beta fish with popeye and fin rot

Question
After having inadvertently neglected to clean our beta's 2.5 gallon filtered tank as we normally do, his water became murky.  We cleaned it within a day or 2 and noticed nothing wrong with him.  As of today (5 days after tank was cleaned), he definitely has popeye and seems to have fin rot.  (I've done some reading on both issues.)  I purchased Melafix today and added the 1/4 tsp to his water.  He is about 1 1/2 years old and has always been healthy till now.  How soon should we see an improvement?  Will we?  His color is also paler than normal and he is very lethargic and seems to be laboring to breath.  Is this the end for our beta?  My 2 and 6 year old children will be devastated!  They love "Nemo".  Thank you.

Answer
Hi Tara;

Poor guy. The Melafix is a good product but he may need more. Try "Maracyn 2" to help treat internal infection that could be causing the popeye. It's okay to use the Melafix at the same time. Get him to a warm place in your house too. Bettas do better in water that is kept at 80 or 82 degrees, especially when sick. Change 50% of his water every day to keep bacteria and other "baddies" in low concentrations in the water.

Bettas normally live to be 2 or 3 years old. They are already about a year when we buy them so it is possible that he is an old little fella now. It's harder for them to recover from illness at that age.  

I hope he feels better soon........

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins