Fishmergency!

[grapefish]

Hello, I've recently become a betta fan, and my lovely pineapple feathertail Dexter has gotten a bit of the black gill from excess ammonia.

I've moved him to hospital (his first tank, a 1/2 gal) until I can sort out the situation in his permanent home (an Eclipse 5gal hexagon), but I have a couple questions for you more experienced.

Will the black fade, i.e. will he recover, or have I done permanent damage to the little fellow? How long should this take?

The new tank was only recently set up for him, treated water, filter, heater etc. but apparently I've done something wrong or missed a step, as I find it difficult to believe he could produce enough ammonia to poison himself in less than a week in a 5 gallon. Did I just not cycle long enough (2 weeks)?

Thanks for the advice, I hope I've not done him too wrong. =/

[BakaMandy]

Are you sure it's ammonia? Once the tank is cycled, there shouldn't be any ammonia in the tank. The beneficial bacteria breaks the ammonia into Nitrite, and then other type of bacterial will break the Nitrite down into Nitrate which is harmless.

If he had ammonia poisoning, his gills would either be red and/or inflamed, not black.