Kevin

earlier today, my heater in my 5 gal. messed up, i put some room temp water in there, turned the light off, and put a bag of ice in the tank
he was looking better at one point, but when i came home from baseball practice, he looked horrible...his fins are ripped, he has white stuff peeling off of his head, sides and tail, he has lost almost all of his color, he's laying under the pirate ship in his tank, and is breathing really hard

its probably to late for me to do anything...but anyone have any ideas?

Phloxface

I don't really know... Rose had the same thing happen to her. Maybe she'll see your message and can advise you. Her betta survived this although I think with some fin damage.
Try doing small (10%) water changes every couple hours about 3 times. Fresher water might help his skin.

Chief_waterchanger

He sounds overheated. 50% waterchanges everyday for the next week. A towel to put over the tank, to minimize outside distractions would minimize stress.

Reasoning for waterchanges: Cuts down on bacteria, helps prevent opprotunistic infection.

Kevin

well, now it looks like he has a swim bladder problem...every time he swims out from under the pirate ship, his rear floats up while his head stays down...and when he gets to the top, his head will sink a little bit, but his tail stays right near the surface

cherryrose

Poor little guy. I hope he recovers from the heater accident. I wish I could give you advice that would help. The only thing I can think of is that some vitachem in his water may help him feel better.

CherryRose

COBettaCouple

yea, vitachem and time may help him recover from it. and if you have any betta-safe decorations that you can put in there that have 'ledges', they could allow him to be out and about but still find spots to rest without floating up.

Phloxface

Maybe adding some Stress Coat conditioner to his water may help. The hot water probably striped off his slime coat (maybe that's what the peeling was?) and could leave him open for infection. The Stress Coat contains aloe vera to coat his body and help him heal.

cherryrose

Yeah. Stress coat would be good. I forgot that it has aloe in it. We use aloe on our burns, so it should be good for fish 'burns' too.

CherryRose

nmwierman1977

Novaqua+ also has aloe vera in it too plus added vitamins, so that may help also if you have it or if you can get some. good luck! Natalie

COBettaCouple

How is he doing?

Kevin

well, i am using bettafix remedy to treat his assortment of wounds
...he looks really bad, but has been acting better the past couple of days
also, i put him in a 1 gal. jar, so that i could treat him w/o wasting a bunch of meds by putting large amounts into his tank
i have been doing 30% water changes everyday to keep the water in good shape

COBettaCouple

have you been able to get vitachem or novaqua+ or fish protector to help him heal faster?

Kevin

no, but i found the jungle lab version of stress coat, and have been using that with his betta fix
i looked for both at my LFS, but cant find them

sirdarksol

I would suggest removing things like the pirate ship and replacing them with a bundle of anacharis or other loose plant (maybe weighted down with a round rock) for him to hide under. Otherwise, get something he can hide under that's as smooth and as rounded as possible.
If his scales/skin are peeling off, the sharp/rough parts of the ship might aggravate him. The plants would be relatively soft, and just removing as many edges as you can might help.

armadillo

I don't have any more suggestions, Kevin, short of making sure the water changes as as 'unupsetting' as possible by pouring the water back in with a watering can.