Post by harleymom5999 on Feb 18, 2021 11:20:56 GMT -5
Forgive me for the long post, but I am going to include as much info as possible in this post, because I am flat out of ideas at this point, so there is obviously something I am missing. I have been reading your articles for 3 days now & have some new ideas, but would love to hear what more professional aquarists have to say. I have been in the hobby for only about 2 years due to my daughter giving me her betta to care for for a period of time while she could not. I knew NOTHING about fish-keeping and have learned TONS by reading numerous sources online. I include this info only so that whoever answers this knows that I have a vast amount of knowledge of proper husbandry at this point, so I do not consider myself a beginner. I keep learning & learning as I go & am honestly so happy to have come across this forum and the AAP website.
Background: I have had this fish for just over a year, so I assume he's close to 2 years old. He was originally in a 5-gallon tank with 1 Amazon sword and a moss ball, a couple. Petsmart decorations, and colored rocks for substrate (typical beginner Betta owner setup) I was doing water changes with RO water supplemented with Seachem Replenish for the first 4 months with no issues at all. At the 4 month mark, slight fin rot began, so I increased wc's to weekly. I wasn't really vacuuming the substrate, just replacing water. I usually did about 50-60% of the water. The fins did not improve over the next couple of months, so I switched to tap water because I was afraid he wasn't getting enough minerals from the RO/Replenish and also because I flooded our living room when I left the RO drip in my bucket too long (forgot to set a timer).
Meds/methods I have tried over the past few months are: Paraguard & Stressguard, Aquarium salt at 1.5 tsp/gallon with daily 50% wc's for 10 days, 7 day treatment of Kanaplex/Furan-2, Bettafix for a few days, daily or every other day wc's for a few weeks, back to Paraguard/Stressguard, Kanaplex alone in food. Currently on 2nd dose of Neoplex. Nothing has made any difference.
The changes I have made over these months are as follows: Removed carbon & Purigen and used just a sponge & bio-balls, replaced colored rocks with Seachem Flourite Black, added IAL's, started feeding frozen foods in addition to my Omega One Betta Buffet pellets. Finally when none of that helped, I got new tanks for my 2 bettas with the following setup:
7-gallon tank, heated (80 degrees), sponge filter from Aquarium Co-op (his other filter was too strong & I worried this was adding to stress), 8 plants, moss ball, 1/2 of a large IAL, small piece of mopani wood, removed decor that potentially had sharp edges, Fluval Plant 3.0 LED light. (When I set up this tank, I took the sponge from the old filter & laid it beside the new sponge filter. I also did not clean any decor or plants, just simply moved them over. I used all of the Flourite from the old tank in the new setup. Kept everything wet in old tank water while setting up new tank) At this time he has no tank mates, but I plan on adding 2 Amano shrimp after he heals. This tank has been set up for about 3.5 weeks.
My maintenance is as follows: Clean tank once a week, vacuuming substrate on a different section with each cleaning. I usually end up removing about 60-70% of the water (which might be my issue) because I tend to have OCD & love things super clean. With each water change, I use Prime, I dose Stress Guard once or twice, and I dose Seachem Flourish. If I clean any decor, I only do it in tank water and only if it has algae on it.
Feeding: I used to do pellets every day (sometimes fasting once a week), but for about 3-4 weeks I've been doing pellets 1-2 times per week, then the other days (totaling 6) I feed either brine shrimp, blood worms (not as often), or daphnia..all frozen. I just purchased VitaChem and plan on soaking all food in this before feeding. Not sure how many times a week this is required. Would love feedback on that.
Water parameters: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 5-ish, pH 7.0, GH 5, KH 2 I test my ammonia the day after wc's and maybe 2 more days after that, and it always quickly goes to 0 after wc's. My tap water parameters are as follows: Ammonia .5, Nitrite 0, Nitrates about 5, pH 7, GH 5, KH 2. I am concerned about the low KH, but I tested my pH in the morning and in the evening, with no real swings in numbers. Morning tends to be 7.0, with evening at 7.2.
When I started Neoplex almost 2 weeks ago, I saw some definite improvement, so I did a big water change, dosed once more (I figured 2 rounds might be better) and a day and a half later, he lost all new growth, plus even more off of his tail. No other changes were made. I have never seen him bite his tail, although he does "chase it" sometimes. I will include some photos from the past 2 weeks, unless you need more. You will see that the growth was coming back as of 2/13 (right before I did the big water change & re-dosed Neoplex), then the growth completely receded on 2/15. 3rd photo is from 2/17. Looks like it's starting to grow again, but I have no hope that this will continue. I should add that he has acted completely normal through all of this. Eats well, swims everywhere, very curious. Thank you so much in advance!
