How to incoporate sick beta to new tank

[Sbamsey]

I'm an experienced fresh water aquarium owner (10 plus years) but am relatively new to betas. About a year ago I got a beta and had it in a bowl as I was unaware they could even go in a community tank! But after a few months I noticed he was getting some fin rot. I figured it was because the water quality was poor and it might be worth it to try to put him into my 42 gallon planted tank. I have two large danios two rainbow plecos two golden rams a khuli loach and a frog. To my surprise it worked great and they all proved to be excellent tank mates as he seemed visibly wayyy happier and the fin rot went away. Then a couple months later I got a juvenile black ghost knife, as the pet store people said it would be a fine tank mate provided i do a size upgrade in the future. And he is, everyone is happy, BUT the beta has had fin rot ever since! The ghost knife spends most of his day hidden in a castle and doesn't seem to bother anyone so I know he isn't nipping. I tried three different types of anti fungals and eventually it got so bad I decided to quaruntine the beta in a floating box. The first time it worked well, his fins healed and I released him back into the tank after a week. But within a day of being out the fin rot came back. I've tried this for a couple months including cleaning the tank excessively (I always keep a very clean tank) and it seems the only thing keeping him alive is being quaruntined in the floating box. The only thing I can think is that it's just stress from over crowding so I'm going to upgrade to a 56 gallon (as I was going to upgrade anyway for the knife even though he's still really small). Was just wondering peoples opinions on how I should do it? Should I put the beta in first and slowly add others? Put them all in at once? Or put the ghost knife in first? Any tips will help! This was once a very happy community fish and I just want to get him back to that.

 

[Matt68005]

meh its hard enough to keep the same species from fighting in a small tank, I don't mix fish for this reason but maybe someone else knows a lot about community tanks can help. I have no clue, I would put the betta back in the bowl or a 5.5 gallon.

 

[Matt68005]

If you talking fin rot and fungus.....furan 2 is a pretty good starting point.

 

[brennae]

Yeah I'm thinking you need to keep the betta isolated until the problem is resolved and and no relapses. Stressed males will often nip off their own tails. So let me ask is this an imported betta or a domestic pet store variety? I have found imported don't handle stress as well. When I have had betta fin trouble it's usually from the water quality. That may or may not be the case here and I'm not passing any judgement. If he is alone you can add some salt, I use Indian Almond leaves to aid healing and I didn't catch the tank Temp. For best health 78 to 82 is really optimal. 80 is great.

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