Hi
@imaal or @Imp do either of you have insight/thoughts about this fish?

 

I'm at a loss. If she cannot be provided heat and clean treated water at a minimum, what advice could we possibly give? She's in awful shape. The anterior portion of her dorsal is rotted out clear to the skin where there appears to be fungus. She's clearly bloated. Unless I'm misreading this thread, there's nobody who can provide the appropriate treatment. Certainly not the person who 'knows fish' and refers to a fungused fish as 'moldy.'

And what in heaven's name is this 'ecosystem project'--how to be cruel to animals?

 

...

And what in heavens name is this 'ecosystem project'--how to be cruel to animals?

Nowadays, this would have failed the required ethics examination at many a university before it even started.

 

Thank you so very much for commenting @imaal and @Imp . My personal thought was euthanasia, as in yesterday by a number of days.

By the way,

I have Mei moving into my 5.5 soon.

What is causing the holdup?

 

Thank you so very much for commenting @imaal and @Imp . My personal thought was euthanasia, as in yesterday by a number of days.

By the way,

What is causing the holdup?

I didn't have the equipment yet. After Halloween (tomorrow) I will have her home and begin fish in-cycling like you said.

 

Personally I would have done a clove oil bath by now. Most likely the kindest thing to do

 

Please see my final comment.

 

Thank you all for your advice. However, please remember that I am really new to this. I am also in no position where I can euthanize this fish. I was simply asking if you could determine what she was ill with, and I was trying to think of possible solutions. It is not my fault that we did such a harmful experiment, and with such fragile fish.

 

I'm going to be taking Mei home today, and the sick fish, Sadie. I'm planning to get some clove oil to euthanize her, as I find it highly unlikely her owner will. Please give me some tips on how much water to dilute the clove oil in.

 

Prepare a small container with water and put in the freezer until surface starts to freeze.

Prepare an emulsion of 10 drops of clove oil and 100 ml warm water by shaking it very, very well.
Add this (preferably with a syringe and some pressure) to a quarter or max. half a gallon of tank water and stir well.

Put the fish in and watch for any sign of breathing or eye movements if rolled over after twenty minutes.
If no signs, transfer fish to freezing water and dispose of (no flushing) after another twenty minutes.
If signs, repeat dose, wait and then transfer to freezing water.

EDIT:However, I may have an idea of how you could possibly avoid this.
Have you a photograph of the 5.5G Tank, or do you know its make etc or could you get measurements?

 

Be sure to acclimate them before you put them in the tank. If you need instructions, give a holler. And don't put any of that nasty bowl water in your tank. Net them out of the bowl once you've got the right temperature and slowly replaced most of the bowl water with tank water.

Good for you for taking this on. Do keep us posted. And good luck!

 

Hello guys!

My tank is now set up and running. The heater is in the water (according to instructions) and the air pump is wrapped in a towel to prevent water getting on it.

However, the sponge filter keeps rising to the surface...any ideas?

Both Mei and Sadie ate their dinner, I gave Sadie a little less.

Should I add them in (ofc acclimating by floating the containers) or should I wait 24 hours?

Also, I'm assuming I'd float Sadie, then take out most of her dirty water and net her into the Tupperware?

Thank you guys for everything so far, and I'll post my setup soon!

 

Never mind, I squeezed the sponge and it sunk.

 

Idk, the Tetra site said to. If I can indeed introduce them right away, I'll have em in tonight

 

Sadie's top fin is almost all gone. She looks like crap. if this doesn't work I may have to euthanize. I have oil now. Hoping I wont have to though...

 

Both Sadie and Mei are floating in my tank, acclimating. Hopefully they both survive the night..

 

Both fish are in the tank. Mei is being a little silly and keeps darting around nibbling stuff. Sadie is in a plastic food grade container clothes pinned to the edge of the tank. Neither seem to mind each other. However, my thermometers are a little weird and hard to read. I have the Fluval $3 adhesives, it looks like they say 82 degrees Fahrenheit but the heater comes pre set to 78??

 

If you have a kitchen thermometer, (a new one that hasn't been used or cleaned with soap would be best) sanitized with hydrogen peroxide and a really good rinse and air dried, use that to determine the temp. of the tank.

 

 

There’s my setup 😊

 

First water test completed! Results:
0.25 ppm Ammonia (changing water/siphoning now)
0 ppm nitrite
5.0 ppm nitrate (hard to tell, but looks closest to that color)
6.6 pH

By the way, I looked up Betta breeds and it appears that I have a crown tail and a veiltail

 

Changed 25% of Mei's water, added conditioner (11 drops). Added about 7 to Sadie's and siphoned almost all of her water and waste

 

One thing is that you'll need to keep the ammonia at zero with more frequent water changes.

Changed 25% of Mei's water, added conditioner (11 drops)

Have you been following the cycling tutorial for the tank? I'm not clear how you did it, but it's typically recommended to add the conditioner to the new water, not to the tank.

Also, can you get some Vita Chem?

 

Guys, I don’t know what to do. Sadie looks really bad. I’m going to go find some oak leaves today. Hopefully they will help my girl.

 

Species appropriate food can do as much good as the Vita Chem in my opinion, such as Fluval Bug Bites.

 

I'll attempt to get something. Probably the Vita Chem

 

I'm not able to get Vita Chem. There's not much point, cause Sadie is getting worse. I doubt she will survive the weekend.

 

I'm so sorry.

 

Thank you. At least she got to have her last days in heated water with regular food. I will definitely be speaking to the person in charge of the project and asking if bettas can never be used in it again.

 

Sadie is in her clove oil bath. No signs of gill movement. She will be added to freezing water in a bit. I'm planning a funeral later today 😔

 

I'm sorry. As you said, her last days were better for you, thanks to you.

 

I'm so sorry this happened. Animal testing in any form is disgusting and cruel - I'm not sure where you work/go to school but this incident definitely deserves to be reported. Thank you for doing the best you could. <3

 

Thank you, I will 100% be telling the person in charge on Wednesday.

 

What's especially frustrating to me is that aquaria are well tested eco-system projects all by themselves.

We know how to set up such a system while putting the fish's well-being front and center, and that includes setups designed for zero water changes and growing plants.

I know teachers get tons of manure these days, so I hesitate to say this, but it is their responsibility to intervene in these cases where things go so wrong.

 

Rip sadie
Poor thing