General water change questions

[KewtyPatootie]

Hi there,

I have a few bettas, one living in a 1G ish shallow vase, and the other in a 10G community tank. I do partial water changes weekly, but recently I have developed a paranoid due to minor fin rot issues IMMEDIATELY following the water change.

If I'm only doing 20%ish water change, the bacteria should still remain throughout the water/gravel.. so why would my fish's fins fall off?

And another thing I've always been curious about, many people buy small tanks and put bettas in immediately without cycling. I am guilty of this as well in the PAST because I was never informed by the petstore.
But in my case, the fish never looked stress or get finrot even with the absence of nitrates and probably spiking ammonia levels. Technically, shouldn't the fish be sick and have the signs show under these conditions?

I'm pretty confused, and I don't exactly know what works in everyone's cases.

 

[mommytron]

what kind of filtration do you have on the tanks? 1 gallon really isn't enough for a betta, i would say 5g minimum. do both of the fish have fin rot? what are your water parameters prior to water changes? after water changes? are you using tap water? what are the parameters of your tap water? not sure what causes fin rot but clean water is the best medication. i am pretty sure that you can also do a heat/salt treatment to help the fins heal.

 

[KewtyPatootie]

My fish don't have fin rot at the moment, both of them in the PAST have suffered minorly but healed very quickly. My navy/red betta lives in a 10G community with 4 neons and a siamese algae eater. The only reason my other betta is in a 1G is because of his chronic swim bladder issue, so he lives in a shallow 1.5ft wide round bowl. I check my ammonia, and the only problem is the hospital tank of less than .25ppm.

My question was for people who don't cycle their tanks and go ahead with fish right away, do their fish suffer from fin rot / ammonia issues?

 

[adeebm]

My question was for people who don't cycle their tanks and go ahead with fish right away, do their fish suffer from fin rot / ammonia issues?

Cycling with fish doesn't necessarily cause visible damage. The ammonia will burn their gills, and stress/weaken their immune system. The fish may make it alive, but it is unnecessary harm to them. Fin rot is usually caused by a bacterial or fungal infection. A weakened immune system from stress can allow fin rot to take hold.

--Adeeb

 

[mgamer20o0]

its not the water change that causes the problems. i would get a test kit since thats a good start. also would think about getting like a 5 gallon for the betta in the vase. a good size tank thats cycled is a good start.