Help! Is this fin rot? or fin nipping?

[JesskaSky]

Sounds good. 75% water change and vacuum your substrate with a siphon as you do it. This will remove the nasties and keep your water pristine to stop the rips in the fins from growing fungus and becoming fin rot. When you've sucked out the water from the tank, rinse your filter in the bucket of old tank water too. If you do start to notice fungus, then report back for help with treatments for it. But keeping the water clean will prevent it from happening. Have a think of how you can address any sharp objects to be able to swap them out for something that the betta won't catch his fins on. In my experience, coconut huts are a brilliant alternative. Good luck

I don't know if you get notifications when I reply to my thread and not to your comment directly but I posted an update.

On the daily water change side of things how much would you recommend? I really got in there with my siphon and sucked as much as I could out of my substrate ?

 

[itiwhetu]

I would never do a 75% water change under any circumstance. Large water changes can cause more problems than they can fix.

 

[EllRog]

I don't know if you get notifications when I reply to my thread and not to your comment directly but I posted an update.

On the daily water change side of things how much would you recommend? I really got in there with my siphon and sucked as much as I could out of my substrate ?

Looks as if you've been busy! Fair play to you for doing the best you can by your fish as quick as you have. I'm not familiar enough with test strips to know what the 160 of nitrates convert to in ppm. Perhaps @Essjay Would know as she's really good with converting units and stuff. Then we can work out what the numbers on the test strips convert to as ppm to work out where your nitrate should be and kept beneath.

For water changes, do 75% a day with your gravel vacuum to suck up debris at the bottom. If you haven't already, give your filter a rinse out in the dirty tank water. This will 'clean' it but not remove the beneficial bacteria that's on it, providing it stays wet in the process. Keep up these water changes until you start to see the rips repairing and no active fungus appear. You'll know the difference as the rips will look visibly infected. (If that happens then I'll dig up Colin's salt treatment plan for you, but I don't want to overwhelm you with too much info)

When you see the fins mending themselves (fins grow back transparent) you can continue doing daily water changes to promote faster growth, or start doing it every second day, aslong as you make sure they're regular. At this point 50% will do fine.

After all the problems are solved, 50-75% weekly water changes are recommended. I clean my filter, in the bucket of tank water, on the first water change of every month.

Your aquarium looks great! Remember, bettas can never have enough plants, especially large leafed or floating ones so have some fun

 

[EllRog]

I would never do a 75% water change under any circumstance. Large water changes can cause more problems than they can fix.

Just because you're anti water changes and anti dechlorinator, stop pushing that agenda on others. Its your opinion and its your choice what you do with your fish, doesn't mean others agree.

 

[itiwhetu]

Just because you're anti water changes and anti dechlorinator, stop pushing that agenda on others. Its your opinion and its your choice what you do with your fish, doesn't mean others agree.

Like wise, stop pushing your agenda as well.

 

[EllRog]

Like wise, stop pushing your agenda as well.

I won't be discredited by you and made to feel as if I'm unable to offer advice without a debate with you like other members do. A few really good members that many here got on well with have already left because you persistently targeted them with your negativity and argumentative comments. Since your arrival here you've caused endless unnecessary problems, its surprising you're still here. I won't be chased off of the forum by you. Going forward, stop talking to me

 

[mbsqw1d]

Yet another thread resulting in an argument with itiwhetu ?

 

[mbsqw1d]

(whilst I'm here) We'd all love to do smaller water changes, of course we would. We're all human and therefore inherently lazy.
Since time has moved on from the 70s when people turned their tanks acidic (by softening their water and allowing nitrates to build up to harmful levels), mainly so that ammonia becomes the harmless ammonium, many lessons have been learned, the hard way, when people began suffering from "old tank syndrome" (OTS). If fish keepers on here do follow your advice itiwhetu, then I anticipate we'll begin seeing symptoms of OTS popping up in the near future. Which is a shame after all the hard work members have done by teaching newbies the modern ideas, so they don't also have to learn the hard way.

 

[JesskaSky]

I'm definitely not opposed to large water changes, I use to have a 120ltr (30 gallonish) community tank and two 20ltr (5gal) Betta tanks, however it's been a good 4 to 5 years since I had those tanks and my memory isn't as good as it once was so I have forgotten how much water I should change and when, and especially since my tank now is bigger than the 5gals but much smaller than my 30gal I'm sort of needing a refresher on where to go for the inbetween lol.

