My betta has been sick for the last wk. He is in a 2.5 gal heated tank. He has been lethargic, not eating, breathing rapidly and just basically lays on a silk plant all day long. At first I though he had fin rot because he had clamped fins too. I put in some bettafix and saw no results. I then tried a bit of Jungle Fungus Clear, again no improvement to the betta. Then I noticed a shiny spec near his gill and thought he had ich. I purchased ich guard and have been treating his tank for 3 days now. There has been no improvement at all. Before puttting in the ich guard I removed the betta and dumped and rinsed the gravel and cleaned the aquarium. I kept 50 percent of his old water and also added new water to fill the tank. I waited for the water to clear and temp to get to 78 before returning Mr. Limpet to the tank. I do use spring water I have been checking the betta to see if I notice anything on him & the spec which appears like a shiny fleck is still there. One gill seems to flare
A few things to check on: if your tank isn’t filtered, how often do you change the water, and if you’re using bottled spring water, it can sometimes still contain chlorine and chloramine, so you still have to use a conditioner; otherwise he may still be poisoned (although if that was the case, he probably wouldn’t have lasted a week). Water changes should be done at least once per week in a 2.5 gallon.
If you’re keeping up with all of the above, I would start by doing another water change without meds. The silver spot is likely just part of his coloring–believe me, when they get ich, it’s very obvious. I also wouldn’t assume fin rot unless his fins are actually getting shorter. Do a 25% water change every other day or so to remove the current medication. You don’t necessarily have to remove him and clean everything–doing it very often will stress him out and make things worse. After doing the water changes for about 4-5 days, reassess. If he still isn’t looking better, and that gill hasn’t gone down, treat with an antibiotic (dosing VERY carefully). Inflamed gills are often caused by bacterial infections. Clean water is the most important step, but if he’s already been sick for a week, I wouldn’t wait more than another week before treating again. See my source site to be sure about the diagnosis, and only treat when you’re relatively sure. Best of luck.
http://bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm
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mine has the EXACT same thing right now. fin rot and a shiny little spot above one of his gills. ive been doing 25% water changed for 3 days and treating with betta fix and aquarium salt ( only a pinch ) and he’s been doing a little better.
http://bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm
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