I'm having no luck with this tank so I figure it's time to turn it over to the experts.
Housing
What size is your tank? 20 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 78 F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes (although I have it turned on low so it doesn’t cause too much extra water movement)
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 4 neon tetras, an otto and a pepper cory catfish
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets and occasional freeze-dried bloodworms. I’ve just added daphnia to the diet (once or twice a week). He usually manages to steal some tropical crisps from the neon tetras as well.
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once or twice a day. I’ve cut back his food in the last week because I think I was overfeeding him. I fast him roughly once a week.
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Usually 25-30%. I do 50% changes every couple of weeks.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Api stress coat as water conditioner
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:20(safe) I promptly did a water change after testing to get rid of this
pH: 7
Hardness: 150
Alkalinity: 120
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Tail appears more ragged than when I got him.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Behaviour seems normal
When did you start noticing the symptoms? When the tank had ich in December. I thought it was a result of the ich at first and only got concerned now that the fins do not seem to be healing
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Started treating with melafix 3 days ago, it does not seem to have helped yet
Does your fish have any history of being ill? he had ich right before I noticed these signs and has been having constipation issues recently (although that seems to have been resolved now)
How old is your fish (approximately)? Adult, got him from the pet store in november; my best guess is somewhere between 6 months and a year old.
Other than his ratty tail fin I don’t see the signs of disease on my betta so much as I do on his neon tetra tankmates (who have ratty fins with missing pieces and white patches at the edges, that are beginning to look blackish when the light is off), but I figure if they have something (I’m thinking maybe fin rot?), he likely does too as my best guess is it took hold while their immune systems were compromised when they had/were recovering from the ich.
If it IS fin rot, I’ve heard some of the treatment options available are hard on some catfish and/or plants, and I don’t want to harm my plants (an anubias and a moss ball) or pepper cory. I don’t have a quarantine tank and since the majority of the fish in the tank seem to have this thing, I’m more inclined to just temporarily remove the ones that are sensitive to the treatment and treat the whole tank than I am to isolate all the sick ones. If I had to do that and put the plants in with my other betta in his 5 gal for the time being, is there a possibility of transferring the disease to him?
Can anyone confirm what this mystery disease is for me? Any suggestions on how to deal with it would be appreciated too. Thanks.
Housing
What size is your tank? 20 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 78 F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Yes (although I have it turned on low so it doesn’t cause too much extra water movement)
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 4 neon tetras, an otto and a pepper cory catfish
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets and occasional freeze-dried bloodworms. I’ve just added daphnia to the diet (once or twice a week). He usually manages to steal some tropical crisps from the neon tetras as well.
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once or twice a day. I’ve cut back his food in the last week because I think I was overfeeding him. I fast him roughly once a week.
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Usually 25-30%. I do 50% changes every couple of weeks.
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Api stress coat as water conditioner
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:20(safe) I promptly did a water change after testing to get rid of this
pH: 7
Hardness: 150
Alkalinity: 120
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Tail appears more ragged than when I got him.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Behaviour seems normal
When did you start noticing the symptoms? When the tank had ich in December. I thought it was a result of the ich at first and only got concerned now that the fins do not seem to be healing
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Started treating with melafix 3 days ago, it does not seem to have helped yet
Does your fish have any history of being ill? he had ich right before I noticed these signs and has been having constipation issues recently (although that seems to have been resolved now)
How old is your fish (approximately)? Adult, got him from the pet store in november; my best guess is somewhere between 6 months and a year old.
Other than his ratty tail fin I don’t see the signs of disease on my betta so much as I do on his neon tetra tankmates (who have ratty fins with missing pieces and white patches at the edges, that are beginning to look blackish when the light is off), but I figure if they have something (I’m thinking maybe fin rot?), he likely does too as my best guess is it took hold while their immune systems were compromised when they had/were recovering from the ich.
If it IS fin rot, I’ve heard some of the treatment options available are hard on some catfish and/or plants, and I don’t want to harm my plants (an anubias and a moss ball) or pepper cory. I don’t have a quarantine tank and since the majority of the fish in the tank seem to have this thing, I’m more inclined to just temporarily remove the ones that are sensitive to the treatment and treat the whole tank than I am to isolate all the sick ones. If I had to do that and put the plants in with my other betta in his 5 gal for the time being, is there a possibility of transferring the disease to him?
Can anyone confirm what this mystery disease is for me? Any suggestions on how to deal with it would be appreciated too. Thanks.