Bettamax...just curious:

[Alien Anna]

so many products are banned under our medicines laws (gentian violet, for instance, that purple anti-fungal lotion)

gentian violet's banned really?
that surprises me

Apparently its carcinogenic (if you take a bath in it and sprinkle it on your dinner, presumably).

 

[wuvmybetta]

So you're saying tomorrow I should give him a partial water change instead of a full one?? Last night it didn't look "really bad", as you say. But compared to what his tail looked like last week it's really bad. But like I said ....it hasn't gotten worse. So maybe that's good.

welllll , touchy subject, I KNOW it's not a cycled tank and NOW'S really not the time to start a cycle with the little guy, here's what I would do (if I did regular 100% changes instead of cycled water tanks) Fill a large bowl with clean dechlorinated water..scoop out about 10-20% of his water with a small cup (dixie disposable bath cups work fantastic) ,fill his tank with clean water...about 30 minutes to an hour later do it again & again & again so that he eventully DOES get the 100% change,just not all at once. I usually do partial changes by the sink so that the old water is easy to dump/dispose of.
Maybe he just has sensitive "skin" and the water changes are too abrupt or something , you said it started as a tear so the silver will be a good thing to have on hand so you can repair them quickly, the female I mentioned days ago also has a male neighbor...his fins went thru the divider and she took a nip at them (the same day,too much excitement I guess ) but he had a small hole in the center of his finnage and it healed in a day or so as well.
So just give him time & don't worry. I've brought home bettas with nothing but nubs for fins and even with silver it took a few weeks to see some growth happen

 

[Scarab]

I actually went ahead and did a full water change last night. Reason being: when I got home and looked at him & the water, the water had a bunch of stuff in it!! Looked like a bunch of fuzzy light brown colored lint, some in very small clumps (for lack of a better word), at the bottom of the tank. And the rest of the water had wispy bits of the stuff just floating around! I don't what know it was...if it was caused by the silver, or what. I just knew I couldn't have him swimming around in it. So I changed his water pronto. I didn't put in any more silver or bettafix. I'll wait and see what he looks like tonight when I get home from work. Last night he didn't look any worse.

Any ideas on what that stuff was floating in the water??

 

[wuvmybetta]

I wonder if it was poop...? Maybe his system cleared itself out of all bad bacteria. Good call on the 100% change. How's he doin'?

 

[Alien Anna]

It sounds more like brown slime algae, or diatoms, which can occur in ammonia or high nitrates and is a hang-over symptom from the tank cycling.

 

[Scarab]

no...it wasn't poop....there was waaaay too much of it, and it didn't look like it

not familiar with diatoms/algae...have never encountered it before in my tanks....I should've tested the water last night before I dumped it, but I was in such a rush to get Samson out of it, I didn't bother with testing

I'll find out how he's doing when I get home from work tonight and will let you know

 

[wuvmybetta]

It sounds more like brown slime algae, or diatoms, which can occur in ammonia or high nitrates and is a hang-over symptom from the tank cycling.

possible...but how can that happen in an uncycled tank?

 

[Alien Anna]

It sounds more like brown slime algae, or diatoms, which can occur in ammonia or high nitrates and is a hang-over symptom from the tank cycling.

possible...but how can that happen in an uncycled tank?

I don't see the connection. In an un-cycled tank you frequently get high ammonia levels. Diatoms thrive in high ammonia. Diatoms also thrive in high nitrates, which is why they can infest older tanks as well.

 

[wuvmybetta]

)
ahhhh...gotcha, I was confused

 

[Scarab]

Samson's doing much better! Woohoo! lol

He's still in his hospital tank. Frequent water changes. The last time I posted here & did a water change I didn't add anything to water. I let him rest unmedicated. I watched him and noticed the rot had ceased. If I remember correctly I did one more dose of silver & bettafix a day later. After that I just did frequent partial water changes (mostly me turkey basting out the poop) and just using the bettafix by itself. His fins and rays are slowly growing back . The growth is clear right now...but I'm hoping it regains the color. I'm not familiar with how fin regrowth looks and goes...so if anyone can provide some info that'd be great.

