Oh, my, I did it again...

So a friend of mine had this betta that she didn't want anymore, and I offered to take him off her hands. I'd seen her put him in everything from a tiny little globe (yes, it was actually marketed for bettas, uck) that held perhaps 1-1/2 cups of water to a bowl with about a gallon of water. :barf:Throughout each bowl/container, she at least had a pothos plant, but I'd never seen a heater or filter. I'd given her advice on her fish, like making sure that the fish could get to the surface to take air and giving good food and at the very least weekly water changes. She just thought it was too much work, and she kept forgetting about him whenever she moved him to a place that she didn't see all the time, etc. :headshake2:

So anyway, I said I have a perfectly good 2.5g bowfront with nothing but plants that I could put him in. My plan was to take some of the filter media from my 75g community and bring him to the 2.5g tank that I have at work. Well, she brought him over today, and he has really bad fin rot and is sooooo emaciated! It's so bad that I'm not sure if he'll be able to recover. At least I see him able to get to the surface (he's in a 1g pitcher right now), and he was trying to take the Ocean Nutrition Atison's Betta Pro pellets I offered.

I've decided to keep him at home until he's recovered at least 50%. I want to be able to monitor him a little closer and make sure he gets fed every day until he fills out some. Unfortunately, I don't have a place to setup either my empty 20g long or my 16g tall right now while I'm treating him. I used to have a 1.5g hex, but hubby threw it out when we moved since I wasn't planning on using it any more. I don't want to keep him in that pitcher since I'm sure she wants it back, and if I have to resort to meds, then I'm not sure it would be safe. I'll have to poke around and see if I've got something else to use or maybe hit the thrift shops for a used 5g. We'll see.

I apologize for the poor picture quality, but my camera batteries died, and I couldn't find the power cord to recharge them. So, I took the pics with my phone. Anyway, you can kind of see how skinny he is and this whitish bubble thing in his tailfin. He seems to also have something similar in his belly fin but not so exposed, more like there's something within the fin pushing it outwards.

I decided to setup the 16g (with 10g of water to make med dosing easier) on the floor in front of my 75g.

Well, he's eating great, and he swims around okay. I think he's a fighter and might pull through. I'm debating about whether to start meds and which to use. I have Gel Tek Ultra Cure Bx for internal and external bacterial treatment as well as Jungle Labs Fungus Clear fizz tabs. If anybody has any advice, I'd surely appreciate it.

I'm leaning towards the Fungus Clear since I don't think he'd take the Ultra Cure Bx drops and soaking his food with it (they way I normally use this to ensure the fish eats it) might make the food sink and he won't eat it. I'm not sure.

EDIT: Oh, jeez, when I looked at the Ultra Cure for active ingredients, I noticed that the expiration date is 0207. It must've been expired when I bought it last year. No wonder it wasn't working on my diamond tetras! That's a lesson learned, look at the expiration dates!!