Forte was adopted from Petco. I knew that he had an eye disease called popeye when I bought him, and was willing to treat it. Forte was pretty lively at the time, swimming around his cup, despite the filthy water he was in and the painful swelling and slight cloudiness of his eyes. My wonderful grandma bought him for me, and I appreciate that more than I can say, for I had no money at the time. Forte went into a 2 gallon tank that was heated to the proper temperature and dosed with two teaspoons of epsom salts to treat his eye. He did well for the first week or so, but he slowly became lethargic. He stopped eating, and didn't swim much. I asked the bettafish.com forum what could be wrong, and they said that he probably had a bacterial infection from his cup at Petco, and they suggested medications that I could use on him. I asked my dad to pick the meds up on his way home from work. That same day, Forte started floating onto his side and had serious trouble swimming. I didn't know if he could hold on until my dad got home, but he did. I hurriedly changed his water out with medicated water, and acclimated him into it. When I released him into the tank, his behavior didn't change. He floated back up onto his side, and wouldn't move unless I stuck my finger into the water near him. I honestly didn't think he was going to make it through the night. When I woke up in the morning, I procrastinated on getting out of bed because I didn't want to see him. I didn't want to see his little body at the bottom of the tank, the body of the fish that I couldn't save. After a while, my mom came to wake me up. I was already awake, of course, and she asked me what was wrong. I told her what I was afraid of, and asked her to go and check if Forte was still alive. He was. I got out of bed, and walked to his tank. Forte wasn't floating on his side anymore, he was upright. He was still lethargic, and wouldn't eat when I dropped food in, but he seemed a little better, and when I tapped the lid of the tank, he swam a around in a feeble circle for me. This was this morning. I made a little cylinder out of plastic mesh for him to sit in, so that he could be closer to the surface. In the beginning, he didn't understand what it was. After about ten minutes though, he got the idea. I went downstairs to eat something, and when I came back upstairs Forte was lounging in his "hammock". When I walked up to his tank, he swam out to greet me. He is still not back to full energy yet, but he seems to be doing much better than yesterday. Here's a photo of him lounging in his hammock this morning:
Here is a video of him yesterday, when he was floating on his side:
And today:
I hope that Forte continues to improve, and gets to experience what it feels like to be healthy, and have a home.
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