He's still in the little 1/2 gallon hospital tank...but I've bought a new 2.5 gallon for him but haven't set it up yet. I'm gonna keep him in the 1/2 gallon just a little longer.

On another note...I've added a real plant to Solomon's plastic planted tank. The lfs gave me free hornwart! How cool is that?! They'll definitely be getting more of my business in the future (I usually go to either Petsmart, Petco or Pet Supermarket because they're close by...but they didn't get any hornwart in with their plant shipments).

 

[Scarab]

Ok...I spoke to soon. I woke up this morning and saw that Samson now has an itty bitty hole in his tail fin....and where all that nice transparent regrowth was and has been for the past few days is now torn/frayed!!! Arrgghhh

I was running late for work...so I just put some more silver and bettafix in there. I'll see how he is when I get back home later this evening.

I think what I'm probably going to do is go ahead and set up the 2.5 gallon for him and just take the carbon out of the Whisper filter. The filter will keep the water cleaner than I ever could in that 1/2 gallon. I'll just medicate him in the larger tank..hopefully the larger tank and cleaner filtered water will make a difference. And I can always put the carbon back in the filter once we're through this.

What do you think?

 

[Scarab]

Well, I just finished setting up Samson's new bigger bachelor pad: 2.5 gallon Minibow! I took out the carbon and I'm just gonna let it run for a day or two before I put Samson in. It's got 3 plastic plants and a small sprig of real hornwart I took from Solomon's tank. I'm very excited....especially after losing Pinkie to dropsy earlier this morning.

When I got home from work tonight, Samson's fins didn't look any worse than the frayed condition I found yesterday. So hopefully moving him to a bigger, filtered tank will help him heal better and faster.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Sorry about Pinkie Scarab

Is there something in the tank that keeps snagging Samson? Try the pantyhose/ decor test, if it snags the pantyhose it can easily get his fins just the same

I've seen the white regrowth that you mentioned on a couple of my bettas, it does regain it's color, that's just the beginning stage of healing I think

Keep an eye on him in the filtered water, sometimes a current can be stressful, if he doesn't like it or if it disturbs his healing you could always get one of those little corner sponge filters that plug into an aerator

Good luck with his upgrade in housing,I'm sure he'll be thrilled

 

[Scarab]

Ok...it was a BIG mistake to put him in the 2.5 gallon!! I put him in there and he went a little haywire. But he get excited very easily so I just figured he needed to get used to the new space and seeing more of his reflection. I came back from work and not only was ALL the new growth gone, but even more of the rest of the tail! About half of it was gone with a few raggedy rays!! I was so distraught!

In his half gallon hospital tank there was nothing in there but him and the water...no plants or gravel. But since he had such nice regrowth I figured he was ready for the 2.5 gallon. But the 2.5 gallon has gravel and plastic plants (and a small sprig of real hornwart). Best I can figure is with how extremely excited and active he was when I put him in there...he just went haywire and got all in the plastic plants (which are actually quite soft...but you should've seen him though..it was like he was on speed or something flitting about).

So I took him out of the 2.5 and put him back in the bare 1/2 gallon. I put some medication in there that contains acriflavine...as well as the silver and bettafix. I need to get some more silver cause I'm almost out. I just hate I've got to start all over!! I don't know if I'll ever be able to put him in a larger tank due to how he freaked out so. I'm gonna work on healing him in the 1/2 gallon....and I may just have to keep him in that and put something else in his 2.5 gallon.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Bless your heart, he sure is being high maintenance isn't he?
Fickle creatures they are
The only advice I can think of is...buy some hikari frozen bloodworms, they're encapsulated with vitamins, maybe that will help him out & speed up his healing process. And if you get more silver, try and get the highest ppm possible