Photos uploaded to Dropbox (I hope I did this correctly!)
dl.dropbox.com/s/mft3403sd1jl5l8/2-13.jpeg?dl=0
dl.dropbox.com/s/90rr1us0w35ttcm/2-15.jpeg?dl=0
dl.dropbox.com/s/642fgvhvx86wksi/2-17.jpeg?dl=0
Background: I have had this fish for just over a year, so I assume he's close to 2 years old. He was originally in a 5-gallon tank with 1 Amazon sword and a moss ball, a couple. Petsmart decorations, and colored rocks for substrate (typical beginner Betta owner setup) I was doing water changes with RO water supplemented with Seachem Replenish for the first 4 months with no issues at all. At the 4 month mark, slight fin rot began, so I increased wc's to weekly. I wasn't really vacuuming the substrate, just replacing water. I usually did about 50-60% of the water. The fins did not improve over the next couple of months, so I switched to tap water because I was afraid he wasn't getting enough minerals from the RO/Replenish and also because I flooded our living room when I left the RO drip in my bucket too long (forgot to set a timer).
Meds/methods I have tried over the past few months are: Paraguard & Stressguard, Aquarium salt at 1.5 tsp/gallon with daily 50% wc's for 10 days, 7 day treatment of Kanaplex/Furan-2, Bettafix for a few days, daily or every other day wc's for a few weeks, back to Paraguard/Stressguard, Kanaplex alone in food. Currently on 2nd dose of Neoplex. Nothing has made any difference.
The changes I have made over these months are as follows: Removed carbon & Purigen and used just a sponge & bio-balls, replaced colored rocks with Seachem Flourite Black, added IAL's, started feeding frozen foods in addition to my Omega One Betta Buffet pellets. Finally when none of that helped, I got new tanks for my 2 bettas with the following setup:
7-gallon tank, heated (80 degrees), sponge filter from Aquarium Co-op (his other filter was too strong & I worried this was adding to stress), 8 plants, moss ball, 1/2 of a large IAL, small piece of mopani wood, removed decor that potentially had sharp edges, Fluval Plant 3.0 LED light. (When I set up this tank, I took the sponge from the old filter & laid it beside the new sponge filter. I also did not clean any decor or plants, just simply moved them over. I used all of the Flourite from the old tank in the new setup. Kept everything wet in old tank water while setting up new tank) At this time he has no tank mates, but I plan on adding 2 Amano shrimp after he heals. This tank has been set up for about 3.5 weeks.
My maintenance is as follows: Clean tank once a week, vacuuming substrate on a different section with each cleaning. I usually end up removing about 60-70% of the water (which might be my issue) because I tend to have OCD & love things super clean. With each water change, I use Prime, I dose Stress Guard once or twice, and I dose Seachem Flourish. If I clean any decor, I only do it in tank water and only if it has algae on it.
Feeding: I used to do pellets every day (sometimes fasting once a week), but for about 3-4 weeks I've been doing pellets 1-2 times per week, then the other days (totaling 6) I feed either brine shrimp, blood worms (not as often), or daphnia..all frozen. I just purchased VitaChem and plan on soaking all food in this before feeding. Not sure how many times a week this is required. Would love feedback on that.
Water parameters: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 5-ish, pH 7.0, GH 5, KH 2 I test my ammonia the day after wc's and maybe 2 more days after that, and it always quickly goes to 0 after wc's. My tap water parameters are as follows: Ammonia .5, Nitrite 0, Nitrates about 5, pH 7, GH 5, KH 2. I am concerned about the low KH, but I tested my pH in the morning and in the evening, with no real swings in numbers. Morning tends to be 7.0, with evening at 7.2.
When I started Neoplex almost 2 weeks ago, I saw some definite improvement, so I did a big water change, dosed once more (I figured 2 rounds might be better) and a day and a half later, he lost all new growth, plus even more off of his tail. No other changes were made. I have never seen him bite his tail, although he does "chase it" sometimes. I will include some photos from the past 2 weeks, unless you need more. You will see that the growth was coming back as of 2/13 (right before I did the big water change & re-dosed Neoplex), then the growth completely receded on 2/15. 3rd photo is from 2/17. Looks like it's starting to grow again, but I have no hope that this will continue. I should add that he has acted completely normal through all of this. Eats well, swims everywhere, very curious. Thank you so much in advance!
Photos uploaded to Dropbox (I hope I did this correctly!)
dl.dropbox.com/s/mft3403sd1jl5l8/2-13.jpeg?dl=0
dl.dropbox.com/s/90rr1us0w35ttcm/2-15.jpeg?dl=0
dl.dropbox.com/s/642fgvhvx86wksi/2-17.jpeg?dl=0
