Female not acting right...

[mlee0332]

I bought a female betta from walmart I think on saturday. She had a torn tail, but it wasn't rot. I added a little mela fix to her water to heal her split tail, and it seems to have healed well. I do daily water changes to get the meds out, but it still stinks to high heavens.

The female still, from 3-4 days ago, has stress lines and doesn't move much at all. She will stay either at the very top of the water, or either at the very bottom. She clamps her top, tail and bottom fins, but her pectorals, she still uses. She will only move if I move her bowl around a little. She doesn't eat... (but neither does the male and he's fine. I think it is b/c I have them on a diff food than what they were on in the store. I've heard they are picky eaters...) so what should I do with her? She doesn't show any signs of diseases yet, and she swims fine when she does... What's wrong.

Also, should I put salt in the tanks when they are healthy like you do with guppies, or are they okay?

 

[WILDER]

Can you post water stats as clamped fins are a sign of stress, also treat with salt or melafix, but not both.

 

[mlee0332]

i've not been using both, just mela. I think I used too much
Okay stats:

NH4= 0.0ppm
NO2= 0.0ppm
NO3= 0.0ppm
KH= 0.0ppm
pH= 6.8
Hrd= 75 (soft)

 

[BettaMomma]

Melafix needs to be diluted to 1/5 of the strength of the dosage on the bottle.
AND it doesn't go away in the water - you should NOT redose, just put back in the amount that corresponds with how much water you take out at a water change.

I would give her a 100% water change immediately and stop using MelaFix.
In my opinion, I won't ever use it because it's too touchy to figure out, and by the time I decide to medicate someone it's beyond what MF could do anyway.

 

[mlee0332]

I only dosed her the day I got her, AFTER the fact I gave her the meds, I found out that you cant do that with bettas. oops. Dont you think they should write that on the label?

Okay will do! 100%er here we come...

BTW: Ive been changin 16 oz of water every day, sometimes 2 - 3 times daily. Could that be stressin' her? I do use dechlor.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah!
That stuff ticks me off. I nearly killed 2 of my boys with that stuff following the directions to a tee.

You should notice a considerable improvement in her almost immediately.

 

[mlee0332]

how bout the water change question in the post above as well. Didn't realize I edited after you posted...

Ive been asking this all over the forums as well, and no one will answer.

Do you need to put salt in the tanks w/ healthy bettas like you do with guppies etc? at a 1tsp/5g ratio?

Thanks sooooo much! um... she still has a torn tail, I never noticed it was still ripped b/c she had it clamped... What to do, what to do... Salt? If so howmuch (i know aquarium salt )

 

[mlee0332]

momma? are you there? O btw, I just put her back in her bowl... SHe's not clamping any more ! yes!

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm sorry - right in the middle of helping you I lost one of my boys.
Went out and cooked some peas for bedtime snack, went in to feed him some, and he was gone.

As far as the changes that many times a day, yup that could be stressing her quite a bit.
I don't know what size tank she's in, but for tanks about 1/2 - 1 gallon, do 100% water change every 2 - 4 days. For 1 - 2.5 gallon tanks, do 100% water change every 3 - 7 days. These, of course, depend on the dirtiness of the tank.

I'd stay away from the MelaFix for a while.
In the case of a torn tail, yup salt is a good thing - I don't ever put in the full amount unless it's a pretty big emergency. Just a pinch will work. For instance, I have mostly 2.5g tanks and I just put in a pinch as big as I can fit between my index finger and thumb comfortably. I put that in a tad bit of tank water caught in a solo cup and allow it to dissolve for about 15 minutes before I dump it into the tank.

Salt isnt' really necessary unless in cases where a healing agent is really needed. I rarely use salt anymore unless someone has a case of finrot or needs to grow back a relatively major body part (like a TAIL).

 

[mlee0332]

well thankyou momma! I know about jack, and i am so sorry! I hope the rest are okay. Well thanx for the info! Shes in a 1g bowl. Nothing smaller than 1 g for my bettas. I plan to get her a tank as well! I was doing those water chages to dilute the mela, but now shes just great (after the 100% change) She's still not eatin' great, but enough to be okay. SHe still got stress lines, dont kno why... but atleast she's not clamped up.

 

[BettaMomma]

That's great news.
She might need some time to recover - the MelaFix can do a number on fish.
I HATE that stuff, I think it's EVIL EVIL EVIL.
She's already improving, and I think she will as time goes on.