Female fin discoloration

[jessp118]

Housing
What size is your tank? 10G
What temperature is your tank? 80F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Airstone for additional water movement on the other side of the divider
Is your tank heated? yes (adjustable)
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? In a divided tank with a male on the other side. Male is not showing and simptons.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? NLS
How often do you feed your betta fish? 3 in the A.M and 3 in the P.M

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? been having problems cycling, once every 2 weeks. Cycling thread here
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 20-30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? none

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

tested today
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.6
Hardness: unknown
Alkalinity: unknown

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Anal fin now has a line of brown close to the body with another brown dot in the middle of the anal fin.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Sticking to the bottom of the tank more. Still eating normaly. No sign of bloat or dropsy. No problems swiming.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? yesterday
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? no
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? got as a baby 3 months ago

Its very hard to take a picture of this since her fins are naturally red.

[callistra]

If you're doing a fish in cycling you should be doing weekly water changes of 50% with siphon, plus extra changes anytime you see either ammonia or nitrite show up - test daily with reliable drops kit.

There's no way with two bettas in a 10g you have no ammonia after 2 weeks of no water changes.. something is very wrong with your tests.

Can you share a photo?

[jessp118]

Originally Posted by callistra

If you're doing a fish in cycling you should be doing weekly water changes of 50% with siphon, plus extra changes anytime you see either ammonia or nitrite show up - test daily with reliable drops kit.

There's no way with two bettas in a 10g you have no ammonia after 2 weeks of no water changes.. something is very wrong with your tests.

Can you share a photo?

I will do my best for the picture. MY API master liquid test kit is only 2 months old. I will also add a pic of the whole tank.

[jessp118]

Since I can not edit here are the pics. She is stressed due to being in the cup. She calms down after being back in the tank for a few minutes.

[jessp118]

The brown is half way down her anal fin now. there is also brown dots forming on the tail fin. ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are still zero. did a 20% water change yesterday.

[jessp118]

She now has holes in her anal fin and darker brown spots on the top of her head. Please, does anyone know whats going on??

[callistra]

Ammonia burns from lack of water changes most likely. IDK if your test kit if bad or it's user error but it's not possible to have no ammonia after 2 weeks of no water changes, adn her fin changes are also consistent with ammonia burns.

If you can't get another kit or figure out what's up with the tests then just increase water changes to 3 50% weekly with siphon. That will hopefully be enough.

[jessp118]

Originally Posted by callistra

Ammonia burns from lack of water changes most likely. IDK if your test kit if bad or it's user error but it's not possible to have no ammonia after 2 weeks of no water changes, adn her fin changes are also consistent with ammonia burns.

If you can't get another kit or figure out what's up with the tests then just increase water changes to 3 50% weekly with siphon. That will hopefully be enough.

I just tested the water again. 0 for everything once again. The other fish is not showing any of these signs. I will do more changes. I know its not user error, Ive been doing what the directions say.
1. add aquarium water up to the white line
2. add the indicated drops for the test you want to do (shake bottles before)
3. gently shake test tubes
4. let sit for a short time (5 seconds)

Should I try to contact API to notify them of a possible bad batch? I currently cant afford to buy another kit.

[osromatra]

Except for ph, all the other tests, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all have to sit for 5 minutes, not seconds. They all look zero initially and darken or change color over the next few minutes.

[callistra]

They also all take shaking lots of shaking.. a minimum of 30second each and not just a little light.. actually turn the tube over and back again... all take it of the vial, some take it of the actual bottle of chems as well before using.. then they should be held perfectly perpendicular when dropping