Do You Empty Tank After Fish Death?

[vanvran]

I had one elephant ear betta who died from fin rot and over the last two days, seemed to have come down with swim bladder.

   He was my only fish in a 5 gallon filtered/heated tank.  Do I need to empty the tank and start cycling all over again?  Thanks!

 

[Fishmanic]

If you have a filter , the bacteria is mostly in the filter so you could do a water change and not affect the cycle much.   As far as I know, fin rot is not contagious.  

 

[bluesword23516]

I would do a full water change just in case. But the bacteria in the filter should be fine Just make sure it stays moist during that time. 

 

[vanvran]

Thank you!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I just had the same happen to me last week.  I did a full water change (decided to be extra cautious and dosed the tank with anti-internal bacteria meds for about 1 1/2 days) then did another full water change before adding a new betta.

 

[Mamashack]

Actually finrot is a bacterial infection and is contagious. Did you use an antibiotic to treat it? If so that may have compromised your filter bacteria. Since he was the only fish in the tank you could check with the TFF calculator to add 2ppm ammonia (unadulterated with perfumes or surfactents) such as Kleenoff. Then test again in 24hrs and if both ammonia and nitrIte are 0 then the nitrifying bacteria have survived. This would only apply if you'd medicated with antibiotics tho.

 

[vanvran]

mamashack, I had given him two rounds of erythromicin, and when that didn't work, I tried another antibiotic.  He still continued to lose fins, but act5ually lived for months.  I didn't want to medicate him again, so I kept his tank clean, and monitored ammonia, nitrates, etc.  so, the meds were given months ago. 

I just had the same happen to me last week.  I did a full water change (decided to be extra cautious and dosed the tank with anti-internal bacteria meds for about 1 1/2 days) then did another full water change before adding a new betta.

Did he die of fin rot?  After the water changes, did you cycle his tank before putting in the new betta?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My filter bacteria survived.  We don't have much availability of antibiotics here in the UK so I tried the only one I could get my hands on and it didn't help enough.  I experienced several days of cloudiness and did several daily water changes for something like 4ish days and then the bacteria bounced back.  So, it was fully cycled when I added the new betta (I used Interpet Anti-Internal Bacteria meds between death and adding a new fish which doesn't affect bacteria).
 
Here was my thread about it, if you are interested.  http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433124-yet-another-problem-with-my-betta/

 

[vanvran]

My filter bacteria survived.  We don't have much availability of antibiotics here in the UK so I tried the only one I could get my hands on and it didn't help enough.  I experienced several days of cloudiness and did several daily water changes for something like 4ish days and then the bacteria bounced back.  So, it was fully cycled when I added the new betta (I used Interpet Anti-Internal Bacteria meds between death and adding a new fish which doesn't affect bacteria).
 
Here was my thread about it, if you are interested.  http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433124-yet-another-problem-with-my-betta/

 
Thanks, I'll check out the thread.  I'm confused though - if you medicated the tank after your fish passed, you have to remove the filter cartridge, correct?  Did you replace with a new filter cartridge after the meds were added?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I didn't remove the media from my filter at any time (other than to rinse it after antibiotics as it created a bit of slime).  I do not have carbon in my filter on a regular basis (is that maybe what you are thinking of?  carbon can remove meds).  So, it was my original media that recovered in a few days after antibiotics... and all other meds don't affect filter bacteria (that I used).  So... the media that I have in there is about 3 or 4 years mature.

 

[vanvran]

Hi, prairiesunflower, Yes, I meant the carbon filter that you are supposed to remove when dosing the tank.  So, what is the "media" in the filter?  The only thing I have in my little filter is a carbon cartridge.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Media can be lots of things depending on the make of your filter, basically it is something porous that can house bacteria, such as filter floss, ceramics, sponges and similar.
 
One of my filters has two slots, one for carbon and one for a sponge, but as carbon isn't needed I removed it and put in two sponges instead.  My other filter (in a different tank) has 3 compartments, two that hold sponges (or could house carbon) and one in the middle that is like a cage full of something that looks like chalk (I think it is like ceramic is some such thing)... my sponge bits are quite spacious so I've jammed a third sponge in there to gather bacteria in the case that I should have a problem in my betta tank... so in the future if the bacteria dies off I can just move a sponge straight over.