Fish Lovers 3.0 [new poll]

[Lorne]

How many gallons is your tank?: Three
Number and Type of fish in tank: One male betta fish
How long has it been running?: Since June last year
Did you cycle it?: Admittedly no, this was the first tank I've ever ran by myself and I was a newbie who was never told about cycling and obviously didn't do my research well enough. I'd had goldfish tanks when I was younger which I never cycled, but then again I had too many goldfish in a small space, my parents and I obviously had no idea what we were doing. After about a week of having the tank set up, I bought a masterkit of the API testing materials and I've been watching the ammonia/nitr/ite/ate levels ever since.
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: They're normal
Does it have a heater? Yup
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? It reads 78*F
What is the issue or question?: So, my fish has been acting completely normal, eating fine, swimming fine, the works, but his activity has been slowing down, which I started noticing two - three months ago. The problem mainly is his fins. He seems to have fin rot that just.. won't go away? I've been changing 15-25% of his water every day and it hasn't been getting worse or unmanageable, but it hasn't been getting better and his fins won't seem to heal. I've heard something about salt baths but I'm incredibly scared to try that or to move him too much, I don't want to stress him out at all in case there is an underlying illness. With his swimming, he's been a lot less sporadic and full of energy like my other betta fish, and like he used to be when I got him. He was sick twice before and he's recovered from both illnesses. (Velvet and I believe the other sickness was Gill Flukes? I still have no idea what it was, but it cleared up )
Any other information?: When I first got him his fins did look a little raggedy this is when I first brought him home, this is what he looks like now (you'll have to excuse him in the picture, it was taken right now at 2 in the morning, the lights were completely off so he wasn't willing to swim around so I could get a good picture, I hope you can still see his fins :v Also the flash brought out a lot of his yellow pigment, his color is definitely more blue when the lights are on ) boop
I've heard old fish can get chronic fin rot really easily and I'm wondering if there's really anything I can do for him? Like I said I change the water every day and it's been manageable for awhile, but it's starting to become worse, the tears in between his anal fin were not there last week, though the black spots and the torn tail fin have been there for awhile)
I believe this may be caused by old age, but I have no experience with elderly bettas so I thought I would ask ;v;
Thank you for any help!

[PeachFuzz]

How many gallons is your tank?: Three
Number and Type of fish in tank: One male betta fish
How long has it been running?: Since June last year
Did you cycle it?: Admittedly no, this was the first tank I've ever ran by myself and I was a newbie who was never told about cycling and obviously didn't do my research well enough. I'd had goldfish tanks when I was younger which I never cycled, but then again I had too many goldfish in a small space, my parents and I obviously had no idea what we were doing. After about a week of having the tank set up, I bought a masterkit of the API testing materials and I've been watching the ammonia/nitr/ite/ate levels ever since.
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: They're normal
Does it have a heater? Yup
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? It reads 78*F
What is the issue or question?: So, my fish has been acting completely normal, eating fine, swimming fine, the works, but his activity has been slowing down, which I started noticing two - three months ago. The problem mainly is his fins. He seems to have fin rot that just.. won't go away? I've been changing 15-25% of his water every day and it hasn't been getting worse or unmanageable, but it hasn't been getting better and his fins won't seem to heal. I've heard something about salt baths but I'm incredibly scared to try that or to move him too much, I don't want to stress him out at all in case there is an underlying illness. With his swimming, he's been a lot less sporadic and full of energy like my other betta fish, and like he used to be when I got him. He was sick twice before and he's recovered from both illnesses. (Velvet and I believe the other sickness was Gill Flukes? I still have no idea what it was, but it cleared up )
Any other information?: When I first got him his fins did look a little raggedy this is when I first brought him home, this is what he looks like now (you'll have to excuse him in the picture, it was taken right now at 2 in the morning, the lights were completely off so he wasn't willing to swim around so I could get a good picture, I hope you can still see his fins :v Also the flash brought out a lot of his yellow pigment, his color is definitely more blue when the lights are on ) boop
I've heard old fish can get chronic fin rot really easily and I'm wondering if there's really anything I can do for him? Like I said I change the water every day and it's been manageable for awhile, but it's starting to become worse, the tears in between his anal fin were not there last week, though the black spots and the torn tail fin have been there for awhile)
I believe this may be caused by old age, but I have no experience with elderly bettas so I thought I would ask ;v;
Thank you for any help!

