After using Tetra General Tonic and seeing my female betta go stark raving mad then dying seconds later I am VERY sceptical about using medicines for my fish but my bettas ragged tail is really driving me mad lately, he doesn't seem to be at all bothered with it and is as happy as larry blowing bubblenests and what not but I really want to fix him up. Other than AQ salt what would you reccommend I use?
Nothing will help your fish regrow his fins faster than clean water, a little salt, and a high protein diet. Some breeders add dried, sanitized banana leaves to help make the betta comfortable and speed healing, banana leaves have a different effect from indian almond leaves. Adding more chemicals to the water will put more strain on his internal organs, and healing agents like melafix and pimafix will likely do more harm than good. Just be patient and keep up with those water changes
I have been doing daily water changes but it doesn't seem to be doing anything and I don't like to use AQ salt, mainly because IMO it made my first bettas fins a whole lot worse and Im really not a patient person lol
Well, you can try ordering some dried banana leaves, but other than that, other chemicals would just make the process take longer. You could also turn the heater up a bit, to about 83 degrees very slowly. This will speed up his metabolism slightly. If you have hard water it will probably be a bit more difficult for the fish to build up his fins again, and they probably won't look as nice once they've come back.
The only way to really get around that, though is to use treated reverse osmosis water, though. But this means you have to pay for the water as well as the mineral supplement.
I was thinking about QT him to make it easier to clean his tank but the only thing that I have is a 1.5 gallon vase so im debating whether to use this or not. I have never experienced anything like this with my other fish, im just not meant to have male fighter fish clearly lol
Do you know your pH and gH? You could get them tested for free at a local fish store. Hard water might be the source of your problems, especially if you have halfmoons or crowntails. New growth in these fish is very delicate, and even old growth can deteriorate in hard water conditions. You could always consider trying out some R/O water with an RO supplement for awhile and seeing if that makes a difference. Most fish stores sell you a container for the first time, which is about $10-15, and then about $3 per fill up, usually 5 gallons at a time.
Reverse osmosis is a process in which water is put under a lot of pressure as it goes through a series of tubes, this process strips the water of all minerals and chemicals leaving only pure, totally neutral water. People use this for their aquariums when their county's water is unsuitable for the fish they keep since depending what you add to it, it can be either acidic or basic.
Your pH isn't that bad though, which is usually an indication that the hardness isn't too high, so I don't think you really need to do that. It's possible that you're just being too impatient, lol.
Haha, thats probs what it is lol. How long would it usually take to see a difference if I do 100% daily water changes, with no added chemicals or salt?
It's difficult to say, it relies upon a lot of different factors, one being the individual fish. Some simply heal slower than others. Temperature, food, stress level, water quality, age--I had a VT that I would see a tiny bit of clear regrowth in a week after he'd bite his tail, but right now I've got a delta that bit weeks ago that I haven't seen growth on. The fish seems happy and the wound isn't infected though, so I'm just letting nature take its course. He'll get a little regrowth eventually.
I just hope its not fin rot because with my last betta that took over extremely fast, i'm setting up a QT "tank" with his heater and a pinch of AQ salt so i'm going to see how it goes and if it doesnt go well you will more than likely see me moaning on here again pretty soon I appreciate your help, thankyou
It's working Day 5 in QT and i'm sure his tail is recovering, I can't see it getting worse and Im sure there are curly bits growing back another 5 days and hopefully I will be able to see a better result
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