Inflamed gill, labored breathing

[vanewb]

On Sunday night I came back home and my betta wasn't acting normal so I watched him for awhile and I noticed one of his gills was swollen and at the bottom it seemed to have a cut. I don't know, but anyway, I looked up some stuff online and it seemed to be an infection of some sort. The advice given was to do a big water change and to dose with amoxicillin. So I did a water change that night, about 50%. I woke up on Monday and he seemed to be a lot more active and I was able to get him to eat. I went to a pet shop and I guess they don't carry amoxicillin anymore. They recommended me this stuff called betta fix, so I've been putting that in the water. But today he seems just as bad as he was when I first noticed something was wrong. I don't really know what to do. He stays on the bottom of the tank and every once in awhile he'll swim around. He also leans up against something when he stays at the bottom or else he tends to almost be on his side. I don't really know what to do, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some pictures, I don't know if they will help or not.

[Sorridera]

What are your water parameters before and after your water change? Usually, problems with gills, it's due to water quality. Also, have you added aquarium salt into your tank to help with your Betta's respiratory distress?

BettaFix actually might make it worse, because BettaFix has been known to cause issues with Betta's labyrinth organ.

API makes antibiotics in powder form, which is easier to to divy up for smaller tanks than the crushing pills. You can try Amoxicillin, Tetracycline or Sulfamethoxazole. I have all 3 in my fish first aid kit, and they worked for me when I needed them. However, I'd like to stress that you need to check your water parameters first before doing antibiotics, because if that's not right, antibiotics won't help.

[vanewb]

Originally Posted by Sorridera

What are your water parameters before and after your water change? Usually, problems with gills, it's due to water quality. Also, have you added aquarium salt into your tank to help with your Betta's respiratory distress?

BettaFix actually might make it worse, because BettaFix has been known to cause issues with Betta's labyrinth organ.

API makes antibiotics in powder form, which is easier to to divy up for smaller tanks than the crushing pills. You can try Amoxicillin, Tetracycline or Sulfamethoxazole. I have all 3 in my fish first aid kit, and they worked for me when I needed them. However, I'd like to stress that you need to check your water parameters first before doing antibiotics, because if that's not right, antibiotics won't help.

I think the betta fix did make it worse :/ he died this morning