HELP! My betta fish wont eat, has popeye, swims sporadically and more...

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
I was wondering what I could possibly do for my betta fish.
He's had popeye for a couple of weeks now. At first they were cloudy, then they became red, and now they're clear but still larger than normal. The only medicine we've used so far is TC Tetracycline, which had been working appearance-wise but...

In terms of behavior, he has worsened. His behavior was improving until yesterday, when we decided we should clean his tank since all we've been doing for two weeks is a 25% water change every three days (and things were accumalating at the bottom of the tank). Maybe this was a wrong thing to do? But if so, what can we do from now on to make sure we can keep his tank clean without giving him anymore stress?

He has no interest in any food, rarely comes up to the surface, and most of the time he's just lying on the ground in a crescent-shape on his side. He seems to breathe heavily despite having a air-pump (with no filter as the medicine instructed to do). But then occasionally, he would suddenly jump up, swim wildly in one direction, then rush back down and lie there again.

He also has a verryyy mild case of scales sticking out ONLY on his head. And since it's only on his head, I'm not sure whether it's dropsy. If so, is there a cure?

I'm very worried about this. I hope it can be treated?

ANSWER: Hi Lily,
 Sadly I don't know of anything you can do.  In general, you should keep up the 25% water changes. When you do that, you should be cleaning anything off the bottom so there is no need to do a "big clean".  You shouldn't ever really change more than 50% of the water in a fish tank at once.  

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Okay, thank you so much for taking your time to read it at the least.
In that case, would you mind giving some tips on how to clean the bottom debris without disturbing the fish?

Also, should we keep up the treatment or switch over to something gram-negative like Maracyn 2?

I've realized after sending the previous message that you're more knowledgeable on cichlids, so I apologize for asking you about my betta. But hopefully these two questions will be able to be answered. C: Thank you once again!

Answer
Hi Lily,
 The best way to clean a fish tank is with a gravel siphon. That cleans the stuff off the bottom without disturbing the fish.

 As far as switching medicines, that is up to you.  I am not a fan of putting a lot of medications in a fish tank. These tend to be very hard on the fish and the microorganisms in a tank that are essential for a healthy tank.

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>