Salt baths, liquid super ick cure, and water changes for betta?

Finally figured out what's wrong with my betta and why. The tube leading to the airstone is caked with some weird white stuff and a bit of mold inside it

I think this led to a light fungal and/or bacterial infection, which in turn led to ick being able to take root. I've been closely observing him for the past 3-4 days and yesterday the white spots just became visible. His fins also slowly started to curl, not all of them and not quickly though.

I have some API liquid super ick cure and aquarium salts, and I picked up melafix and stresscoat zyme yesterday before I knew what was wrong with him (we don't have anything stronger in Canada). When I realized what was wrong when I got home, I dosed his 5.5g tank with the stress coat, 1/4 of the recommended amount of melafix, and the full amount of super ick cure.

Three days ago he had a bath in aquarium salt. Two days ago he had a bath in Epsom salt (when I suspected dropsy, but I regret this now because I think it caused him to start to curl some of his fins). I have been doing water changes every day the last 4 days, on day 1 50%, day 2 95% (also removed carbon from filter and added fluval water clarifying media and ammonia remover instead), day 3 50%.

Last night, on day 3, after dosing super ick cure, I mixed up about .5cups tank water with 1/4tsp aquarium salt and dissolved it. I used a dropper to suck up some of the solution, and dripped it slowly by my betta. He swam into it, so I dripped some where I saw the ick spots, and he stayed still for me. When I would drip some on the other side of the tank (to avoid concentrating it on him on one side before the filter dissappated it), he would swim over and into the drops. I took this to mean that he found it relieving, likely the ich is making him pretty itchy so I guess it scratched the itch?

So on to my questions- the instructions on the ick cure bottle say, "Add 5 ml per 5 US gallons of aquarium water... repeat dose after 48 hours. Wait another 48 hours then change 25% of the aquarium water and add fresh activated carbon."

I would ideally like to continue doing daily water changes, as the airline tube I removed and whatever it was pumping out made a mess of the tank. Also, overnight the medication/the salt drips worked, and Flower is now mostly clear of white spots, and there's white stuff floating in the tank possibly from that or the airline tube stuff. Given the instructions, is there any way I can make water changes work? Another reason I want to do water changes is the possible additional bacterial/fungal infections.

He is still curling his fins, although they haven't gotten worse. He had a single scale that was looking like it was peeling (which was why I thought dropsy), which then had an ick spot, and now finally it has no ick spot and looks like it's healed almost... Still has no colour but no longer is sticking up. He's been spending a lot of time resting on either his mushroom house near one heater, or on his old weak heater I have near the front, where he can see me. (i can't get the temp past 77° no matter what I try cause the heaters are preset).

When I did the aquarium salt bath on day 1, it seemed to really help him, and I even was able to brush fungus off him in it. I'd like to give him another one, as I don't want to add too much to his main tank. Can I give him one today/during the ick treatment? Am I doing things right in general? I'm so worried and scared for him, and I feel so guilty for not catching the issue earlier and preventing this

 

Do you have a picture of him? I’m also a little confused, does he have a bacterial infection or ich or both? From your post it seems like he’s in a quarantine tank, right?

 

Do you have a picture of him? I’m also a little confused, does he have a bacterial infection or ich or both? From your post it seems like he’s in a quarantine tank, right?

Thank you for responding. These are the only recent pics I have of him, they're from two days ago and he's looking a bit better today with no white spots, the scale healed, but fins are still curled a bit:




We're on the last day of the API liquid super ick cure, so I will be doing a water change today. I ended up giving him a salt bath two night ago when I gave him the second dose, and in the two nights since I droppered about 1/5tsp dissolved aq salt onto him (which causes white things to fall off him still, I'm assuming ick).

So ick was definitely one infection, but I caught it as soon as the first white spot appeared so hopefully that helps. I think they were getting into his gills, causing a weird texture which I thought was dropsy. Actually looking at him now, compared to 5 days ago when I thought dropsy and I checked if he was pineconing- his scales are now completely flat and at the time they were just barely starting to bristle out. So maybe he did have dropsy and the Epsom salt didn't do as much bad as I thought.
The scale that was flaking off has healed and is now bright blue, which I think will grow into his normal purple. The flaking scale is the white spot in the pics on his right flank.

