New Betta fish in bad condition

[raingerr]

I was at Petco earlier and stopped by the betta shelves and noticed one of them seemed especially sickly. Seeing her in such a sorry state tugged at my heartstrings a bit so I bought her in the hopes that I could help her or just give her a nice place to rest in her final days.
I’m trying to find out what’s wrong with her so I can treat her ASAP. She’s uncoordinated and lethargic, swimming all over the place and is unable to keep herself upright. I assume it’s a swim bladder issue but I’m not sure exactly what is causing it. Her cup at the store had no food in it and she simply floated sideways on the top. I put her in a cycled 5 gallon tank that also has Anubias and an El Niño fern, as well as a Nerite snail that’s lived there for a few months. There’s no obvious symptoms on her body besides her behavior so I think it’s a bacterial infection but I wanted a second opinion to be sure. She does have some weird light scales around her face and gills but I am almost certain it is just her natural coloring because it looks like a very light blue color. She’s currently laying on the ground breathing deeply and she’s been like that for the past hour or so. She occasionally moves around the tank but I never actually see her swimming. I haven’t fed her at all tonight since I didn’t want to risk harming her more and I’m not entirely sure if she can eat in her current state.
The tank’s parameters are 20ppm nitrate, 0ppm nitrite, 150ppm GH, 0ppm chlorine, 120ppm KH, 7.8ppm pH, 0ppm ammonia.

 

[raingerr]

An update from earlier today, shes still alive. She’s able to move since she’s in a different spot than I saw her in yesterday but she is not active and just lays on the ground. She continues to have labored breathing and attempts at feeding her a small dried bloodworm with tweezers was to no avail. She seemed interested but just couldn’t get herself to swim in a way that she could eat it. I still don’t really know what to do but I might go get some Kanaplex later today if I can’t find anything else that could be causing this.

 

[GaryE]

Keep that fish away from all your other fish, and practice a strict and rigid quarantine, including nets and hand washing after contact with the water.
The fish has wasted away, and bettas are very prone to incurable Mycobacteriosis. Play it safe, just in case.

Kanaplex? It is more likely to stress her than cure her. You are shooting in the dark if you try that. If it's the usual Myco, it won't work. Nothing will.

Honestly, I would keep the fish calm and quiet in isolation, and expect him/her not to recover. There is always a chance, but it is very slim. You have tried to be kind there. If you have other fish, bringing home a sick fish is a bit like picking up a time bomb because you like clocks.

 

[raingerr]

Keep that fish away from all your other fish, and practice a strict and rigid quarantine, including nets and hand washing after contact with the water.
The fish has wasted away, and bettas are very prone to incurable Mycobacteriosis. Play it safe, just in case.

Kanaplex? It is more likely to stress her than cure her. You are shooting in the dark if you try that. If it's the usual Myco, it won't work. Nothing will.

Honestly, I would keep the fish calm and quiet in isolation, and expect him/her not to recover. There is always a chance, but it is very slim. You have tried to be kind there. If you have other fish, bringing home a sick fish is a bit like picking up a time bomb because you like clocks.

Oh dang, I’ve never heard of that before but it makes sense. I’m keeping her quarantined and have been cleaning my tools after using them in that tank since I didn’t want to pass anything to my other fish. She’s still moving and somehow managed to find her way on top of a plant so I suppose she’s still hanging in there. I’ll try and let her be then since prognosis doesn't seem good. Thank you for the info

 

[Boundava]

Fish was probably just sitting in very poor water conditions if you give it clean water it should recover. I would not medicate anything right now as there's no obvious signs of any illness. You can add some almond leaves to the water or any other dried leaves, it will help the fish, but clean water is always the best cure so make sure that the tank water is clean.

 

[GaryE]

You have two views, both with possibilities. I hope @Boundava is right.

What concerns me is the extreme thinness.
Also, if the fish was jarred, it is probably a male. If it's a female they were removing it to be alone because it was ill. Females are rarely kept in small containers as a matter of course unless the fishroom manager is really inexperienced and untrained. He could be a plakat (shortfin) male.

Rescuing sick fish is a dangerous game because we have so few resources to treat them, or even properly diagnose them. Keep the water clean, but follow strict QT rules. If he rebounds, great. I am always delighted to be wrong, but feel it's important to warn. I have been an aquarist for more than 5 decades, and I have seen, and at times early on bought more than one Myco Betta.

 

[Boundava]

Unfortunately bettas at Big chain stores don't get water changes, it's easier to write them off as a loss. They sit in the same water until they're sold or they die. They just don't have the employee time to care for the bettas individually as they can have up to 20 betas at a time and doing water changes on the little plastic cups would take up too much of an employee's time. So it having caught something from another fish is unlikely. The fact that it might have damaged skills due to the high levels of ammonia very likely. The best way to heal this is by having clean water. As I mentioned adding tannins to the water in the form of almond leaves or other dried leaves is also beneficial. I wouldn't stress it out anymore by adding medication to the water to be perfectly honest, especially since you don't know what you're treating for. Also if you're able to get some frozen bloodworms versus dried those would probably be more palatable for her or him. Do you still have that little plastic cup, it should have a label on it telling you what type of beta it is.

 

[TNG]

To me, that’s one very sick betta with very little chance of recovery.
Hope I’m wrong, and would be pleased to hear that the fish recovers.

 

[Boundava]

How's he doing?