Can you provide the ppm for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate? "Normal" doesn't give me much to go on.

When you do water changes do you siphon the gravel?

It may just be the way he's laying in the photo but I don't see any fin rot. It looks like he's picked up the habit of biting his fins/tail.

[ever changing]

Meet Erasure! Unfortunately, my camera does not
show justice to his color. He is very much pastel rainbow.

[Lorne]

How many gallons is your tank?: Three
Number and Type of fish in tank: One male betta fish
How long has it been running?: Since June last year
Did you cycle it?: Admittedly no, this was the first tank I've ever ran by myself and I was a newbie who was never told about cycling and obviously didn't do my research well enough. I'd had goldfish tanks when I was younger which I never cycled, but then again I had too many goldfish in a small space, my parents and I obviously had no idea what we were doing. After about a week of having the tank set up, I bought a masterkit of the API testing materials and I've been watching the ammonia/nitr/ite/ate levels ever since.
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: They're normal
Does it have a heater? Yup
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? It reads 78*F
What is the issue or question?: So, my fish has been acting completely normal, eating fine, swimming fine, the works, but his activity has been slowing down, which I started noticing two - three months ago. The problem mainly is his fins. He seems to have fin rot that just.. won't go away? I've been changing 15-25% of his water every day and it hasn't been getting worse or unmanageable, but it hasn't been getting better and his fins won't seem to heal. I've heard something about salt baths but I'm incredibly scared to try that or to move him too much, I don't want to stress him out at all in case there is an underlying illness. With his swimming, he's been a lot less sporadic and full of energy like my other betta fish, and like he used to be when I got him. He was sick twice before and he's recovered from both illnesses. (Velvet and I believe the other sickness was Gill Flukes? I still have no idea what it was, but it cleared up )
Any other information?: When I first got him his fins did look a little raggedy this is when I first brought him home, this is what he looks like now (you'll have to excuse him in the picture, it was taken right now at 2 in the morning, the lights were completely off so he wasn't willing to swim around so I could get a good picture, I hope you can still see his fins :v Also the flash brought out a lot of his yellow pigment, his color is definitely more blue when the lights are on ) boop
I've heard old fish can get chronic fin rot really easily and I'm wondering if there's really anything I can do for him? Like I said I change the water every day and it's been manageable for awhile, but it's starting to become worse, the tears in between his anal fin were not there last week, though the black spots and the torn tail fin have been there for awhile)
I believe this may be caused by old age, but I have no experience with elderly bettas so I thought I would ask ;v;
Thank you for any help!

Can you provide the ppm for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate? "Normal" doesn't give me much to go on.

When you do water changes do you siphon the gravel?

It may just be the way he's laying in the photo but I don't see any fin rot. It looks like he's picked up the habit of biting his fins/tail.

Right now it's showing 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate

I don't always, I usually only siphon it at the end of the week.

Here's some pictures now that he's swimming around (sorry if some of them are blurry! He's not very photogenic) boop
Is there anything I can do if it is tail biting?

[PeachFuzz]

Right now it's showing 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate

I don't always, I usually only siphon it at the end of the week.

Here's some pictures now that he's swimming around (sorry if some of them are blurry! He's not very photogenic) boop
Is there anything I can do if it is tail biting?

Definitely looks like he's biting. Tail biting in bettas is often a response to stress, similar to people biting their nails. Sometimes a tail biter will be doing it because their fins are too heavy, making it difficult for them to swim, and they want to get some of the weight off. This is usually seen in male bettas of the larger finned varieties, such as halfmoons and delta tails.