Nonetheless I appreciate all the advice I have been given, it's been super helpful! I think I'm going to stick with my large water changes/ advice given by EllRog, I know they work as I use to do them years ago on my other tanks. I ideally want to keep my rank as clean as possible for my Betta to hopefully encourage growth of his tail.

 

[itiwhetu]

Yet another thread resulting in an argument with itiwhetu ?

(whilst I'm here) We'd all love to do smaller water changes, of course we would. We're all human and therefore inherently lazy.
Since time has moved on from the 70s when people turned their tanks acidic (by softening their water and allowing nitrates to build up to harmful levels), mainly so that ammonia becomes the harmless ammonium, many lessons have been learned, the hard way, when people began suffering from "old tank syndrome" (OTS). If fish keepers on here do follow your advice itiwhetu, then I anticipate we'll begin seeing symptoms of OTS popping up in the near future. Which is a shame after all the hard work members have done by teaching newbies the modern ideas, so they don't also have to learn the hard way.

That is a good description. But has nothing to do with the system I run. My philosophy is to keep fish in tanks that the water is as close to that of their natural environment. It seems to me the new way has discarded about 100 years of fish keeping experience, so that fish are now kept in systems that the water is as close to "source" as possible. Which in most cases is tap water. Which interestingly half of the worlds population doesn't think is safe to drink, and is one of the worlds most precious resources. But aquarists think they should throw out twice as much as needed as they have a new way of doing things.

 

[mbsqw1d]

That is a good description. But has nothing to do with the system I run. My philosophy is to keep fish in tanks that the water is as close to that of their natural environment. It seems to me the new way has discarded about 100 years of fish keeping experience, so that fish are now kept in systems that the water is as close to "source" as possible. Which in most cases is tap water. Which interestingly half of the worlds population doesn't think is safe to drink, and is one of the worlds most precious resources. But aquarists think they should throw out twice as much as needed as they have a new way of doing things.

And people do attempt to keep the fish in water closest to their environment, why are we constantly asking members about the GH and PH of their water? If they have hard water coming out of their taps and want to soften it in order to keep tetra, then they'll go down the RO route. If they have softvwater and wish to keep livebearers, then they'll add salts. It has nothing to do with effective water changes, which is about removing the build up of waste.
Water sources.. majority of people don't have the luxury of:

• collecting sufficient amount of rainwater
• buying sufficient amounts of RO water
• having a well

And so cant very well avoid tapwater. Again. Not sure what this has to do with volume of water being changed. You're either happy to use tapwater or you're not. Chlorine/chloramine? There are many proven products that dechlor water and I'm confident in saying the majority of fish keepers use them. I fully appreciate that you have your own system, that involves using rainwater. You're in a lucky position. But when pedaling your methods and advice to members, you need to consider that they are probably not in a similar position to you. Maybe run a checklist by them first:
Do they have copious amounts of rain water...
Is their tank heavily planted...
If not, then your advice is dangerous and could lead them to OTS because of nitric acid build up and PH drop. Agree?

 

[itiwhetu]

And people do attempt to keep the fish in water closest to their environment, why are we constantly asking members about the GH and PH of their water? If they have hard water coming out of their taps and want to soften it in order to keep tetra, then they'll go down the RO route. If they have softvwater and wish to keep livebearers, then they'll add salts. It has nothing to do with effective water changes, which is about removing the build up of waste.
Water sources.. majority of people don't have the luxury of:

• collecting sufficient amount of rainwater
• buying sufficient amounts of RO water
• having a well

And so cant very well avoid tapwater. Again. Not sure what this has to do with volume of water being changed. You're either happy to use tapwater or you're not. Chlorine/chloramine? There are many proven products that dechlor water and I'm confident in saying the majority of fish keepers use them. I fully appreciate that you have your own system, that involves using rainwater. You're in a lucky position. But when pedaling your methods and advice to members, you need to consider that they are probably not in a similar position to you. Maybe run a checklist by them first:
Do they have copious amounts of rain water...
Is their tank heavily planted...
If not, then your advice is dangerous and could lead them to OTS because of nitric acid build up and PH drop. Agree?

My system was actually developed using tap water, I have only been on rain water for about three years. And you are correct about pH drop etc. But I do usually point out that tanks need about 30-50% by volume in plant and they need a neutral natural base. Anyone who has asked for information I have always been clear about what they need to do to make it work.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Get along!