to a slower metabolism, and lowered immunity.

Pellets would be more idea to feed regularly then freeze dried, as sometimes the freeze dried lacks enough fiber, fat, vitamins. Freeze dried is good for treats, or meal supplements a couple of times a week.

You said the base of the fin has white- is it a milky substance, or like a cotton ball? Can you see tiny "hairs" or just slime texture?

For now I would do a 100% water change with like-temp water (use a thermometer to make sure it's the same). Until we know what it is by a clearer description or picture, we won't know how to go about treatment.

[Jjjm]

I just took the water temp, its about 71 degrees.
I use Nutrafin Betta Plus tap water conditioner. I also found the box that the tank came in, its 0.8 gallon. I can't find my camera so I took a couple witht he video camera, they aren't very clear.

[Myates]

Hard to tell.. I zoomed in, I believe I see some cloudiness near the bottom of the fin.. but can't be too sure.

So I'll go ahead and suggest the conservative treatment for slime coating and fungal infection, it should work.
If you can get clearer pictures at some point, go ahead and do so, that way we can verify fully what he has. Cute guy you have, btw.

Since he is in a smaller sized tank, you can use that to treat him- first remove him and place him in the cup you got him in. Empty out his tank and fill it back up with like-temp water, if it is fungus, the lower temp will slow it down.
Add in water conditioner and 1 teaspoon of Aquarium salt (you can buy at pet stores, walmart sells it in the fish section relatively cheap). Make sure to dissolve it completely, then acclimate your guy to the salt water by taking some water out of the cup and adding in a little of the tank water a couple of times over a 15 minute time period.
If you can float the cup in the small tank, do so to get the temp even, but if you can get the temps to be the same when you fill the tank up, then you don't need to worry about floating- just getting him used to being in salt.

You will want to do daily 100% water changes, adding in AQ salt each time for no longer then 10 days.
If it seems to spread across his body, let us know..

Once treatment is done you will want to start doing 1 50% and 1 100% water change per week.