HELP!! No idea what is wrong with my betta.

[jbarmstrong]

My neighbor was feeding my betta while was out of town for 2 weeks in December. When I returned home, the water was filthy because she had been over feeding him. My little betta, Ron Burgundy, was always very curious and aggressive. He would swim to the side of his tank when I approached and follow my finger. However, he was very skittish when I returned home, and he would dart back and forth and try to hide. I also noticed he wasn't eating, and he had a little bit of gold dust on his body. I treated him for velvet, which completely disappeared after two consecutive treatments with malachite green. His behavior did not go back to normal, and I noticed his body started bloating and his fins were becoming ragged. I decided to treat him with Maracyn 2, hoping it would kill any bacterial infection. I've attempted two treatments now with Maracyn 2 with no improvement. I've been doing regular water changes, so water quality doesn't seem to be an issue. He hasn't eaten since December 15th!! I have no idea how the poor little guy is still alive. I don't know what do at this point. Any suggestions??

[callistra]

He's had a lot of medication already.. for now I would treat the bloat with epsoms salts (100% no additives). Maybe start at 1 tsp per gallon and fully dissolve outside the tank before adding. Can you share photos? Also please fill this out:

Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?


Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?

[Sakura8]

Hi jbarmstrong and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry Ron Burgundy is so sick. :( Let's see if we can encourage him to eat. First, try getting some frozen bloodworms. Frozen, not freeze-dried. Thaw them in a small container and use something to take a few worms out. Soak them in garlic juice. You can use the garlic juice from a jar of minced garlic or you can mince your own garlic, then soak the pieces in some tank water. Once the bloodworms are good and garlicky, try to feed those to your guy.

It sounds like your fellow may have an internal bacterial infection. Has he pooped at all? This could be a cause of his bloating.

For now, I highly recommend you get him into 3 tsps of epsom salt per gallon. Start with 1 tsp, as Callistra suggested, and slowly add 2 more tsps over the course of an hour. Predissolve in a bit of tank water before adding (although if you forget this step, it's okay because epsom salt won't burn the fish the way undissolved aquarium salt would).

You can get epsom salt at any drug store or pharmacy, just make sure it has no added colors or scents.

Also, see if you can get some tannins into his tank. For tannins, you can look in fish stores for Indian Almond Leaf or you can use naturally dried, clean oak leaves. Crumble the leaves into the tank until the water is a dark tea color.

If your guy's tank is not heated, I strongly advise you find him a good adjustable heater that can get his tank up to 80 F.

Meanwhile, just in case, start searching your local fish stores for a product called Seachem Kanaplex (active ingredient kanamycin). Although I hope not, we may need it further down the road and since this product is hard to find, it won't hurt to start the search now just in case.

Keep us updated.