My mom's betta, help!

[Brinny-chan]

I stole him from her because she hasn't been taking care of this beautiful boy properly! I put him in my 5 gallon filtered tank alone to try to wake him up a bit, because he hardly ever moved in his vase.

Under proper lighting, I can see that his face is slightly discoloured, he is breathing heavily, and his gills aren't closing all the way. He swims with his tail downward and very slowly. He also tore his tail fin to crap.

What can I do to further help this poor guy? Mom always forgot about him where he was and he hardly got fed, his water hardly ever got changed, etc etc.

Oh, and the bubbles in the picture were not made by him xD That was Steve French's work before I moved him.
Here's a few pictures and a video:

This one shows how his face is discoloured:

This one shows how his gills don't close all the way:

And here's the video of how sadly he swims
YouTube - Artemis the Betta

Any help is greatly appreciated! This boy was gorgeous coming home from the store, and I'd like to get him back that way!

Brinny

 

[Bandito_41]

How long did your Mom have him? It could be just that he's getting old.

 

[Brinny-chan]

She got him in March this year, and he was really small when she got him.

 

[MissFishy]

Hmm, after seeing that video, he seems to have bigger problems than just the torn fin. His moving is eratic. It could be that he is just in shock from going from a dirty home to a clean bigger home with bright light? I would turn off the lights and let him have some time to himself to see if his swimming improves, then take it from there.

 

[Brinny-chan]

Well, after coming home from work for the evening, he seems to be swimming a bit better but he also seems to be resting on the bottom alot.

I think the "erratic" swimming is just because my cam doesnt have a good fps rating; it's just skipping. His fins are moving fine, I was trying to show more is how he swims tail-down. Good idea though, I'll turn off the light for the night.

Thanks for the help, guys! Any more info is greatly appreciated!

 

[MissFishy]

The tail down swimming is fine, he'll probably start perking up once he gets used to having a bigger area to swim.

 

[usacutie81]

Poor little guy. I never thought I'd say this, but he looks dehydrated. Make sure he's getting enough oxygen. Just cuz he CAN breathe from the surface doesn't mean he has to. And since he's already having gill problems you wanna give him all the help you can.

 

[Brinny-chan]

Well he is in the filtered tank and there's a fair amount of surface movement, but I could go set up my bubble wall if needed.

UPDATE: Today he is doing better. He seems to be swimming normally, though he is now hanging around the top of the filter intake. He has come out to see me a few times today though!

Still worried about the gills that don't close right, though now he's breathing regularly.

Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming if you have any more suggestions!

 

[Wind_Danzer]

Just keep watching him. Might want to turn up the heat a little bit, add a little salt too.

Did he eat today?

 

[Brinny-chan]

I've been doing all the tips that people on UltimateBettas have suggested, so what I've done so far is:

-Move him to a fully cycled 3 gallon
-Add some aquarium salt
-Put in a bubbler to make his damaged gills not work so hard
-Feed him the inside of a pea (didn't take it)
-Epsom salt bath

He wouldn't eat yesterday but today I put some freeze-dried bloodworms in his tank and he just lunged at them! It's great for me to see he's getting better. He's swimming much more actively, so now the only things I'm worried about are the gills and regrowing his fins.

Thanks, Wind_Danzer, I'll go plug in a heater for him, just gotta go steal it from one of my other tanks xD I really need to get some more heaters... but I'm out of electrical outlets in my room!

 

[MissFishy]

For every tank I have I just buy one of those 3 outlet things. An outlet for the heater, filter, and light.

 

[Brinny-chan]

haha, that is not working out for me so well XD I have 4 outlets in my room, and I have a powerbar in one (with a 3 outlet and an extension cord), a 3 outlet in another, and I have to switch plugs around to go to bed (fan, etc) XD

 

[ninamarie]

Um get some betta fix and add that to the water that will help re grow his tail finage.

Also do you have a heater in his tank?
Also those arent gills those are his flares and he is a surface breather.