Dropsy, possible fungal infection?

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 10gallon
How long has the tank been running?1 year
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 81 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 1 female Betta(Please list all fish and inverts.)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Tried to every week but sometimes a couple of weeks in between
How much of the water do you change? 20%
What do you use to treat your water? Prime but used aqueon water conditioner before
Do you vacuum the substrate or just torewater? Mostly water and occasionally gravel

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? No
What do you use to test the water? Api master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia:0-0.5
Nitrite: Usually fine but medication caused slight spoke 1.0
Nitrate. 5-10ppm
pH: High 7's

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Lately once a day, before twice
How much do you feed your fish? 3-4 pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Aqueon betta pellets, lately, occasionally freeze-dried blood worms
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods?

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 1 year
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? A month and a half ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Slight pineconing and lesions on skin, missing scales, frayed fins
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Two rounds of kanaplex, Furan 2, general cure.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Don't think so
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Lethargic and slight pineconing and lesions, missing scales. Also, bloated chest.
This might be a bit of a long post but it is important to get all the details. This all started about a month and a half ago when I noticed that the area below my betta's head was slightly swollen. I immediately checked for pineconing and did not see it. I gave her a couple of epsom salt baths and did notice some spikiness or I guess what would be called raised scales or "pineconing." I did not feed her for a couple of days and gave her a pee but the bloated chest did not really change. I also put a bit of aquarium salt and IAL in the tank. I noticed a bit more "spikiness" and put her on kanaplex. I did seem to help but then I noticed a small white string looking thing hanging from her anal area so I was advised to treat with general cure for internal parasites. I have used furan 2 and two rounds of kanaplex but not at the same time. The kanaplex seems to help but once I stop using it, the spikiness comes back. I attached the photos that were included in a post by a friend of mine at Petco. I also included photos that I took today because I see some lesions or some thing of that nature on her scales. She is also missing a couple of scales on her head and toward the tail. There was a bit of peeling on her scales before the lesions appeared on her scales. Her fins are frayed and her pectoral fins have a white film on the edges. I was told on the prior post that she did look a bit chunky so I didn't feed her for 3 days and gave her one frozen bloodworms soaked in garlic and some fluval bug bites. I have been putting aquarium salt in her tank and IAL for a few days. The medications must have thrown the cycle off since the nitrite is a bit high. I have introduced beneficial bacteria into the tank that should fix it(along with water changes). Lastly, she has this line on her scales that is dark but looks similar to when you get a superficial paper cut(6th photo) She also has a white thing on her lips which makes it look like she has white lipstick on. It is very faint though. Her poop is slightly brown and a string but with some knots in it. She has not been pooping much lately.

 

Does look like bloat and finrot going on, don't see anything that looks like pineconing. Try not feeding her for 3-4 days first and see if that bloat goes down then feed some frozen daphnia for a laxative. The finrot can probably be taken care of with frequent water changes, i would say 3 or 4 a week at about 25-30% for a couple weeks and see how those fins look.

The missing scales are probably from scraping up against the spongebob house or something while going in and out.

 

Does look like bloat and finrot going on, don't see anything that looks like pineconing. Try not feeding her for 3-4 days first and see if that bloat goes down then feed some frozen daphnia for a laxative. The finrot can probably be taken care of with frequent water changes, i would say 3 or 4 a week at about 25-30% for a couple weeks and see how those fins look.

The missing scales are probably from scraping up against the spongebob house or something while going in and out.

Thank you for the information

 

I have my betta that I posted a few days ago, from the information given by others, I fasted her and she still looks bloated(maybe slightly less not sure). There is a yellowish or red mark that has appeared on her scales(picture #1) and also I have noticed for a while that she has white on her lips. This can kind be seen in the first picture. I included other pictures of how her scales which show the discoloration. I'm afraid she might have columnaris because of the lipstick like discoloring on her lips. In addition, the area with the mark has scales that are white(discolored) and slightly raised. It is in the area where the saddleback forms in columnaris

 

Here are my two thoughts:

1. This is her natural coloration (many bettas have different highlights in different lights)
2. She is developing velvet (however, it would look dustier if it was velvet, which is why I think it may just be coloration).

Betta's color change all the time due to many factors, such as age, happiness/stress level, food, and their genes. My betta is dark blue. Some days he gets really vibrant. Some days, the pink in his tail is really prominent. It all depends on his mood.

Your girl's scales don't look raised (sometimes, they're not flat when they're turning since scales aren't flexible, so they might stick out a bit depending on body positioning).

