We'll it looks like you are off to a good start getting him into a 5 g with a heater. And you're caring for the 1.5 g really well too. I don't see anything in your care routine that stands out to me (except the things you are fixing).

When you clean out the tank describe your process for me step by step. Also, is the white fuzzy?

 

For the 10-20% I just take a cup fill it with tap water, add the conditioner, and then let it sit for awhile to be room temp like the bowl. I use another cup to remove water and then gently pour in the new water. For the 100% I remove the decoration and use the cup from walmart (where the previous owner got him) to contain him while I clean the bowl. I just dump out the old water and rinse with hot water (along with the decoration), and then add the conditioner. I let it sit to reach room temp and then slowly put him back in.

Here is a better pic and the white/light blue is not fuzzy.

 

I guess, I would start by tackling the fin rot. I'd pick up Stress Coat +, and aquarium salt. Add 1 tsp aquarium salt per g of water, and double dose the Stress Coat +. You'll do 100% water changes daily during this time. Do this for 10 days, and see if you notice improvement (you should see the black edges fall off, and the beginnings of new growth). If you do not see improvement then you may want to try an antibiotic, but that's a last resort kind of thing.

I would think that the chin is related to stress (unless anyone else has another idea). It could be he is too cold, or the fluctuations without a heater are causing stress. It could be something in the room is scaring him, or upsetting him. Does he have places to hide if he gets nervous? Also, what is the brightly colored thing behind him in those pictures?

 

The brightly colored thing is a "house" i guess. He can hide in it for the most part.
It's coral-like shaped, hollow and has many holes.
I'm going to get a new one soon so he can hide in and I won't worry about his fins getting damaged. some of the holes are kind of small. I'm not sure if he's scared or stressed by anything but when I get home I should probably move him to quieter room with more privacy.
I will start the fin rot treatment asap.

 

Yes the white scale from chin to belly is a sign of stress as well.

Also a tip, if you've got a thermometer (which he'll need for the 5 gallon with the heater because they don't always work well) then you can run it under the tap to get exactly at 78 degree's for him instead of having to wait a while. Conditioner also works instantly so you could theroretically put him right in after that but make sure to acclimate him to the new water always.

So to do that, keep him in his cup and float him in the tank if you can. Otherwise just keep him close and spoon in 2 tablespoons every 10-15 minutes until his cup is nearing full again or it's been about 45 minutes and then you can gently release him back to his tank.

For the salt here's the steps you need to take to help him. So you want to use 1 teaspoon of Aquarium salt per gallon (not just any salt!) so if he's in a 1.5 then you use 1.5 teaspoons for that ratio. And don't worry, if it happens it's actually a 1 gallon, the 1.5 won't hurt him.

• Take a small cup and put some tank water or conditioned water into it.
• Measure out 1.5 teaspoons of salt.
• Mix around in the cup until you see absolutely no more crystals (it can still burn your fish).
• Add a tablespoon of the dissolved salt into your tank every 15 minutes so your fish can adjust to it. (If he's already in the tank, if he's not in the tank then go ahead and put it all in and then acclimate him to the new water)
• Once a day do a 100% cleaning.
• Re-add in the salt you took out. Salt does not evaporate so if you took out half of your water, replace 1.5 teaspoons of salt with the above method.
• Continue this for 14 days or until all the black edging goes away.

Salt will not heal his fins, it will just get rid of the rot. So to heal the fins you can use Stress Coat conditioner (which is a conditioner in and of itself so you don't need to use the regular one) at double the dose to heal his fins.

And for the 5 gallon you can get a product called Tetra Safe Start, not always guaranteed to work but it's basically Bacteria in a bottle. You pour it all in with your fish in there, keep the lights out for the two week period and don't do any water changes for two weeks. After that period is up your tank is cycled. That's just one thing you could do for him.

If you wanted to, you could do a Silent Cycle but it involves buying more stuff. Silent Cycle is basically shoving a bunch of plants in there and you never have to worry about your cycle! Basically the plants soak everything up but it slows the cycle down and you'll never see it, hence its called the Silent Cycle. For a 5 gallon, about 10-15 fast growers would be great! Plants like Anacharis, Anubias, Java Fern, Water Sprite and water wisteria are all super easy plants that basically demand nothing and grow on their own :-D

 

Can I use aquarium salt without stress coat?
The stressbcoat is coming with the tank but I can get the salt today.
Also for cycling, I dont have a lot of time because I have to travel for a week soon. If I were to get plants for a silent cycle, which kind and how many?