The fins still being curled is a big cause of concern for me. They're hard to see in the pic but it's maybe 5-7 of the individual rays curling up. The curls are possibly more relaxed but haven't changed much. I've been dosing melafix for it but I'm scared to add too much.

Do you have any idea what could causing the fins to curl? He definitely had/has ick, and I know he had something fungal briefly (because I brushed it off him with salt water and it left a red mark, and it was fuzzy). I suspected bacterial infection or possibly dropsy because of the curling fins and scales starting to pop. I'm really not sure though as this is my first experience with fish illness. Any insight you have is appreciated!

And no he is in his tank still, which is always just him anyway

 

It’s great that he’s feeling better! You definitely want to be careful with melafix because it can damage his labyrinth organ. If he’s not showing any more signs of being sick, I would probably stop treating him. I’m not sure what’s going on with his fins though. Is he swimming okay? My best guess is that his fins just grew or maybe it’s tumors? I doubt it’s tumors though, that was just my first thought when I saw his fins.

 

It’s great that he’s feeling better! You definitely want to be careful with melafix because it can damage his labyrinth organ. If he’s not showing any more signs of being sick, I would probably stop treating him. I’m not sure what’s going on with his fins though. Is he swimming okay? My best guess is that his fins just grew or maybe it’s tumors? I doubt it’s tumors though, that was just my first thought when I saw his fins.

Ahh I hope it's not tumors!! Sorry my initial post was confusing, I'll try to clarify now that I'm less panicked.

Day 1: noticed a scale appearing to flake off. Found out my airline was pumping mold into the tank and also found mold/fungus on Flower. Put him in a salt bath, removed the mold with a brush (to a red spot beneath), and did a 95% WC

Day 2: red spot healed. Scale was worse, gills looked kind of rough. Thought he might be pineconing. Suspected dropsy, did an Epsom salt bath and soaked a tiny bit of food in weak Epsom salt mix for him to eat. An hour later, a few fins started to curl. 50% WC

Day 3: looked really weak. Ick spots finally appeared. 95% WC. The scale was at its worst. Started API liquid super ick cure. Dosed stresszyme and 25% melafix. Droppered aq salt mix on him in tank and ick came off him

Day 4: looked significantly better. Fins are still curled. Scale started to heal. By the end of the day, ick spots were coming back. Droppered aq salt mix on him and some came off

Day 5: 95% WC. I put him in a bath of AQ salt while I did that, but it seemed to stress him out more this time so I took him out after a couple minutes into a much weaker solution to reacclimatise. Added second dose of API liquid. Added stresszyme and droppered aq salt mix on him while in tank. Ick came off, but there was much less this time. Fins still curled.

Day 6: most ick spots gone. Perked up a bit. Fins still curled. Not pineconing from what I could tell and scale mostly healed. And droppered a tiny amount of AQ salt mix on him- some ick came off but barely.

Day 7 (today): looks kinda rough again. Ick came back I think. Fins might be more curled and I think he might have fin rot (one looks like it got shorter/ragged). Not sure what could have caused it as it's just him and the water is pretty clean. Today is the last day and I'm going to do a 50% WC. Earlier dosed 25% melafix. I have a bottle of aquatronics super ick cure and I'm going to use that I think tomorrow. Should I take everything out of his tank? I'm worried that will stress him out more because he loves his plants but it's hard to keep everything clean (I'm planning on adding a couple shrimp once I'm no longer dosing medications because with the baffled filter flow everything ends up with algae, even with an airstone)

Sorry I'm typing a literal novel each time I respond Q.Q just worried about my poor Flower

 

I’m in the car right now, so sorry if I miss something. It seems like he’s been through a lot and the the only current infection is ich. Tbh I think I would stop using any other medications, keep water clean (frequent water changes), and only treat for ich (you can try the ick cure you mentioned and raise your temperature a little). I personally don’t think you should take everything out of the tank. Maybe instead of frequent water changes, try daily water changes. Also, the curling fins could possibly be from stress. After you’re done treating him and hopefully he gets better, try adding Indian almond leaves to help him. I hope this helped. If I missed anything lmk