Need Help ASAP - Sick Betta, possibly dropsy

I got my betta Luna about 3 weeks ago, and she's been eating and swimming perfectly fine. About 5 days ago I noticed that she was hiding and not eating as much, but after a few days she got better. Now this morning she is hiding in her plants a lot, and breathing really heavily, and resting on plant leaves a lot. Also, I'll attach a picture but her scales might be pine coning a little bit. Is this dropsy? What should I do? I was thinking maybe adding some aquarium salt? I dont know what to do with her because I've never had fish with dropsy, and I don't want her to suffer. She also seems bloated even though she hasn't benn eating. What causes dropsy? My parameters are perfect ( 0, 0, 5), and the ghost shrimp and snails that are in there are healthy and breeding. It is a 5 gallon heavily planted.

Is the fish eating anything?
If yes, how well is it eating?

What does its poop look like?

It doesn't appear bloated and I can't tell if the scales are sticking out.

Dropsy is caused by an internal infection or internal organ failure, which causes fluid buildup in the abdominal cavity and there is no cure. The fish bloat/ balloon up (get really fat) overnight, stop eating and do a stringy white poop. They usually die within a few days of that happening.

Salt (sodium chloride) will not do anything to help here.

Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) can sometimes be used to draw excess fluid out of fish but I don't have dose rates for it. When using epsom salts you move the fish into a bucket of water containing the magnesium sulfate and leave it there for a short time (usually 15-30 minutes) and then move the fish back to its tank.

*NB* You need to be extremely careful when moving fish with possible internal problems because lifting them out of water can put pressure on their internal organs and make the problem worse. If you have to move a sick fish, use a net to carefully catch it and keep the fish in water. Then put a plastic container under the fish and lift it up in the net in some water so the fish never comes out of water. Then move it to wherever it's going and let it swim out.

I can't see what you're seeing? There's no bloat or pineconing from any of the photos. The fish looks fine to me why don't ypu video it to show us what you mean

Unfortunately I can't get a vid, but she was kind of on her side in the upper tank corner about an hour ago, worse than before. She hasn't been eating flakes, pellets, bloodworms or brine shrimp. When she was pooping it was clear-ish, not stringy. She's been breathing really really heavily and opening and closing her mouth constantly. And wedging herself into plant and not moving. I'm out of the house not but I will get more pics. She seems to be more pinecones (I think) when I left.

If the fish isn't eating and has done a white or semi-transparent poop, it has a major internal problem and is most likely dying.

The following link has more info on intestinal problems in fish but I don't have high hopes for yours.

I came home and found her dead on the sand...her gills were flared out and she was pineconed. Even though I'm really sad about this I want to find the cause. What causes internal bacteria problems? She was completely fine one day and then few days went by and she got worse and worse.

Thank you so much for trying to help, hopefully we can find out why she died.

It could be from bad food (bacteria on some frozen food), Fish TB, or the fish had a genetically weak body and one or more of the internal organs shut down. The only way to find out for sure is to have the fish necropsied (animal autopsy) by a fish vet and to get cultures made. However, that can cost a bit of money.

Colin_T said:

It could be from bad food (bacteria on some frozen food), Fish TB, or the fish had a genetically weak body and one or more of the internal organs shut down.

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Can you tell if the fish was weak? She came from an LFS that takes really good care of their fish. The only frozen think I feed are brine shrimp the a brand called Hikari.

There's no real way of telling if a fish is weak unless you watched it hatch from an eggs and grew it up with its siblings. Then the weaker fish are smaller and don't grow as fast. But buying a fish from a shop or someone off the street is pot luck.

Hikari brineshrimp are normally fine.

Cheap brands of frozen bloodworms is the most common cause of intestinal problems in fish. If the frozen food has been irradiated, then it's a lot safer.

Well done for trusting your gut, sorry we couldn't help