Dying Betta

[Gregory20]

I look after a Betta at my school who I've become quite attached to and he's just recently taken a turn for the worse and is on the brink of death. First off, he's had fin rot for almost 2 months now and I've been trying to treat him with Melafix for 2 weeks and it was working until yesterday. He's in a small one gallon tank I believe and it has a filter but no heater. He's usually weak and lays on the bottom but would swim around every now and then, but the past two days he's not been moving and looks dead even though he's breathing. I don't know what to do, but I don't want to give up on him.

 

[Potluck]

Melafix is horrible and doesn't work, you also have to understand fin rot, when the tips start to grow back they resemble fin rot themselves so you need to be able to tell the difference, the best thing for a betta is ultra prestine water, 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 5-10 nitrate, pH, slow gentle flow, atleast a 5 gallon tank and the correct temp, please include liquid water test results, if you don't have that kit I'm sure there's a local fish store by you that does testing with the liquid, strips are very innacurate. Pictures of the betta would also be helpful especially of his fins Here's a video of how to use aquarium Salt for fin rot https://youtu.be/IixkSkffOOc

 

[Gregory20]

Thank you so much for the advice, if he makes it through the weekend I'll definitely try the aquarium salt. Unfortunately I can't test the water till Sunday when I'll be back at the school, and I can't change him to a bigger tank yet because it's being used by our other male Betta at the moment.

 

[King Fisher]

Dose Kanaplex immediately. He probably has a secondary disease. If he has advanced bacterial fin rot he will never recover without medication no matter how clean you keep his water or if you try to use salt.

If you haven't already done so, change out 50% of his water and 25% daily until you get the meds.