 

You can start with the aquarium salt today. I did forget to mention, as lilnaugrim mentioned, you need to dissolve it first. I put it into a water bottle and shake it. It will help to get rid of the black dead flesh. Stress Coat + will encourage the growth of new healthy fins. So you can start it once you get the Stress Coat +.

ETA: I treated fin rot without Stress Coat for a long time, just with aquarium salt. It just helps speed up the recovery period though, which is nice for the fish and they seem to like it.

 

Yup you can treat without Stress Coat. Stress Coat is just for the healing part so you can use it with or without the salt. But to heal up the fins after the salt treatment, you use Stress Coat because it has Aloe in it

Also do not use any salt for more than 14 days at these dosages. AQ salt especially can do liver or kidney damage which would then be fatal to your fish. So no long term use but perfectly fine for 14 day treatments! You may not even have to go that long His rot doesn't look bad at all which is good.

 

Thankyou so much for your advice :-D
Also can you tell me about plants for silent cycling?
)like which kind and how many?

 

The more plants the better for a Silent Cycle. But fast growers are what you want to soak up the ammonia.

Fast, low light plants:
Anacharis, Water Sprite, Rotala, Ludwigia, Cabomda, Hornwort, Moneywort, Java Moss and water wisteria.

But in addition to some fast growers, some slow growers are great too so your tank doesn't become a jungle (although I love the jungle look lol)

Slower, low lights:
Anubias and Java Ferns (Windlov, needleleaf, broadleaf and lace)

So in total you probably want about 10-15 plants in there ideally but it will work with about 8-10. Water wisteria is probably the fastest growing plant you can get along with Anacharis although you probably won't be able to find that everywhere.

You also have to realize that if you buy the plants in the tubes at Petco/Petsmart they will generally "melt" when you put them in the tank. That is their way of acclimating to your water and they will grow back. Only snip off a leaf if it turns brown but if it's green still and just looks like it's melting, it's fine to leave there and it will grow back

You may need some liquid fert but that's pretty easy, just dose it after your water change. The directions are usually 5ml per 10 gallons once a week but I split that into two feedings twice a week. So for a 10 gallon it would 2.5 ml on Wed. and another 2.5ml on Saturday and it works well. You can use either API's LeafZone or SeaChem's Flourish (Do not get Flourish Excel! That's something different you don't need!)

If you've got other questions feel free to ask or PM me

 

You also have to realize that if you buy the plants in the tubes at Petco/Petsmart they will generally "melt" when you put them in the tank. That is their way of acclimating to your water and they will grow back.

That's odd, I've never had one do that. Can you describe what you mean by melting? Mine always stay the same, or turn brown and die.

Just a heads up, it'll be really expensive to buy that many plants. A small single plant is like 4.99.

But, I would highly recommend anubis, as it is the little plant that could in my tank (and my anubis has been through a lot). It's also really pretty and "tropical" looking in my opinion. I also love anacharis, but if you get it from PetSmart or PetCo I almost 100% guarantee it will be infested with snails. I also love my marimo moss balls. They float around, so every time I look in my tank they're in a different spot.

 

The melting process generally occurs but it doesn't always with the tubes. It depends on how it was grown actually. If they are grown out of water like most of the tube plants are, they will melt but if they are grown in water (so like the plants you buy at Petco/Smart but art in the tank, those usually don't melt) will be fine.

It generally looks just like the plant is melting, it starts at the tip of the leaf and turns really dark green, sometimes almost transparent and works it's way down the leaf but once it settles in, it stops and the regular green color goes back out to the tip as it repairs itself. It doesn't always happen, but just a warning

Yes, they is why I mentioned Silent Cycling is going to cost you more but for me, it's worth it. Now that my 33 gallon plants are giving off baby's everywhere I could use those to cycle another tank if I wanted :-D That's the good thing about live plants, they make more of themselves unlike silk lol.

And yeah, Anubias is a great plant however for the cycling you really need the fast growers to start off with at least because they'll soak up all the ammonia in the first place.

 

All mine came from the tubes out of water at PetSmart. I work there, and I've never had a customer say anything to me about it (been there almost 2 years). But, it's good to know that I can warn them that it might happen. I wonder if it might have something to do with the differences in water parameters or pH or something.

Maybe me and Anubis just have a connection because mine grew fast, and big. I eventually took it all out and gave it to my boyfriends dad for his planted tank (bad idea, he killed it all within a few weeks and it lasted a year with me). None of the "fast" growing plants ever grew that fast for me. But, I do use natural light, as opposed to a bulb.