Hi, I've been researching around the clock for the past two days on what to do. My mom has not been a good Betta owner, I have been giving her gentle recommendations for proper care and she has ignored most of it. Because of this, her fish has been slowly deteriorating. His fins have been clamped and deteriorating for many months, probably 5 months now. She blamed this on a fake plant she had. She took it out, but fins continued to look worse. She got a filtered 5 gallon tank, (due to my constant pleading to get rid of the small vase). I visited him daily for one week in August to medicate with BettaFix and instructed her to do a water change after the treatment, which I hope she did. She says water changes are "too much hassle". Even after the treatment his fins did not change. It looks like his fins are totally shredded now. She has no knowledge of tank cycling. This Betta was kept in a small vase, with no heater (65-69 room temp), and no regular water changes. This fish has never known what it's like to feel normal/happy/even remotely decent. Without waiting for it to cycle, she got 3 tetras and a snail. She did not QT them, and dumped them in, including the pet store aquarium water. All the teras were sucked up into the filter and died. Without no QT, her tank now is overrun with Ich. The beta is literally hanging on by a thread. I told her that I saw a white spot on him probably 2 or 3 weeks ago from today. She finally put him back into his old bowl for QT and started API super Ick Cure two days ago. She STILL had not bought a heater for him, I instructed her to do so for months. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and went there this morning and took the fish. I went and got an air pump, and new QT tank, and a heater. I acclimated him by adding 10% new water conditioned with Prime every 20-30 minutes for about 2 hours. I then filled up the new QT half way with new conditioned Prime water, added new dose of Super Ick Cure medication (1 mL), then added the fish and the other 50% of water from his acclimation tank. I also put in a floating wood house for him to hide in. I know his QT tank is way too small, Petco was the nearest place and only had small QT tanks, this is best I could do as quick as I could. I am worried. He has not eaten in a couple days. Prior to not eating, he hid for weeks, would not swim around, only come out sometimes to eat. I'm very worried it's too late to save him. His color is awful, he has gotten very dark (used to be a purple/blue), he looks rough and fuzzy. One of the photos I uploaded shows the white spots fairly well. Sorry they are not good photos, he is in floating house. He does not move whatsoever, tried to feed him after moving him into new QT and the food just hit his head without flinching. His fins move to keep him in place and he has labored breathing, but not like he is suffocating. He stays at the surface, with his mouth just at the surface, with rhythmic open-mouth breathing. What else should I do? My mom said she gave him 2 doses of the Super Ich. I'm worried his immune system is too busted to handle the medication. My mom said she did a 25% water change this morning, and after that she was sitting at the kitchen table nearby and he jumped out of his bowl, landing on the counter! I have never seen this fish active, never once have I seen it swim fast enough to even do that. I told her he was probably trying to commit suicide. Please help, I really want to see him live to give him a good home. I have other Beta's that are the happiest little guys ever, who I love very much. I tried uploading photos, never posted here before, don't know if I did it right. I entered the google drive shareable link.
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