So, three of my four bettas in my divided ten gallon have finrot, got some Pimafix and dosed the whole tank because i was told it would be safe for ALL my fish, and i read the label thoroughly, nothing about taking plants or anything else out, and i woke up this morning to both of my otos dead, only thing i did was dose the tank with the pimafix. Well i took that crap back and got some salt and a bucket thing of carbon for my filter. Should i take out all of the substrait and start over? I got new sand and everything. If it is bacterial i want to just start over and treat with salt. Is this a good idea?
Remove the gravel and treat with aquarium salt. Do daily water changes. Long finned male bettas that have gravel in their tank with transparent dividers seem more likely to get fin rot, IMHO. If possible, house each male in his own heated tank out of constant view of other males for best results.
Fin rot is caused by poor water quality, step up the waterchanges, get a test kit and see how high the ammonia is, add some plants, put individual filters in each section of the divided tank as the dividers are likely not letting much water flow through, you can double up the mesh on the dividers so the betta can't see eachother as well but overall i believe finrot is caused by poor water quality-fix that! ;)
How much of a water change should i do daily? I was doing a 75% water change once weekly.
I cleaned their tank and put new sand in, and separated the one that wasnt sick, for ease of treatment, and i think ill leave him in his own tank, it gives everyone more room.
I dont have the money right now to get separate tanks and heaters for them all, and the water flow is fine with the dividers because i actually have the filter pointed sideways, flowing across them, rather than just into one section.
And the box of salt says one tablespoon per five gallons, is that fine, or should i put more? less? (already did the first dose of two tablespoons)
The red dots are either the tips of the rays rotting away (aka fin rot) or he's been biting at his fins. Fin rot is more likely though since you already know they have it.
The otos died because they are very sensitive to medication and you are supposed to use 1/2 doses in tanks with otos or other scaleless fish (most catfish).
Increase water changes... You should consider removing the sand as well. It makes water changes more difficult and the floating particles (following water changes) can hurt their gills. It also raises the pH (bettas prefer slightly acid water).
The red dots are either the tips of the rays rotting away (aka fin rot) or he's been biting at his fins. Fin rot is more likely though since you already know they have it. Okay, that's what i thought, i just wanted to be sure, cause they scared me a bit.
The otos died because they are very sensitive to medication and you are supposed to use 1/2 doses in tanks with otos or other scaleless fish (most catfish).
Ooh... Now i feel worse because i did not know that... >.< Wish i had known earlier, i would have taken them out.
Increase water changes... You should consider removing the sand as well. It makes water changes more difficult and the floating particles (following water changes) can hurt their gills. It also raises the pH (bettas prefer slightly acid water). I have seen many other users on here using sand, and i have used it for a long time as well. I always use something to diffuse the water as i pour it in after a water change so that i dont disturb the sand much at the bottom, if at all. I am planning on moving soon though, and at that point i will switch to a gravel covered potting soil so that i can do live plants. This will probably happen by the end of may, or middle of june.
Also, i am doing about 2-2 1/2 gallon water change daily in the big tank, so that i can treat with salt. Is this enough, or should i do a 50% change daily with the salt. After a bit of looking around i found that one tsp per gallon is the right dose of AQ salt, is this correct? The boys are looking better already, and its only been three days with salt.
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