New Adoption

[MaggieLynn]

Ok so a friend of mine bought a betta some time last semester he lives in a tiny vase and she has had him for maybe 3 months. well she doesnt want him anymore so I have made plans to pick him up on tuesday I have a 3 gallon tank thats empty, she says that his water hasnt been changed in prob a month she works 40 hours a week and goes to school full time. So I am curious as to the best way of bringing him back to health? should I put him in a 3/4 gallon first to keep an eye on him until he is better, should I do a salt treatment along with clean water? as far as I know he isnt doing too hot and she hasnt changed the water for a while I dont know whether he is eating or not she does give food. I want to be prepared for this new guy before I bring him home.

[Oldfishlady]

Since he has been somewhat neglected...you need to be careful changing too much water too fast-but at the same time you have to be careful with neglected water due to the natural chemistry changes that can happen....

To transport home-use a small holding container with a lid using his tank water he is currently in-cover it or use a dark/solid colored container to limit light and go ahead and add a couple of drops of the Prime at this point...

Sometimes in neglected water the normal decomp can drive the CO2 up which in turn can drive the pH down and this can cause the ammonia convert to ammonium-then once you add higher pH water this can cause the ammonium to convert back to ammonia that can harm the Betta....but if the nitrate is also high-that sudden extreme change can shock the Betta.....

If you can test the pH and nitrate-this will give you the answers to help tell you what to do...but if you can't.....I would assume that these natural chemistry changes have occurred to be on the safe side.....

What you can do....If you have Prime to treat the water with....add this to the holding container with the Betta-Dump half the water out- then start adding small amount of the new fresh dechlorinated tank water to him in the holding container over 15-20min or to his tolerance-you may need to repeat this process a couple of time...dump half the water out of the holding container-add a drop or two of Prime-then add small amount of the new tank water...etc.....if he seem to be tolerating this chemistry/temp changes...net and add to the new tank....be sure and dump any of the water from the neglected tank down the drain or in a house plant.....the water may not be as bad as you think-but it never hurts to play it safe than sorry later.....

Once you have him in the new tank-if it has a filter-wait to turn this on and turn off the light for the first 24h and hold food unless he is acting okay and asking for food-Then I would just do fresh, like temp, dechlorinated water treatment with some daily 25-50% water only changes for a couple of days and go from that point....

Often all they need is a little TLC, time and good nutrition for a few days then regular schedule water changes and good nutrition to prevent problems thereafter......That being-3gal unfiltered-twice weekly-1-50% and 1-100% to maintain water quality

If he seem sick or overly lethargic...etc.....after 24h...he may need a treatment...but I would wait and see how he does and even if he has some fin rot-if its not really bad...clean water treatment and good nutrition should fix that up in a week or so...this can vary based on how bad of shape he is in to start too.....and until you get him home and acclimated to his new setup-evaluate and go from that point on what the best next step will be.....

Keep us posted and post some pics once you get him home...

[MaggieLynn]

Thanks OFL! I go get him tomorrow, he is from an old school mate from the school I just transferred from which is 40 miles away from the city I live in so it will be a drive but he will be worth it. there will be update and pics tomorrow evening