chelsi.reber
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I am new to owning a Betta. I have him in a 5 gallon tank (4 gallons water) with some silk plants and small decor (very soft for his fins), & filtered. I have had him for 1.5 wks. At 1 wk I did a 25% water change (1 gallon). I added water conditioner (as instructed by the pet store) and aqua salt. I noticed recently that his dorsal fin is folded over, looks like fins are curling (like a perm), the top half of his Caudal fin is greyish on the tips and now he has rips in his fins both Caudal & Anal fins, his pelvic fins look tattered. I believe he has fin rot, but am not 100% sure. I got some BettaFix, but after some research I'm not sure it is a good idea to use it. I just tested the water and the pH is about 7.5 the GH is about 100ppm, the KH is 80ppm, the nitrites are 0.5ppm, the nitrates are 10-20ppm, & ammonia is 0.5ppm. The water seems good to me. The nitrates/nitrites/ammonia are slightly higher than when I did the water change. The water is 78 degrees.
The lady at the pet store (Pet Smart) said to use Betta Bowl for the water conditioner and no bacteria of any kind was needed. However, the Betta Bowl is for bowls not tanks that are filtered. I also noticed it doesn't say anything about slim coat protection or neutralizing ammonia/nitrates/nitrites.
Now I am not sure what to do and am afraid I have done enough damage that my poor lil guy won't survive. He was very jerky in the tank, rubbed on everything including the gravel bottom. I took anything I thought would tear his fins out of the tank. I turned the flow on the filter down as far as it would go. I noticed though that when he swims by the intake his fins get sucked into it. I added a few pictures to help. (That was a challenge ). Now he is hovering at the surface just above the heater. He is still eating like normal, but not swimming around the tank like when I first got him.
Is it okay to use API Stress Coat+ & API Stress Zyme+ in a Betta tank? Can I use them together.
Any advice on what to do would be wonderful. BTW his name is Falcor. Thanks
The lady at the pet store (Pet Smart) said to use Betta Bowl for the water conditioner and no bacteria of any kind was needed. However, the Betta Bowl is for bowls not tanks that are filtered. I also noticed it doesn't say anything about slim coat protection or neutralizing ammonia/nitrates/nitrites.
Now I am not sure what to do and am afraid I have done enough damage that my poor lil guy won't survive. He was very jerky in the tank, rubbed on everything including the gravel bottom. I took anything I thought would tear his fins out of the tank. I turned the flow on the filter down as far as it would go. I noticed though that when he swims by the intake his fins get sucked into it. I added a few pictures to help. (That was a challenge ). Now he is hovering at the surface just above the heater. He is still eating like normal, but not swimming around the tank like when I first got him.
Is it okay to use API Stress Coat+ & API Stress Zyme+ in a Betta tank? Can I use them together.
Any advice on what to do would be wonderful. BTW his name is Falcor. Thanks