Hello, I just wanted to see if there was anything else I could do to help my betta. I've only had him for a little over a week and he's gotten very very sick very fast. He's a Petco betta and is in a 3.7 gallon with internal filter and heater but for the last 3 days I've moved him into a 1g tank with daily water changes to medicate him. He looked absolutely fine when I bought him, maybe 2 days later he half a tiny patch of fuzz or slime on him but he had been shoving himself between the river rock in the tank so I thought maybe he got something on him but the tank was pretty clean. It had been cycling a week with only 5 shrimp and a snail in it so there shouldn't have been anything too wrong. Temp 79 to 80 ph 7.5-8 the waters hard but I keep adding ph down and it never budged while I was setting it up, no ammonia or nitrates and it had good bacteria added. It was set up with spring water and water conditioner. But anyway. I moved him from the 1 gallon he was in for a few days getting 50% water changes a day with conditioned spring water into the 3.7 when it was ready, gave him a cup of the new water every hour to change it really slow. He looked fine, was swimming and ate. He had a little slime spot on side that was translucent and the size of maybe a pencil eraser but otherwise looked totally fine. I went to work came home 8 hours later and he is absolutely covered in this translucent white slime that is now white in the center where it started. It escalated so fast, I think because the main tank is heated stronger so the temp runs more 79 to 80 and the one gallon temp tank is more 73 to 75. I ran right out and asked the pet shop what to give him. I think it looks like culminarus so he gave me seachem polyguard and I got him some salt and indian almond leaves. He's been in the one gallon for 3 days now with water from the main tank. He gets 1 tsp salt and 1/10 the 10 gl dose of polyguard and an almond leaf in there. I was giving him a salt dip twice a day for 5 minutes and qtipping off the slime. Once I got it off I saw under the white spot it had turned his scales red. I soaked a qtip in some peroxide and just dabbed it on the red spot to try to kill some of the bacteria because it was still hanging on there after the medicine and salt the day before. . He was looking ok yesterday. Swimming around ate a pellet. Then last night was day 3 so the instructions on the polyguard said to change the water and refuse. I changed 100% of the water still using the main tank water that I took out for a bit and let sit to room temp since the small one isn't heated. I added 1.5 tsp of salt and another 1/10 dose poly guard. And a tiny sprinkle of some fish amoxicillin since the white fuzz was still slowly appearing. He was last night but when I checked on him this morning he is at the top laying on his side. Hes breathing and moves when I walk up to him but the just returns to the side. I did another 50% change in a panic with water from his main tank thinking he is oding on salt or polyguard but he's still on his side. I didnt want to shock him further so I left him to adjust to the lower salt and new water but I just wanted to see if there was anything left to do for him. I read culminarus can go very bad so I'm thinking he could have some kind of damage i cant see. Should i remove the salt and medice entirely for a bit? Put him back in his main tank? I'm afraid the warmer water in there will accelerate it again but I want to make sure it's nothing in there with him causing him to be on his side. Idk if there's anything left to do or if it means he's just shutting down at this point. Poor little fish. He was such a beautiful fish too, dark blue and black with metallic green. I haven't had a fish since a few years ago. I had a goldfish for over 14 years. Went out and bought brand new everything for him and got him a high quality pellet food and frozen blood worms and ghost shrimp and a mystery snail in a planted tank and the poor little dudes looking like he won't even last 2 weeks. I feel so bad. Meanwhile someone in my family has a betta that lives in a small unheated or filtered pet carrier and gets a bottle of spring water once a month and the darn thing is alive and fine somehow 2 years later -.- but I kill mine xD
EDIT: Well fishy finally passed away. Is there anything I can do to prevent the next one from catching this? I'm going to sanitize the tank and upgrade to a bigger 6gallon of the same kind. It has an internal filter and heater and led light that comes with it just going to get the bigger size. The other tank mates look ok still. I'll just quarantine them and the live plants for a bit. Water was tested and still fine. I think the little white squiggle was a nematode? According to google. Must have come from the new plants. And the ghost shrimp in there had babies too today. Hopefully next time around they'll stay healthy. I'm thinking maybe he was sick from the start
EDIT: Well fishy finally passed away. Is there anything I can do to prevent the next one from catching this? I'm going to sanitize the tank and upgrade to a bigger 6gallon of the same kind. It has an internal filter and heater and led light that comes with it just going to get the bigger size. The other tank mates look ok still. I'll just quarantine them and the live plants for a bit. Water was tested and still fine. I think the little white squiggle was a nematode? According to google. Must have come from the new plants. And the ghost shrimp in there had babies too today. Hopefully next time around they'll stay healthy. I'm thinking maybe he was sick from the start
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