She does look quite thick, but she's also a female, and some bettas are just like that. If just her stomach was that round, I'd be more concerned, but she is quite a chunk all around. You can try feeding her one or two pellets every other day to see if she slims down more. How large is the tank? I truly believe that bettas in larger tanks (10g or more) can eat slightly more (like one pellet more) than bettas in smaller tanks (5g-10g) because they get more exercise.

Just to be safe, do 25% water changes every day for a week or two OR 50% every other day. Clean water is often the best medicine. I noticed in your "Aquarium Information" section that you don't know much about the nitrogen cycle, so here's an article about it so you can learn more, too.

 

Here are my two thoughts:

1. This is her natural coloration (many bettas have different highlights in different lights)
2. She is developing velvet (however, it would look dustier if it was velvet, which is why I think it may just be coloration).

Betta's color change all the time due to many factors, such as age, happiness/stress level, food, and their genes. My betta is dark blue. Some days he gets really vibrant. Some days, the pink in his tail is really prominent. It all depends on his mood.

Your girl's scales don't look raised (sometimes, they're not flat when they're turning since scales aren't flexible, so they might stick out a bit depending on body positioning).

She does look quite thick, but she's also a female, and some bettas are just like that. If just her stomach was that round, I'd be more concerned, but she is quite a chunk all around. You can try feeding her one or two pellets every other day to see if she slims down more. How large is the tank? I truly believe that bettas in larger tanks (10g or more) can eat slightly more (like one pellet more) than bettas in smaller tanks (5g-10g) because they get more exercise.

Just to be safe, do 25% water changes every day for a week or two OR 50% every other day. Clean water is often the best medicine. I noticed in your "Aquarium Information" section that you don't know much about the nitrogen cycle, so here's an article about it so you can learn more, too.

Thank you so much for the information. I have been doing the water changes and have seen good results so far. Ammonia is at 0 and Nitrite just below 0.25. Nitrates are ar about 10 or 20, really hard to tell with the api test kit. I did not feed her yesterday so I will be feeding her today. She is in a 10 gallon so I will take that into consideration. She does kind of float around which concerns me. We are pretty sure she has dropsy since from above, you can see the spikiness and a little bit of pineconing. I di believe she is constipated because I saw poop hanging from her yesterday and it was brown but stringy

 

I believe that you can use epsom salt treatments for any kind of bloat or constipation, but I recommend that you read up on how to do it from multiple sources. Salt can work wonders, but you need to be very precise when doing one with a betta fish so it doesn't damage their labyrinth organ.

 

I only see a slightly overfed betta, if it's really a female (honestly, I can't tell for these domestic strains) maybe gravid with eggs. Nothing more. No need to do anything.

 

Does look like bloat and finrot going on, don't see anything that looks like pineconing. Try not feeding her for 3-4 days first and see if that bloat goes down then feed some frozen daphnia for a laxative. The finrot can probably be taken care of with frequent water changes, i would say 3 or 4 a week at about 25-30% for a couple weeks and see how those fins look.

The missing scales are probably from scraping up against the spongebob house or something while going in and out.

Would you be able to help me with the cycle? Like I said, the medication through off the cycle a bit. There was a slight nitrite spike(1.0) a few days ago but now I am getting 0.25ppm consistently. Ammonia was slightly tinted green but kind of yellow. I have been doing 20% water changes and adding bacteria but the nitrite is staying the same. Thanks!
I forgot to mention that the slightly tinted green ammonia was yesterday. It is 0 as of last night and today. It had been fine the last couple days before yesterday

 

Feed Green peas. I literally had a German blue ram with bloat and he got better like 4 days ago. Because I fed green pease. Just starve for like 2 days then feed it the green peas and if she don’t eat it then let it sit there for a day or so until she’ll know that’s her only food source

 

Feed Green peas. I literally had a German blue ram with bloat and he got better like 4 days ago. Because I fed green pease. Just starve for like 2 days then feed it the green peas and if she don’t eat it then let it sit there for a day or so until she’ll know that’s her only food source

actually, bettas can't digest peas properly. daphnia is the way to go

 

As for your cycle you'll want to treat it as a fish-in cycle and do a large WC when you see ammonia and nitrite levels rise to 0.50 ppm combined. Unfortunately a lot of the bottled bacteria you can buy to help with cycling is either dead in the bottle or not the right kind of nitrifying bacteria (nitrite eating). It won't be a quick fix, but just keep up with frequent WCs and eventually the nitrobacter colonies will grow to where they can handle the nitrites produced by the other bacteria.