New Betta Owner with alot of Questions[=

[shayabetta]

hmmm ok where to begin!
Well i guess i should start by saying how i became interested in betta fish..
This Christmas my boyfriend wanted a pet. However, his apartment complex would not allow any furry friends. So, i decided to get him a fish, and going to Petsmart, i heard the typical " oh these fish are great! they can live in small spaces with hardly any care!", and i thought wow that would be great, as my boyfriend is usually very busy, but after reading this i have learned very differently.
After caring for my bf's Betta i became attached to it, and once i gave him his fishy, I just had to get my own!!!!
So now i have my own Betta (Stitch♥)
I got my boyfriend a tank with a heater and a filter and all that good stuff.
But my stitch has not been so fortunate.
Not knowing much, i thought it would be cute to have a fish in a bowl, so that is what i did.
So i bought a bowl smooth pebbles two plastic plants bamboo and my stitchy..
I have had stitch for about 3 weeks now. So the first week and a half he was doing ok, but was barely eating, after doing very little research i realized stitch was cold, so immediately went out and bought him a betta bowl heater and thermometer.Almost immediately he was much more active and eating his betta pellets.
So about two weeks into it I was feeling much better and thinking things were much better.. BUT one morning i woke up and stitch's tail (anal fin)
was very shredded.. i started crying not knowing what in the world could have caused it, so after i got back from dance i did tonsss of research(mostly here on this website.) Then i realized I was doing a lot wrong. I thought he had ripped his fins on the plastic plants i had, so i went out and spent 25 dollars on silk plants, 8 dollars on melafix, and 10 dollars on freeze dried blood worms which are supposed to have more protien for Bettas.
So now i had re made his little bowl, but much to my dismay i realized his fins were getting much much worse]=
so then i thought maybe it was fin rot. so i continued my melafix treatment, and now today i have read some pretty scary things about that medicine=/
So is melafix as bad as they say?
some say i should do a complete water change, and usually stitch is very active today he is been a little slumpy hanging out at the bottom.. and i just want to see him pull through!
IN a month or so i am going to buy him a biorb, which I'm hoping helps but until then what can i do?
Also today i noticed it looks to me like oil? very little but im very concerned..
so please give me all the feedback possible i love this site and i know you all are so experienced! so anything would be helpful thank you♥
- shaya

[Irish Dancing Man]

Sounds like ich.I'm srry but i don't know any cure. (But i know theres all these different medications for it)

[shayabetta]

doesnt ich mean they should have white spots?

[Lion Mom]

Originally Posted by Irish Dancing Man

Sounds like ich.I'm srry but i don't know any cure. (But i know theres all these different medications for it)

How does that sound like Ich??? Ich is a parasite that makes the fish look like he is covered in salt.

Ok - now how big is the bowl you have your guy in? I use a bowl of one of my guys, but it is a 2 gal. drum bowl with a small internal filter and heater and even at that I clean it 3 times a week. How often & how much of his water are you changing?

Any live plants?

Is it possible your boy is biting his tail?

What kind (brand) of food are you feeding him?

What is the water temp?

Can you post a pic of your set up and your fish? We will do everything we can to help you out!!!

OH! And welcome to the forum!!!

[shayabetta]

Unfortunately not big enough now that i know how horrible they can be, and i know its less then a gallon=/
WEll ive done a bunch of different things cuz i have read a bunch but ive done anything from 100% to 25& and like every 5 days or so?
after using the melafix it says do a 25% water change after 7 days of treatment but i did that today, and hes been very sluggish=[
currently right now his water is 81 degrees[=
and his food is Hikari- freeze dried blood worms..
I dont think he is biting his tail, i watch him quite often and have never seen him do that..
but i mean maybe its possible?
and yes ill post a pic[=
oh and he also has bamboo in there[=

[shayabetta]

sorry.. this may sound dumb.. but idk how to post pics? but i have some ready when i figure it out![=

[shayabetta]

He made a bubble nest at one point[=
http://tinypic.com/r/nnkz8p/7
That was his silk plant i bought him, but took out because i thought maybe the plastic ripped his fin:


This is Stitch's new home:(p.s) stitch always flares out when he sees the camera hes such a silly boy




This is how his fins keep looking=/:


and this is stitch when i got him[=:

[shayabetta]

okay i hope this helps you help me lol, and thank you so much i appreciate you replying[=

[kfish]

Looks a lot like tail biting...

You should be changing your water at LEAST 100% every other day (I'd do changes every day, alternating 50% and 100%... or just 100% everyday). Especially if he's healing. Tail biting can be caused by boredom, stress (bad water, maybe?), and a whole lot of other things. It's really hard to figure it out sometimes.

With regard to Melafix, I've used it but only in extra small doses (like 1/5 the recommended dose). I never had bad side effects, however, most people think it's better to be safe than sorry, so they just don't use it.

Someone else may have other input, but to me it doesn't look like fin rot.

[Crazykat]

If it happened over night and there's no black edge where the torn fin is, I would guess it is tailbiting. If you want to get a bigger container for cheap, you can bet a large plastic container at walmart or a kritter keeper and Petco/smart. That might help him feel less stressed (fewer water changes, more space to turn around) so that he doesn't tailbite. Before you try Melafix, you might try using aquarium salt. There's far less of a chance of something bad happening. I've heard both good and bad about melafix (be warned, if you have melafix, not betta fix, it is extremely concentrated), but I've only every heard good about aquarium salt. Clean water is one of the most important things now that he's healing, so do 100% changes every day, like kfish said.

Tl;dr version: I'd get a bigger container, doesn't have to be a tank, keep the water clean with frequent water changes and try aquarium salt instead of melafix.