For tail biting the first thing I recommend is adding more plants, artificial or live, doesn't matter as long as they're soft. Bettas do best with a lot of plant cover and open space tends to stress them out. Stuff as many plants in his tank as you can. As long as he can swim around and reach the surface of the water there's no such thing as too many plants! You can also try moving the tank to another spot in your home. Sometimes things that we wouldn't even think of may be a stressor for the fish, such as a blender sending vibrations through the kitchen counter and vibrating the tank water (fish are very sensitive to vibrations). With moving the tank a lot of it is trial-and-error, as not all bettas are the same and some will be stressed out by different things.

Unfortunately what occasionally happens is a betta will start tail biting as a stress response and by the time the owner realizes what's going on and corrects the situation to reduce stress levels the biting has become a habit. At that point there's not much that can be done and the best thing to do is keep the water clean to reduce the risk of infection.

[Gvvdgrief]

Gah, sad day for me guys. the betta I previously mentioned and posted pics of (Zippy) has ammonia poisoning I think. His scales are turning a bit grey and his tail has pretty much completely just.. agh. It looks so much shorter and tattered now, and has turned a peachy red on some of the tattered pieces. You see, I had no idea about tank cycling and he was exposed to high amounts of ammonia for a bit. Hes now in a spare tank (Until his tank cycles), that has 0.25 ammonia, the lowest I can get it, but his main tank is getting close to a full cycle. I feel terrible, I only recently got into fish keeping and I pretty much learned all the important stuff AFTER I purchased zippy. I dont mind how he looks if hes at least healthy, so let's hope he makes a good recovery. I'd really appreciate tips as well. Of course fish keeping is a learning experience and I've learned a lot from this and my mistakes so I'm on the path to becoming a good fish keeper, but you can't help but still feel a bit guilty yknow?

[PeachFuzz]

Gah, sad day for me guys. the betta I previously mentioned and posted pics of (Zippy) has ammonia poisoning I think. His scales are turning a bit grey and his tail has pretty much completely just.. agh. It looks so much shorter and tattered now, and has turned a peachy red on some of the tattered pieces. You see, I had no idea about tank cycling and he was exposed to high amounts of ammonia for a bit. Hes now in a spare tank (Until his tank cycles), that has 0.25 ammonia, the lowest I can get it, but his main tank is getting close to a full cycle. I feel terrible, I only recently got into fish keeping and I pretty much learned all the important stuff AFTER I purchased zippy. I dont mind how he looks if hes at least healthy, so let's hope he makes a good recovery. I'd really appreciate tips as well. Of course fish keeping is a learning experience and I've learned a lot from this and my mistakes so I'm on the path to becoming a good fish keeper, but you can't help but still feel a bit guilty yknow?

I definitely understand the guilt. I feel guilty when I think about my keeping goldfish in small tanks years ago before I knew better. The important thing is that you're learning and willing to make the necessary changes! You can't change the past but you can make sure Zippy has the best life possible from this point onward c:

With a cycled tank and regular water changes he should recover well. The greying scales are likely a response to stress so once he starts feeling better his normal colour should return!

Good luck to you and Zippy, I hope everything goes well <3

[Gvvdgrief]

Thank you, that made me feel better! I feel like I caught it pretty quick. His tank is almost cycled like I said so hopefully I can switch him to that soon, its got some java fern and a few things to hide in a swim around and a lot of room to swim (10 gallon) which should help. I also bought some Prime which is apparently a really good water conditioner that helps detoxify the ammonia and nitrite for a period of time. Hes still his zippy self, so thats good!

On a better note, Beepo, my other betta fish who was terribly sick, is now super vibrant and colourful and a lot more active. He lived in a small tank for quite awhile but I now have him in a 10 gallon as well, and he loooves it.

[ever changing]

[Phantasmagoria]

Hey guys, what product would you recommend for treating a fungal infection in a betta? Noticed that MacCready has a white fuzzy spot on one of his fins, and it looks like it got torn because it's hanging on by a thread.
I can't get any decent pictures of it, but I believe it's cotton fin fungus. It seems like most don't like Melafix/Pimafix because oil and labyrinths don't mix, but what should I use instead?