my poor wilbur

Question
First off i have never had problems with poor Wilbur until some idiot at the pet store said that a snail would be a good companion and would help keep the tank clean.Well I explained that my tank is always clean i clean my tank once to twice a week the water always sparkled for my fish.They made the water dirty so i took the snails back. I noticed that my Wilbur wasn't eating. I also noticed one of his eyes was popping out,found out it was Popeye so i bought medicine. I bought bettafix and melafix.used that for  7 days as recommended on the bottle. Then i noticed the color change,he is now blind in that eye. Then the other one had a spot thought he had another Popeye so i went to a different store and they said he has ick so i bought quick cure.that was 6 days ago and he still has it. He tries to eat but his mouth is kinda swollen. He still swims and flutters about so i don't think hes in pain,but I don't know what else to do i even raised the temperature of the water and added a little salt. I don't want him to starve to death and i am also worried because the people at the store said my husband I could get sick because I have been using our bowls to put him in while i clean his tank. I throw them in the dishwater right afterwards but they say that's not good. Please help I love my fish but i want to do what best for him.

Answer
Hi Zinnia;

Poor Wilbur... and poor Zinnia too! What crazy advice from all angles. I'm so sorry you've had such bad luck. Snails often do make more mess than they clean up. I don't recommend them for small tanks at all. And, no, it isn't a problem to use washed dishes that used to have fish stuff in 'em. Good grief. If they were harmful my family would all have been dead years ago. So don't worry. You are doing fine.

Your betta doesn't have ick. Ick is a parasite looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt. If his mouth is swollen and he has a history of popeye recently that damaged his eye, I suspect internal infection. The medicines they recommended aren't going to be strong enough. As a matter of fact, both bettafix and melafix are the same thing. BettaFix is simply packaged differently, in a dropper bottle for smaller tanks. You can keep using the bettafix but no more Melafix. Some Bettas have been known to be sensitive to melaleuca, (the active ingredient in both products) and he's been getting a double dose. Yikes!

So, in my opinion he needs an antibiotic medicine called "Maracyn two". It absorbs inside the fish where the infection is. If you can't find that one, get Kanamycin. It also absorbs. Other meds treat only the outside of the fish. BettaFix os okay to use with it and will help the damaged tissue regenerate.

Keep up with your excellent cleaning schedule and hopefully he will feel better soon....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins