Wal-Mart rescue

Well, I knew it would happen eventually. I've been planning to do some betta rescues, but wasn't quite ready for it. Then, we found Ginseng at Wal_Mart. This poor little guy has lost most of his tail to finrot and tail biting. We call him Ginseng because when we found him, he was in water the color of weak tea. Needless to say, he came home with us.

Now, he's set up in his very own 1 gallon tank with clean, crystal clear water, a touch of salt and some stress coat. I'm not sure if I'm going to medicate him or not. He's perked up a ton since we got him and has been alertly exploring his new environment. I think he's a very happy camper, now. I don't have any really good pics of him, but I've got one that shows the poor state of his tail fairly well. I'm glad we picked him up. Any advice, anyone? Bettamomma? *grin*

YAY!
How exciting for you. I have no advice for you - you're doing everything just perfectly

Give him a few days and see how his tail does. You should start seeing some signs of improvement very quickly with some clear growth coming in. If you don't, you might have to medicate, but I'd wait a while before doing that. He may start to come around all on his own with what you've done for him already.

Yeah. He's really doing great. He was bubblenesting earlier today. I haven't noticed any new growth but he is so alert and active. It's only been two days, so no new growth isn't terribly surprising. *grin* I'm so proud of our little rescue case. He's obviously much happier. We went back to Wal-Mart to see if any others were in really desperate straits. Some looked not so healthy, but none like him and I've got to save space as best I can, but we're going to keep an eye on those guys, like you do, bettamomma.

Actually, some of the bettas did have curled fins, like little ringlets. I'm not sure if this is an illness or just their nature. Nothing else seemed off about the ones with curled fins. Is this normal or should we be concerned and rescue these guys too?

I hope your little guy gets better

Curled fins are usually the case in bad water quality like fin rot. Not sure if it's as serious as fin rot of if it comes with fin rot but I'm sure someone else will tell you that

I forgot to mention that some bettas just come that way.

I have a betta that has curled fins ever since I have gotten him. I think that he just came that way. Another of my boys has a crooked anal fin. I am sure it is bad breeding, but I love them anyway.

Usually curled fins are caused by water quality.
I have some bettas that have chronic curled fins - will have them til the day they pass on. 2 of those boys suffered some damage when they were OD'd on MelaFix - but I have other ones that get the little curls that look like curling ribbon on the ends. They just have it all the time, no matter what. My water here has very high pH, too, so that could be the problem, but there's not much I can do about that. Several things can cause that - poor water quality or it can also be hereditary.

Unless you see some pretty major splitting or they're eating their tails off, I wouldn't consider those kind to be in dire need of a rescue.

Some things to remember when doing wellness checks...
WalMart doesn't medicate fish beyond methylene blue, so if they have any kind of bad fungus, ick, etc. - you will probably want to grab em or they won't make it.
PetSmart and PetCo DO mediate their fish - they have a "quiet room" as they call it. If you see something on a fish, like popeye, fungus, etc. - take him to an employee and tell them - tell them exactly what's wrong. Just walk up to them and say "This guy has XXXXX (whatever he has) and they will always take him away and off to the "quiet room".

The more places you go and talk to store employees, you'll start to learn what they can and can't do for their fish. Eventually, you'll just know when you *need* to take them home.

Does Petsmart really treat their fish, or is the "quiet room" a euphamism for the toilet? If they really do treat their fish, that is great. It just makes me wonder because I have seen some bad things at Petsmart, like an angel being picked apart by some other kind of fish. I told them and they did remove the angel, but I wondered if they bothered to treat him.

Petsmart should make their "quiet room" a room that anyone can go and check on the fish. So people that like to save them can adopt them, bring them back to health and either return them to the store, or buy them themselves. Kind of like when you foster a pregnant cat.

Ok, I am wayyyyyy off topic now, so I will stop. Hope your fish gets better. Good luck.

That's a very good point.
I have been (up til recently due to betta neglect) very good at taking people at face value.

I will find out for you.
I'll go make a visit and see if they'll show it to me.
I'll let ya know what I find.