short problem:
5 gallon tank, sick betta fish (the only resident), raged fins (some almost entirely gone) and white patches, dull appearance, barely swimming, please help
details of the problem and what I've already tried:
This is my first tank and first fish, and we've only had him for about 8 months, and aside from a few issues when we started the tank, he has alway been healthy. there were originally a few african frogs, but they all kept dying, so we gave up on those and now its just the fish.
we have one betta living in a 5 gallon tank with a filter and a heater that were both sold as appropriate for a 5 gallon tank. His fins were getting all ragged and I thought it was environmental because we had a number of plastic plants in there. So I started removing plants and replacing them with silk ones. Trying to give it a few days to a week before I determined if there was change in either direction. Then there were white spots showing up, and I was told at a petstore that it was ich, so we treated for that starting this last wednesday. With that treatment complete, our fish is still suffering.
Our water tests fine, we have the dip sticks with the little squares on them. the nitrates we at 20, no nitrites and no ammonia or chlorine. The hardness, PH and alkilinity are the same as theyve always been (although I don't know the numbers off the top of my head). At conclusion of the ich treatment, it suggested doing a 25% water change.
Our fish is barely swimming, he is resting on the gravel at the bottom (I have never prior to this seen him do this, he will normally rest in a plant, or since I started noticing the fin problems I have a mason jar tied sideways as a "cave" at the top of the tank so he doesn't get "blown" around). So I didn't want to stress him out more by changing the water and moving things around, so I put him in a jar as a sort of quarantine tank and floated it in the tank to keep the temperature the same. While he was in that I stirred up the gravel, let the filter run for about 15 min, rinsed out the filter in a bowl of the current aquarium water, and repeated 4 times. There was admittedly a LOT of brown gunk that came up from the gravel. After stirring the gravel only produced a haze rather than a brown cloud I did probably a 30% water change, using the chlorine treater we normally use and then put some nitrifying bacteria in as well, which I normally do with water changes.
The tank looks fantastic, the water still tests well. the fish is still in the floating jar, and I have been very slowly adding a few tablespoons of tank water to aclimate him to the new water. However, I am nervous to put him back in the big tank because of his swimming ability. I really feel terrible and rather embarrassed about how bad it got, and that I didn't think it was that serious of an issue until he was sitting on the bottom of the tank. his fins are maybe half the length that they once were, the small fins that are very nearest the front with one on either side are almost gone and there is an overall grayish appearance to him. He mostly just rests and you can see his gills moving, but when he sees you come over to the tank he still manages to swim to the surface.
At the petstore again I was told it was probably something fungal and they gave me some API pimafix. But, I'm still hesitent to let him out of the jar because he seems weak and I don't want him to get stuck to the filter and it is much deeper so he is further from the top if he needs to get air there, but also concerned to keep him in the jar because there is no oxigenation system in there (ive been taking a teaspoon and removing and splashing back in some water to try and keep some oxygen in there for now, and its really tiny, probably like 6oz.
please help, I'm so afraid whatever I do is going to kill the fish, but I also know he needs help so not doing anything will also kill him.
5 gallon tank, sick betta fish (the only resident), raged fins (some almost entirely gone) and white patches, dull appearance, barely swimming, please help
details of the problem and what I've already tried:
This is my first tank and first fish, and we've only had him for about 8 months, and aside from a few issues when we started the tank, he has alway been healthy. there were originally a few african frogs, but they all kept dying, so we gave up on those and now its just the fish.
we have one betta living in a 5 gallon tank with a filter and a heater that were both sold as appropriate for a 5 gallon tank. His fins were getting all ragged and I thought it was environmental because we had a number of plastic plants in there. So I started removing plants and replacing them with silk ones. Trying to give it a few days to a week before I determined if there was change in either direction. Then there were white spots showing up, and I was told at a petstore that it was ich, so we treated for that starting this last wednesday. With that treatment complete, our fish is still suffering.
Our water tests fine, we have the dip sticks with the little squares on them. the nitrates we at 20, no nitrites and no ammonia or chlorine. The hardness, PH and alkilinity are the same as theyve always been (although I don't know the numbers off the top of my head). At conclusion of the ich treatment, it suggested doing a 25% water change.
Our fish is barely swimming, he is resting on the gravel at the bottom (I have never prior to this seen him do this, he will normally rest in a plant, or since I started noticing the fin problems I have a mason jar tied sideways as a "cave" at the top of the tank so he doesn't get "blown" around). So I didn't want to stress him out more by changing the water and moving things around, so I put him in a jar as a sort of quarantine tank and floated it in the tank to keep the temperature the same. While he was in that I stirred up the gravel, let the filter run for about 15 min, rinsed out the filter in a bowl of the current aquarium water, and repeated 4 times. There was admittedly a LOT of brown gunk that came up from the gravel. After stirring the gravel only produced a haze rather than a brown cloud I did probably a 30% water change, using the chlorine treater we normally use and then put some nitrifying bacteria in as well, which I normally do with water changes.
The tank looks fantastic, the water still tests well. the fish is still in the floating jar, and I have been very slowly adding a few tablespoons of tank water to aclimate him to the new water. However, I am nervous to put him back in the big tank because of his swimming ability. I really feel terrible and rather embarrassed about how bad it got, and that I didn't think it was that serious of an issue until he was sitting on the bottom of the tank. his fins are maybe half the length that they once were, the small fins that are very nearest the front with one on either side are almost gone and there is an overall grayish appearance to him. He mostly just rests and you can see his gills moving, but when he sees you come over to the tank he still manages to swim to the surface.
At the petstore again I was told it was probably something fungal and they gave me some API pimafix. But, I'm still hesitent to let him out of the jar because he seems weak and I don't want him to get stuck to the filter and it is much deeper so he is further from the top if he needs to get air there, but also concerned to keep him in the jar because there is no oxigenation system in there (ive been taking a teaspoon and removing and splashing back in some water to try and keep some oxygen in there for now, and its really tiny, probably like 6oz.
please help, I'm so afraid whatever I do is going to kill the fish, but I also know he needs help so not doing anything will also kill him.
