Betta Sick!

Question
Hi David,

I was really hoping you can help me. I have a betta fish. He's pretty old. I've had him for two years but not sure how old he was at the pet store when I bought him. About 6 months ago, he had a pretty bad case of fin and tail rot. I got some maracyn Two and treated him according to the label, and he got better. Soon afterwards I've noticed a tiny white spot on his top fin. I went to the pet store and asked about it and was told that its just the fin regrowing.

I left it at that but nothing seemed to change for a while. Recently it started to grow and now its a giant white cotton like looking spot. Its about 0.5cm in diameter and covers a large portion of the fish's top.

Reading and doing some research I think its fungus. I went out and bought some Maroxy and have been treating him in conjunction with Maracyn Two.

He's in a Marina 1/5 gallon tank. I make sure to keep the water clean and do regular water changes. I also use water conditioner to get rid of all the harmful chemicals and let the water sit overnight before I do the water change.

He seemed to be perfectly happy and ate well as usual before I started medicating him. I saw some red bleeding spots in the white sore and so decided its definitely not regrowth which is why I started medicating him for fungus.

I've been putting Maroxy in his water for 4 days now. The package says no more than 5 and he got significantly worse. He stopped eating a few days ago completely and when I woke up this morning he was lying on his side at the bottom of the tank and he doesn't seem to be able to hold his body up at all.

I have no clue what to do anymore. I really care about my fish and would really love to help him get better.

I did a water change this morning and removed all the medication because I fear that it might have made it worse.

Please help me.
Irina

Answer
Hello Irena:  I am sorry to hear about your sick betta.  What I would like for you to do is to raise the temperature of your tank to about 82 degrees... but raise it slowly... one degree ever three hours or so... I also want you to go to your local aquarium and buy some aquarium salt...avoid the pet store and just deal directly with an aquarium.  Add the salt to his water per the instructions on the label and raise the water temperature.  It is possible that he may have something called ICH...or it may be that he is simply at the end of his life cycle.  If he does not get better with the warmer water and the salt you can look at treating him again for ICH...but I am thinking that he is lethargic due tot he medication... combined with his sickness.  Please keep me posted on his progress... Dave