Sick betta not getting better?

[Desiré]

So, last week I went and inspected my Aunts fish situation and it was not so premium to say the least... She has acquired a male betta and some platy's, housed separately, through 'gifts' to her child and knew nothing of fish care.

Platy's aside, David, the betta was enduring bi-monthly to monthly full water changes in a tall, (3"x3" at the widest part) tapered, square vase containing maybe a gallon of water and a chute of bamboo. The vase and gravel were washed with dishsoap and rinsed well each time.

When I took a good close look at him I could tell right away that something was amiss and I'm no expert! He looked lethargic and he refused to flare at me, he'd just swim away. Also, he has this white puffy growth just above and back from his eye (it really looks like someone snipped off a little piece of q-tip and glued it to his head) as well as a similar little spec on top of his body about half way down. My aunt insists that he's never been a lively guy and has had the growth by his eye for as long as she can remember (she has had him for around 6 months).

I donated a larger more cylindrical home, new gravel and a large marimo (sans soap!) to David. Then I did a little research and all the symptoms seemed to fit 'fungus' so my aunt and I ventured down to a fishy store. Upon arrival I took her to the wide variety of betta's and she was easily convinced that David was sick. We talked to an employee and bought some fungus meds. It has now been 8 days, 4 doses, and 2 30% water changes and he is exactly the same. I'm not sure what else to do? Shouldn't he be showing some improvement by now?

Thanks for the help and here are a couple photos of one sad betta if it helps?!

[Diztrbd1]

I'm no expert and I could be wrong, but the one time my Betta had a fungus like that , I was told it was due to the temperature. Unfortunately that Betta passed. Since then I have made sure that all my Betta's tanks maintain a 77-80 degree temp. If they get to 74 or less and are that way for awhile, it will make them susceptible to diseases. I have yet to run into that problem again. I never had luck keeping them in bowls and such, so they are all in filtered and heated tanks since my apt tends to be chilly all the time, especially night time and winter. Might check to see what the average temp is in it's water.

[Desiré]

I think you are right about the temperature being too low. I did some reading on temps and bettas and he is about 8 degrees too cool for general happiness and 10 degrees too low for proper healing. Not to mention he is close to a window and I wouldn't be surprised if he he experiences a decent amount of temperature fluctuation!! We've moved him and are working on finding a little 25W heater on a poor mans budget. Thanks so much, you were a big help!

[BelieveInBlue]

What the last guy said; the immune system works better at higher temperatures, and a lot of meds react with light and oxygen, so that may also be why the treatments been taking so long. try treating at night when the lights are off, and perhaps switch meds too. I recommand you try "Pimafix", it's quite effective and doesn't contain the usual toxic chemicals. To be quite honest though, if you keep the betta healthy and happy, and stress free, the fungus will probably go away on it's own (might be a bit too late for that though :P).