Meshu and Mischa

[kikimckee]

I am a new betta owner and im not quite sure as to if what I am seeing on my little fishies is a problem or not. I am very paranoid about them already.Meshu is a male red/purple crowntail and Mischa is a female black/blue fantail. I have done A LOT of research as to what type of tank, heater, food, and everything that would be key to their optimal health. Their current tanks are just temporary until I can locate the proper 10 gallon environments for them.

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons)
Both- 1 gallon
2. Is your aquarium setup freshwater or brackish water?
Both- Freshwater
3. How long the aquarium has been set up?
Both- 2 1/2 weeks
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know)
One fish per temp tank
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
No
6. What temperature is the tank water currently?
Both - 78 F-79 F
7. What make/model filter are you using?
No filter for temp tanks
8. Are you using a CO2 unit?
No
9. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day?
Majority of day(75% of day)
10. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed?
25% , full 100% water change today(for the first time)
11. How often do you perform water changes?
twice per week
12. How often and what foods do you feed your fish?
twice a day, two pellets of Hikari Betta Bio-Gold
13. What type of lighting are you using and how long is it kept on?
desk lamp, kept on from the time there is minimal natural sunlight for about 2 hours
14. What specific concerns bring you here at this time?
possibility of Ick(Meshu) and Bacterial Infection or something unknown(Mischa)
15. What are your water parameters? Test your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Meshu-> pH-7.8, 0 Nitrite/Nitrate
Mischa-> pH- 7.8, 0 Nitrite/Nitrate
(liquid tests, including ammonia tests have just been bought but I dont want to stress them out anymore at the moment, as I just did a 100% water change for both tanks)
16. What test kit are you using and is it liquid or test strips?
test strips(soon to be liquid)
17. When was the last time you bought a fish and how did they behave while in the pet store tank?
It has been a couple years since I have personally owned a fish, everytime the fish have been free of noticable disease, and have behaved wonderfully, including this time.

Over the past couple days, I have noticed several vertical lines(similar to tiger stripes) on Mischas' side where her color looks either faded or like something opaque is covering it. There is no depth to the opaque spot at all though, her behavior very active, and the rest of her colors are still very vibrant.There was no sign of it previous to the past two days and it is hardly noticable even in bright light but I am still worried. I looked into several possible answers as to what this is and the best I can come up with at this point is a fungal infection. Please provide me with some advice and I will be more than happy to answer any further questions. anyone has.

[Campbell]

It's not a fungal infection. The vertical lines indicate that she is ready to breed. Nothing to worry about!

[Kim]

I agree. One thing that you might want to change is the frequency and amount of your water changes. I had a few 4 gallon QT tanks and I did twice weekly 50% water changes on them only to find out that ammonia was building up. It took quite a few 90% changes to get levels back down to 0. The point here is that in an uncycled tank there is really no way to get around doing 100% changes. For a 1 gal tank I would do a full water change every 2 days. Hope this helps ;)