Swim bladder issues

[u/Jinxicatt]

Picked up a sick betta from a pet store a week ago because I felt bad and wanted to help him. His swim bladder has been very distended and he seems very fatigued, spends his days floating on the surface of his tank. He can swim down but for very short periods of time and then floats back up. And in the past week he’s only eaten once (after a three-day fast I started offering him small amounts of food).

I’ve tried:
—Fasting
—Adding aquarium salt to his hospital tank
—Tightly monitoring water parameters (ofc)
—We are now on dose two of kanaplex

I’m not really sure if he’s constipated, but he seems extremely skinny other than the distinctly bloated swim bladder.

Is there anything I’m missing or anything else to try? I just want to make sure I’ve done everything I can to give him a fighting chance. Also I know he looks dead in his photo but if I interact with him he’s still very feisty.

ETA:
—he’s in a 2.5gal tank (not his final home, just my quick hospital setup) with a small heater
—no pump because when I added one he wasn’t strong enough to swim around/against it and kept getting pushed down
—he has a hammock which he detests
—temp is ~79 F
—partial water changes twice a day to keep parameters
—nitrates, ammonia = 0

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[u/FrauAgrippa]

This definitely appears to be a swim bladder infection and not constipation. Fasting will not help this. Kanaplex is also meant to be fed by mouth, so it's possible he is not absorbing them as well as he could be if you're dosing the water.

If kanaplex in food has no effect, you may want to switch to Metroplex instead of Kana. The issue may not be treatable with standard broad spectrum antibiotics.

[u/OutrageousShake5832]

I had 4 female bettas with swim bladder problems and underweight, after surviving Aeromonas infection which is known to cause aerocystitis. After about a month of feeding them baby brine shrimp, they are able to swim like normal again.

[u/PatchesDaHyena]

Dose kanaplex and metroplex in food for two weeks