Shredded fins, etc

I got up this morning to discover that my son had apparently managed to give the betta "food" yesterday, too. Yesterday afternoon he managed to get a full 1 pound container of parmesean cheese, which he'd decided was appropriate food for all the critters. I found a pile in the floor and in each water bowl for the dogs, some in the one fish tank that's running right now, and the cages for the rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rat. This is the effect of leaving a 3 year old under the care of an apparent moron who "only left him alone for 5 minutes". Anywho, I didn't even think to check the betta bowl. This morning I woke up to find Blue's(the betta) fins horribly tattered and scales missing. He was sitting motionless with his head wedged in the marbles(the flat type). I thought he was dead until I picked up the bowl to start emptying it. I did an emergency water change in about two minutes, as I always keep two gallons prepped and ready, and he's now swimming around although awkwardly with most of his fins shredded or reduced to rays with minimal webbing. Since he's in a bowl I'm not sure if I should use anything like Melafix or aquarium salt. So far my plan is watchful waiting and daily water changes to keep quality pristine. I'm running double dose of Prime to help with his slime coat and bind any ammonia as it forms. Any other ideas?

betta revive works really well for bettas u can get it at petco. but i would just do ur water changes and wait and see. if hes swimmin around if akwardly, thats a good sign hes better.

some salt will help along with daily 100% water changes.

Just be thankful he didn't decide that all the fish should be pink. One lady that comes into my lfs was telling me how her daughter caught all the fish and laid them out and dried them off and painted them with pink nail polish, waited for it to dry and did the other side, waited for that to dry and then put them back in the tank. Now the daughter has a few pink glofish of her own now that she is a bit older.....

DO NOT use Melafix. It is toxic to Bettas. You can put 1 tbs. of aquarium salt to 5 gal. of treated water and use that for daily water changes plus the Betta Revive. It will take some time but the fins will heal.

Oh my word, Fern! Yeah, this isn't my first child-induced fish mishap. Funny the things kids believe will be super helpful. And then comes the dreaded task of explaining why they can't do what they did without obliterating their self-esteem. Don't worry, Whisper, I'm not a Melafix fan anyway. I perfer to let them fight in on their own if they are still acting normal. Usually just some extra Prime, frequent water changes, and maybe some salt. If I have to go to meds it's at a point where I'll need actual antibiotics and the such. I've found over the years that most fish recover from most illnesses quite well with minimal interventions as long as the root problem is identified and corrected. Like parmesean cheese poisoning. It also seems that the one's that don't tend to die early no matter what you do even if they get over the original illness. My guess is that those are the ones with weaker immune systems to begin with. He's still active and eating. Does seem to have a delayed food response but he may just be terrified of humans since the last one that fed him yesterday almost killed him. Yes, I do believe that fish are smart enough to make the same associations as other animals.

of course my fish now my hand, my bf tried to do wat i do and he didnt get the response as i normally get. my fish now me, and i always talk to them. i doubt they hear or understand but it keeps them atunned to me.

He died yesterday. Kept looking like he'd come back and then fading again. He finally gave up. He had stopped eating after a couple days. Part of me wonders if he ate some of the cheese and maybe it caused internal damage or something.

wow, i feel so sorry about that, see thats why i keep all my tanks covered since my little girl put some meat seasoning on the tank..

Awww. I'm so sorry he didn't make it........ I hate it when a fish dies.....