Hi guys hope your all well. I hope you can help me. Basically my Betta is gravely ill and even after 15 years of successful betta keeping i cannot for the life of me cure my betta. So about 6 months ago my originally blue and white butterfly betta started turning red. At first i didnt worry because the breeder i bought him from said he was bright red up to about 6 months old but then had a mysterious massive colour change. So i was thinking maybe its another colour change. Worried, i did the worst thing ever and asked a local aquatic/pet shop they’re oppinion, one said probably a colour change, another said scepticimia and yet another said finrot. So i continued to keep his tank levels balanced, kept stable temp, kept up weekly water changes all as usual. 3 months later the red is spreading and i notice a hole in his dorsal fin, immediately i though finrot- why hadnt i picked up on this earlier?! I dosed up on stress coat, aquarium coat and a little melafix. At the same time i had discovered a colony of snails appearing, probably from the java moss i stupidly bought from an aquatics i dont usually go to.So i removed that. 1 month later, the hole clears up but his fins are getting redder and i notice his fins are starting to get ragged. So in deperation i buy this stuff called eSHa 2000 for finrot and continue treating daily and making water changes weekly as directed. Apparantly til new growth starts to appear…well it hadnt and one month later and a whole bottle gone he’s worse if anything. So i do a 70% water change and start using something called Waterlife Myaxazin for finrot. Has that done anything? No. Now he is looking very ragged, pretty much all his fins are red, his body is pale, his gills have suffered some sort of damage as they are purple and today i discover he has whitespot and those horrid snails are still there even though i’ve done numerous water changes and removed as many as i could. Having said that he has still got a healthy appetite and what seems as happily swimming about. No sulking on the bottom or gasping for air etc. I am at a real loss now at what to do, i feel like i’ve exausted ideas. I suspect the snails may have had something to do with it. The water parameters have always been kept stable, its a well established tank, the temp is kept at 30 degrees at moment as i have raised the temp to support treatment. Now really feeling a bit stupid and panicking when maybe its too late .A guy today said to me if its scepticimia then its too late but that it could also be ammonia poisoning? Dont really have any experience in seeing that in a betta so i wouldnt know but all my test come back as 0. I dunno maybe i should buy a live water tester? Never in my history of betta keeping have i let a betta get this sick and be so confused.Thanks in advance guys for reading my essay and for any advice you may have.
Happy betta keeping and all those new to betta keeping take heed of my stupid ways with the whole aquatic/petshop advice…worst thing you can do in a panic, take advice from people here that know!