Betta got sick suddenly

Question
Hi Amber,

  Hope everything's going well for you. I'm emailing you about my Betta. I am very concerned about him because he just got sick all of a sudden Sunday afternoon after I changed his water.
  This is the deal: I got him about 1.5 months ago and he seemed fine (eating, was very active) but I noticed that his tail seemed to have a bit of blackness on it and there were gray patches on his face. Even though he was acting ok I was worried that he might've caught a bacterial infection (specifically columnaris) and I also thought he might've had fin rot. To make a long story short, I ended up putting him on 2 types of antibiotics (Maracyn and Maracyn 2).
   I have him in a fairly small tank because I don't have much room for a bigger one but I had been cleaning his water every 2 days at first but bumped it up to once a day when the water quality looked bad. started changing it every day about 1.5 weeks ago.
   After I was done with the antibiotics, I noticed that the patches on his face were still there and his belly was white and his arms (the part coming out of the gills that attaches his fins) looked a bit weird - it seemed to be a shiny white color on his arms..almost like it was bone except it glistened. At this point, I thought maybe his water was too cool for him, as it is getting cold out.
  On Saturday, I bought a heater for him and set it to about 79 degrees.. he seemed to be fine then. The next morning, I woke up and saw that my betta wasn't eating. I didn' think much of it and did a whole tank water change (I started changing the entire tank since I upped my water changes to once a day) and soon afterwards I saw that my poor betta wasn't as active and his top fin seemed to droop to the side as he laid on the bottom of the tank. His breathing was labored and sporadic...his right fin would stick to his gills for a few seconds and then he'd get a burst of energy and breathe really fast and swim to the top for air. he did this throughout the day. I bought him some aquarium salt Sunday afternoon and after putting it into his tank, saw that he immediately started to breathe rapidly for a little bit but fell back into his sporadic breathing. I did some research online and thought that his takn water might've breen supersaturated since I noticed a lot of bubbles in his tank. I released teh bubble from under the water and thought he would get better but when I woke up this morning he still wasnt' eating and his condition seemed to worsen a bit. I was afraid to do any water changes so I left for the day.
   I juts got home now and I see that my betta is REALLY sick. His fins have gotten worse than ever and I am sure he has fin rot. The glistening on his arms are bigger and now they're on BOTH sides. His belly is whiter than ever and I really don't know what to do.
  I've asked my boyfriend to take him to his home since he has a bigger tank and a whole filtration system and everything. I know I probably should've done this before but I wanted to keep the betta since I won him at a carnival and thought that he was bringing me good luck. I've really tried everything to the best of my abilities.
  I hope it's not too late for my Betta. Please help! thank you so much for your time.

Mary

Answer
Hello Mary-

First off, you need to move your betta into a cup and rinse his tank out with hot water (no soap.) Wipe all the gunk off the sides with a paper towel, and fill the tank up with water. Use a water conditioner to remove the chlorine (if you haven't been using a water conditioner for each water change, this might be your problem.) Allow the water to warm up to about 79-80 F. Float your betta's cup in his tank, and when the water temperatures have equalized, pour him in slowly. Use just a few crystals of aquarium salt, and if you can, use a dose of Melafix (a fish medicine.) Only change his water every other day, or every three days if you can. Too many water changes will stress him out a lot and make his recovery slower.

Hope this helps,
Amber Worman