Right now I'm a broke college student living at home and inadvertantly started Betta fish keeping as a hobby. This is due two factors one is a dumb Walmart employe that told me they just needed a small container, fed once a week, and clean water (didn't recommend conditioner either). I also wanted pet I've always loved animals fur, feathers, scales, and etc. So due to my living arrangements and already having dogs that are "family" pets. I decided to get two based on the information the employee gave me. Well I got the fish home I figured the wal-mart employee gave me some mis-information. So I found this place got two 10 gallon tanks did the set up. I now own 2 hospital tanks due to me being a hard head and trying to accomplish cycles with the fish in. Not saying it's not possible but my blue Betta was just lethargic and fins started deteriorating fast over the last two days, and the red Betta was showing signs of fin splits to begin.
Last night I checked on my fish and I had made a mistake I had left the heater unplugged for the blue Betta after his last water change and shut off the bedroom heater for most of the day. His water was hovering around 70-72*. This due to the cycling process, fin rot, and some growth on his gills left this fish in bad shape. When I checked on him he swam by the filter and barely could escape it he actually got stuck needing a second effort to get free. I was like aww frick and hurriedly made a makeshift tank from a drawer out of a sterilite 3 drawer cart with low water and a heater. He seemed somewhat better in the low clean water. As far as the red one goes he has always been far more active, heftier, and just more lively in general. I checked him out and he has two tiny slits in his tail fin. So from what I learned with the blue Betta I figured he would be heading down the same path. I decided to leave him in the tank because he was being active, strong swimmer, and his same old self despite some mysterious discoloring that just popped up on his face and gills (possible ammonia burn?) in the 4 days. Some people say it may be his coloring but I had him three weeks before and he never showed this discoloration. I decided they both needed to get out of the cycling tanks.
So this morning everyone comes to me when I get up saying "why did you kill the fish," and "Oh he didn't make it through the night". I'm a little perturbed because it wasn't like I was doing this on purpose. I also didn't like how they acted as if they meant nothing. I check on him and yeah he still isn't so hot but his gills are still moving. He had stress stripes from seeing himself in the drawer sides unfortunately so I kept him under two towels to keep light out. I ran out and bought some aquarium salt and two medium pet keepers as soon as the Petco opened. I set them up this morning in their hospital tanks. I prepped the keepers and transferred the fish to their new heated hospital tanks/temporary homes while the main tanks cycle. The blue Betta after 15 hours in the new KK: His white growth on his gills has fell off I watched it progressively dangle more and more until he shook it off and I skimmed it out of the KK. His color has came back and activity has went through the roof and he awarded me with his first flare I've ever seen him do when he saw the red one next to him in the other KK tonight. There is a divider in between the KKs now. The red one is still doing good activity wise and his gills/face look to be healing.
Does anyone else's family think they are crazy? My mom told me she would just have let the thing died this morning. It's like they don't understand the investment of time I have in these guys. I know it's a 4 dollar fish, but seriously it's a lot more to me than just the 8 dollars that it would take to replace them. My family keeps telling me they're just fish and you can always get new ones. I want these guys to live they're my fish and the store doesn't have MY fish. Seriously for me tonight when the blue one flared at my red Betta after just this morning being pale with dark stress stripes from seeing his reflection totally made it worth it. I think the prognosis is looking for the both of them and hopefully will be returning them to their 10 gallon tanks in a few weeks when it finishes cycling.
Last night I checked on my fish and I had made a mistake I had left the heater unplugged for the blue Betta after his last water change and shut off the bedroom heater for most of the day. His water was hovering around 70-72*. This due to the cycling process, fin rot, and some growth on his gills left this fish in bad shape. When I checked on him he swam by the filter and barely could escape it he actually got stuck needing a second effort to get free. I was like aww frick and hurriedly made a makeshift tank from a drawer out of a sterilite 3 drawer cart with low water and a heater. He seemed somewhat better in the low clean water. As far as the red one goes he has always been far more active, heftier, and just more lively in general. I checked him out and he has two tiny slits in his tail fin. So from what I learned with the blue Betta I figured he would be heading down the same path. I decided to leave him in the tank because he was being active, strong swimmer, and his same old self despite some mysterious discoloring that just popped up on his face and gills (possible ammonia burn?) in the 4 days. Some people say it may be his coloring but I had him three weeks before and he never showed this discoloration. I decided they both needed to get out of the cycling tanks.
So this morning everyone comes to me when I get up saying "why did you kill the fish," and "Oh he didn't make it through the night". I'm a little perturbed because it wasn't like I was doing this on purpose. I also didn't like how they acted as if they meant nothing. I check on him and yeah he still isn't so hot but his gills are still moving. He had stress stripes from seeing himself in the drawer sides unfortunately so I kept him under two towels to keep light out. I ran out and bought some aquarium salt and two medium pet keepers as soon as the Petco opened. I set them up this morning in their hospital tanks. I prepped the keepers and transferred the fish to their new heated hospital tanks/temporary homes while the main tanks cycle. The blue Betta after 15 hours in the new KK: His white growth on his gills has fell off I watched it progressively dangle more and more until he shook it off and I skimmed it out of the KK. His color has came back and activity has went through the roof and he awarded me with his first flare I've ever seen him do when he saw the red one next to him in the other KK tonight. There is a divider in between the KKs now. The red one is still doing good activity wise and his gills/face look to be healing.
Does anyone else's family think they are crazy? My mom told me she would just have let the thing died this morning. It's like they don't understand the investment of time I have in these guys. I know it's a 4 dollar fish, but seriously it's a lot more to me than just the 8 dollars that it would take to replace them. My family keeps telling me they're just fish and you can always get new ones. I want these guys to live they're my fish and the store doesn't have MY fish. Seriously for me tonight when the blue one flared at my red Betta after just this morning being pale with dark stress stripes from seeing his reflection totally made it worth it. I think the prognosis is looking for the both of them and hopefully will be returning them to their 10 gallon tanks in a few weeks when it finishes cycling.
