Oh wow. That's impressive. I'm sorry he's not feeling well. D: Poor guy! Could you give us a little more information by filling 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)?

 

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? blood worms and betta ball food
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2X day, but he is not eating currently

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? every couple days now as the medicine directs, before once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 25%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? usually only water conditioner, but antibiotics now and some salt

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
It was all normal, I'm changing water frequently now
Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? see picture
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? not eating, lethargic, stays on bottom, stares at top of water
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 weeks ago, after apple snail died
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? yep, see above
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? a year

 

It definatly looks like some sort of fungus. Poor little guy. methylene blue or rid-fungus is good for treating fungus, my Ex used that for his Betta. ust stay away from herbal tonics such as Melafix. Also make sure you clean the stones/ gravel. if you can move him to another tank to watch over him without distractions like gravel or tank plants. Another sugestion is to get an air stone to provide more oxygen. Thats all I can sugest, I really hope your little guy gets better!

 

Jungle Fungus Meds

Thank you for your reply! I tried both pimafix, full course, and Jungle Fungus Meds, a full course, and neither worked. He isn't eating, and it has been a while, so I can tell he is losing strength. I will look into methylene blue tomorrow, if he is still hanging in there. The antibiotics made no difference, and I went ahead and put a new carbon filter catridge in his tank (I had removed it due to the antibiotic treatment).
There is no evidence of fungus anywhere else in the tank. I took out most of the plants and siffened the rocks again.

 

Paraguard can also help if you can't find Metheylene blue. It treats a variety of things including fungus but you do it as a dip. Also I have decided not to keep Apple snails with my bettas anymore. I've seen too many get fungus which seems to be contagious to fish.

 

The best medication I would recommend for such a bacterial colony is Tri-sulfa (triple sulfa is another name/brand). It is both a strong antifungal as well as an external antibacterial.

This is right on his head near a lot of important organs so while treating I recommend you keep his lights low or off and noise to a minimum, he needs to sleep as much as possible.

 

I have to add that he totally looks like Albert Einstein. It would be very distinguished-looking if it weren't a problem