I feel like a horrible mom

[OrkyBetta]

I feel like the worst betta mother in the world. I gave everyone a salt bath today, and they were all stressed out and I had to chase them all over the tank. Then when they were in their little dipping containers all they did was flop around and try to jump out. It was a huge hassle, and I think a few of them might have gotten a little shooken up. I put in a tad more colloidal and 1/4 the melafix/pimafix dose. Darn it why won't this go away? I have started every other day water changes, as I don't have enough colloidal to do every day. GR I must be the worst fish mother ever, stressing out my fish. I probably did everything wrong. I am beating myself up for letting 4 of my sweethearts get fin rot in the first place. 2 of them I bought with it, and the other two caught it. Gar, I thought I was going to have such a nice setup, everyone would have their own 5-10 gallon tanks, specialized lids, and good food. But now I feel like a major screw up. How long should I expect it to take for these treatments to work? Oh my maybe I should stop keeping fish. when 4 of my 7 bettas are sick, I must be doing something wrong.

 

[LifeBear]

Don't give up. You will get through this.
You seem to be doing an awful lot of medicating. How long have you been treating them? If it is for quite some time, have you thought of giving it a rest and see what happens?

I am no expert. Maybe someone else on here has better advice.

 

[OrkyBetta]

I haven't been medicating too long. I started by just upping water changes and putting a little salt in the tank. Then I started doing salt dips and adding colloidal in, and with every water change. Then I started adding in the melafix pimafix combo. I am not adding anything eles for a while and I am just going to do water changes, then if it won't go away or gets worse I will staet treatments back up again gradually.

 

[BettaMomma]

What size tanks are they all in?

 

[OrkyBetta]

Well, three of them are in a divided 30 gallon, and the other one is in a gallon bowl. The one in the bowl has been getting 100% changes and the 30 gallon 20-25% changes

 

[BettaMomma]

Hmm - it doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong.
How often do you do the changes?

 

[OrkyBetta]

I do the changes once a week regularly. But now I have upped it to every other day.

 

[BettaMomma]

Hmm.. for the partial changes, that should be fine.
For the 1 gallon I'd keep them on a regular basis at around 100% change every 3 - 4 days.

You're NOT a bad fishy momma whatsoever.
The fact that you're here trying to figure out how to make them better proves that!

I'd go with the upped water changes and a teeny bit of salt. Don't use melafix anymore - give them a break from that. Some fish can't handle MF and it just burns their already tender skin even more.

If, after several days it doesn't improve, or you see signs of it rapidly deteriorating, I'd break out the maracyn.

 

[OrkyBetta]

thanks bettamom. I will try that.

 

[OrkyBetta]

Well, it isn't getting any worse, and I think I see a LITTLE regrowth! The black isn't going away on Jenga though.