beta fish is sick i think

Question
hello chris.
i have a male beta. i have had him almost 2 years. he is in a 5 gallon filtered tank. i used distilled water to fill the tank. i'm hearing i should have used regular bottled water. i cleaned the tank over a month ago. because he seemed to have got ick. that went away. anyway he doesn't swim much and he sits on the bottom. or he will swim up top and just sit on the plastic plant. sometimes when he see's me or i tap on the tank he might pop up and swim to me then after a few secs he will go to the bottom again. i added melafix - 1/2 teaspons a day the past two days to my 5 gallon tank and also added non iodized salt. 2 teaspoons to my 5 gallon tank. how often do i add the salt . what else do you suggest? he seems to eat good. i feed him beta bites and freeze dried ocean plankton (tetra)once or twice a day, and i really don't see much going on with his fins or scales.
i'm sad...write soon and thanks for reading....matt

Answer
Hi Matthew;

Poor guy. I think he is just getting old. Bettas live to be 2 or 3 years old and are already about a year when we buy them. Just keep his water clean and warm to help him recover. It is possible that he will continue to have trouble surfacing. It sounds like his swim bladder has failed. The swim bladder controls equilibrium and enables the fish to float up in the water. It has to heal on it's own, but often does not work again. He is probably not suffering in any way, he just sinks to the bottom. There is no medication that will really help but you could try the antibiotic "Maracyn 2" if you want to. Sometimes swim bladder problems are caused by internal bacterial infection and maracyn 2 absorbs inside the fish to treat it. Others only treat the outside of the fish.

Salt is added only to water when making a water change, but not when replacing evaporated water. When water evaporated, the salt is still in the tank. Replace 25% of the tank water weekly and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per gallon of replaced water. If you replace 1 gallon of tank water, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Tap water is what he needs. Distilled has no minerals and other trace elements so it could make fish weak and prone to disease. Just use a good water condtioner and the water will be instantly safe for him. It is better if you do weekly changes instead of cleaning out the whole tank every so often. It is too much of a shock. Be sure the new water is the same temperature is the same as the old water to prevent temperature shock too.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins