White cloud w/ fin rot or bit by other fish? Which is it?

[JenNewbie]

In one of the tiny tanks at work, I have a betta in with 2 white clouds. They've been together about 2 mos(?), maybe 3. One of the white clouds has a mildly shredded tail fin today, and a shred from one of his gills or his throat area (I can't really tell). The tank is unheated/unlit, stays in the low-mid 70s. 2 small plants. Is it more likely that the betta is harrassing the white cloud or that he has a disease? No new fish/plants have been added recently. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

 

[Tigerlily]

I've had white coulds in with tiger barbs, and the white clouds were plenty fast to get away from the tigers when the tigers gave chase. I can't imagine that a white cloud couldn't outrun a feisty betta! Have you ever noticed any agression between them?

How tiny is the tank? How are the water parameters? If it were just the tail fin, I would suspect fin rot, but the shred from his gill area has me stumped. Does it look like a bite? Have you noticed any blood? Is there anything that the white cloud could have scraped himself against? Sometimes they do dart about and if the tank is really small, he could have injured himself perhaps...

Sorry I seem to just have a lot of questions for you, but maybe a little more info will help narrow things down...

 

[tkos]

If the tank is small and the betta chased the white cloud it could have been injured on any plastic plants. They are generally quite hardy and disease resistant fishes IME. Bettas would seem to me to be the ones with any fin rot.

 

[JenNewbie]

Tiny=1gal and 2gal for the bettas at work. The white cloud is dead and the second is dying. I am afraid that they are dying from some sort of poisoning after having lived for a few months. Is there any other fish that does okay in such a small environment with a betta, or should I leave well enough alone and be happy with 1 betta in each tank? I've been doing 50% water changes once a week, but I don't know if that's enough to make up for such small living areas. Or maybe even too much of a water change... Sigh. Just when I got the one at home figured out, too.

 

[tkos]

White clouds shouldn't really be kept in anything less than a 5 gallon (and that is a bit low). In such small tanks I would stick to species only and that really means just a betta. Perhaps you could add some small freshwater shrimp (not crayfish) such as ghost/glass or ammano. They are fun to watch. Or else a big mystery snail is fun as well and can go easily into a smaller tank.

With such a small tank I assume the white clouds are being poisoned to death but lack of water changes. Bettas are prety good survivors in poor conditons. Small tanks (and I assume there is no filtration) need water changes every other day or so. Adding live plants will help as well. For such small tanks I suggest getting java fern. I grows slowly and doesn't need any extra work from you. It doesn't even need soil of ferts. It is a very slow grower in such conditions and so won't overwhelm your tank. Plus they absorb some of the ammonia and nitrite/nitrates that build up from fish waste.

 

[Allivymar]

What are the tank parameters? First place to check when disease raises its ugly head is ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels; often problems can be directly related to those.

 

[JenNewbie]

Cool! I never even thought of invertebrates. What kind of care do they need? Do they get special food or will they eat the flakes that fall to the bottom? I'm feeding my bettas a mix of flake and dehydrated bloodworms. Both tanks have an air pump with undergravel filter. I do a vacuum/water change once a week about 50% of the water. The fish in the 2gal are danios (I now know how big they get, but I was told they'd be ok when I first got the tank setups). Would it be best to return the danios to the store and just get some invertebrate companions? The danios have been with the betta for at least 3 months. Keep in mind the tanks are unheated, too, so there can be a 5-7 degree temp diff from am to pm.

I have no idea what my tank parameters are. I've only ever tested the water once, about a month ago and I can't remember the values for each tank. I will probably take a sample for testing this weekend.

 

[Allivymar]

Ooo, that can also contribute to probs; thats a pretty big temp change for a 12 hr time period! Stresses the fish and reduces thier immunity.