New to site and fish

[MrElliot]

I'm new to the site and new to keeping fish.
I brought home a Betta about 4 hours ago. Was given a whole setup today as the lady couldn't look after them. They belonged to her son who went away to school. There is 3 fish, the Betta and I believe the others are a Otocinclus, and a Corydoras. The tank is a 5 gallon, with filter, air stone and heated.
The Betta was just hiding in a bottom corner when I picked them up and the lady said it had been like that since it moved to her house 10 days earlier. I've since removed the air stone and put a baffle on the filter. Heater was set to 78 degrees, so I left that. I did use a new razor to clean a bunch of the algae off the sides of the aquarium as it was pretty bad. I haven't changed any water yet, as I'm just now sure how much to change. The Betta is now out from the corner and swimming around. He/She had no problem eating when I feed it 2 small pellets of Betta food. The tail fins or whatever they're called don't look like any of the pictures I've looked at. They're all limp and folded over.

Here is a picture I just took of it. I think it's a male, but I'm not sure.

[Romad]

Awwwww..... poor little guy. Did she happen to give you a water test kit?? It would be good to know how much ammonia is in that tank since you don't know what her water changing schedules were (I doubt they were frequent).

I would do dialy water changes of about 15% until you think you've replaced most of that possibly toxic water. Changing it all at once might be too much of a shock for the fish since he's acclimated to the water he was living in. Don't forget to condition the new water with something like Seachem Prime to remove chlorine before adding it to the tank.

Does he have any hiding spots like a little cave or leafy plants? That will reduce his stress.

And yes, he's a male. A veiltail. Keep an eye on the fins and look for signs of rot. I'd say to add some AQ salt to the tank but I think the other two fish might be sensitive to it.

Good luck with your new friend.

[MrElliot]

No she didn't give me a water test kit. The lady actually wanted to put the fish in tap water from the tap and dump the tank for me to move it. I told her not to and took a 1 gallon glass jar for each fish and put their tank water in the jars to move them. I'm on well water here and it gets tested every month. Never a trace of chlorine in the 3 years I've been here. I did set out some water last night to let it sit for 24hrs before changing in the tank. I've heated it to the 78 degrees that the tank water is at. Yeah he has a cave statue and a small clay pot to hide in. I've moved the clay pot towards the top of the tank. There is 5 plastic leafy plants in the tank also. I'm going to take some tank water into town in the morning and see if a pet store here can test it for me.

[Oldfishlady]

Welcome to the forum and to the wonderful world of Betta keeping...happy you found us and became a member of out neat little community.....

Look forward to hearing more about your Betta keeping adventures and seeing pic.....we love pics around here....lol.....

You should post your questions on the main forum and be sure and complete the sticky with all the needed info and add to your post-sticky found at the top of the disease and emergency section....

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[morla]

Hi! Aw! Poor fishy! Welcome to the forum! I hope you like it here!