I try to keep an eye on Jack as much as possible. I noticed this morning a small hole in his fin! Upon looking at him further it looks like he may have fin rot! I was unable to get a pic. It is only one hole. I am going to do a water change asap. Any advice?
Any ideas!?
Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 3 Gal
Does it have a filter? Yes
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank? 80 F
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? NO
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? NO
Food:
What food brand do you use? Omega One
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Betta Buffet Pellets
Freeze-dried? Occasionally a freeze dried blood worm
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? 3 Pellets twice a day
Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? 1 time a week
What percentage of water did you change? 75%
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Vacuum
What additives do you use? Dechlor
Water Parameters:
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you.
Ammonia: Less than .25 PPM
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: n/a
pH: n/a
Hardness (GH): n/a
Alkalinity (KH): n/a
Symptoms and Treatment:
When did you first notice the symptoms? Today
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? Fins look a little less colorful
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Seems to like being closed it more. Was hiding behind the filter the other night. Unusual behavior for him.
Is your Betta still eating? Yes
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? No
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? No
How long have you owned your Betta? 3 months
He seems slower than usual. Also kind of hanging out more on his Betta Hammock and on the bottom of the tank more than usual.
He really doesn't look sick to me. The only thing that is a little worrisome is the presence of ammonia. You should have 0 ammonia and nitrItes, & nitrAtes between 5 & 10.
Given your water params, it sounds like you have a new cycle going on? What are you using for a filter and what type of medium is in the filter?
If you have no live plants, add a bit of fully dissolved AQ salt to you new tank water during the next water change. Maybe 1 tsp. per gallon. That will boost his electrolytes a bit.
The reason I say the level that I do is that I use the API Ammonia test kit NH3/NH4 kit. It is DAMN near impossible to see the colors to be exactly. The level of Ammonia shown in the tube after chemicals always looks around 0 to .25ppm. I honestly cannot tell exactly. The shades are so close.
Reading online everyone is quick to write that you can't get a 3 Gallon tank to cycle. So I started off with API QuickStart. Then just change 70-80 of the water a week. I change as much as I can while keeping Jack in the tank. So just enough to keep him in the water along with the gravel.
Filter is charcoal cartridge - you cannot do anything to it. Per a discussion with someone over at bettafish.com they told me it was actually more beneficial to stop changing the charcoal cartridge, and just keep it in the tank. The filter would serve as a good breeding ground for beneficial bacteria. That is what I have done. You can see the filter has some growth in it. I had read others online state the same thing. I am not sure if this is a misnomer. My take on it was, with keeping up with large water changes every week he probably does not be exposed as much to chemicals that would be filtered out by the charcoal, but in a small tank having that surface area to breed beneficial bacterial was more well "beneficial".
No live plants in this tank. Silk plants. I have a bucket of nearly 3 gallons of fresh de-chlorinated water ready to change out. I have AQ salt on hand, I can add in before the change. I am waiting for the temp to stabilize before I do that change.
You say go for the AQ salt? Even if the hole in his fin isn't caused by bacteria, I was thinking the AQ salt may help keep bacteria OUT!
Yeah I know those filter cartridges. I don't even use them unless I need to remove meds from the tank. In that case, the charcoal comes in handy. I just use filter floss and some ceramic rings in the betta tanks as it seems to be good housing environment for the beneficial bacteria. You are getting good advice on not replacing it and chance getting a mini cycle. Just rinse it out in old tank water and put it back in.
I say AQ salt because it's good to boost electrolytes but not something you want to do long term every day with every water change. So if your fish is at the beginning stages of something, it can't hurt to add a bit.
And yeah, I hear you about the test kits :frustrated: Drives me nuts with the nitrAte readings but I usually don't have a problem with the ammonia vial. Anything other than clear yellow or light yellow is probably trace ammonia.
I always thought it was better to not have charcoal in the system as it has to potential to leech the "nasties" that it absorbed back into the water?
And whoever told you that you can't cycle a 3 gal, must be joking. As long as you have a beneficial bacteria colony, its cycled. At most, its harder to cycle smaller tanks especially if you do a "fish in" cycle. But IMO, it can be done.
But i also came here to comment about your betta, it looks beautiful.
I was worried about that too. One of the people who was saying it was ok to leave the charcoal in the water basically said the charcoal won't break down unless exposed to severe circumstances... IE like acid or like 400 degrees F or something like that.
I would remove it, but I dont want to lose what has already grown. You see can where some growth has taken up in the mesh.
If it's one of those cartridges that have the charcoal embedded in the middle, you can cut a slit down the side of the cartridge and remove the charcoal.
If possible, slowly removing a portion each week would be fine. But even if you have a cycled tank you could place the "new" media in there, even in a stocking in his current tank it will grow bacteria and then in a few weeks you could swap it out.
Question for you guys/gals. Sorry to rehash this, but I took a few new pics of Jack. I pointed to an area on his fin I was wondering if its normal? Jack is only my second fish, I'm still kinda novice. We had one other betta who passed away early this year, I think from Columnaris. And very technically speaking this isn't my fish - rather my G/Fs daughter :-D. She has some emotional issues and the fish help her relax. So whenever I think we have an issues - I kinda get worried. I want to try to keep them around AS LONG AS POSSIBLE :-D. The hole in his bottom fin is the same. I have been changing the water every two - three days.
Just wanted to make sure I got decent pics for you guys. Thanks again for your help.
PS On the filter Romad you are right. I am going to need to slit it down the side. I am going to get a box cutter.
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