Temperature fluctuations

[BettaMomma]

This morning, ARchie had eaten more huge hunks off his tail (I'm assuming that he'd eaten it off, cuz I can't find any tail pieces laying around).....
And now this is getting to the point where it's COMPLETELY ridiculous.
His bottom fin is completely curling over and there's now black on it.
I had stopped medicating him for finrot 2 days ago because the med period was over and his tail was starting to heal. I had put stress coat and salt into his sparkly clean tank when I cleaned his tank last night but now this.

I have racked my brain, and just when I was thinking that I had thought of everything, something that should have been blatantly obvious to me, I've been overlooking all along.

This morning, when I went to feed Archie, I noticed that the temp on his thermometer was off the top - meaning it was over 82 degrees. We have baseboard heaters in our apartment, so the heat is really, REALLY hard to regulate. I'm now starting to think that he and Harvey are getting really torked off about their temps fluctuating. It is now starting to warm up here so that's throwing off their temps cuz the heaters I have just tack on an extra 2-5 degrees on the room temp...

So, that being said - would I be better off getting maybe a 5 gallon divided tank for both Archie and Harvey with a heater in it that would regulate their temp? And if so, I am not sure how they would do with the current from the filter, etc. And EVERYONE knows how I would feel about moving one of my boys from their little tanks to a 5G tank.

Other suggestions?

 

[BettaMomma]

Orrr..I think I remember seeing a nice 7 gallon tank at PetWorld last night.
Maybe I'll check into splitting that one.
Then they'd each be gaining a whole gallon, too.

 

[3fsh]

I don't think it would be wise to put a sick fish in with a perfectly healthy one, or even put a sick fish in with another sick fish. Plus, it would probably stress him out even more because he'd have a male betta ticking him off 24/7. I would continue (for now) to medicate him until he shows signs of recovering. With my fish, I had to treat 2 times before the nasty columnaris dissapeared. As soon as he is better, I would definitely get him into a larger tank to offset the temp fluctuations. Larger tanks take much longer to cool down and heat up.

 

[BettaMomma]

Oh yeah, I know I need to get Harvey healthy first, but I'm just wondering if it would make a difference with them (THAT much difference) if I were to get them a regulated tank then...
Do you think this could be what's causing most of these issues?
Can temp fluctuations cause this much havoc?

 

[veen]

what are the temps normally? i ask because my bettas in tanks w/o heaters seriously tweak when the temps fluctuate more than about 2 degrees either way. because of this i've had to not open the windows and rely on my fan to keep myself cool

ct2-the betta in the heated tank does just fine because his temp always stays around 78 give or take a degree.

 

[BettaMomma]

The fluctuations are pretty drastic- but it just depends on the temp outside, mostly...
During the day, they're up in the upper seventies (76 -78).
At night they get down in the low seventies (72 - 74).
Right now, since it's 75 degrees outside here, it means it's probably close to 80 in the house. I unplugged both of the guys' heaters this morning because i knew it would get hot in here today. Sooo... throughout the day today, for instance, they started out around 75 or so, right now they're at 79.

In describing all of this, I guess they are probably pretty torked off.
I think I answered my own question.

 

[RandomWiktor]

72-74 is a bit cool; do you think that if you kept the heaters going good at night so it was maybe more around 76-78, then turned them off during the day so the temp wouldn't much exceed 80, the fluctuation wouldn't be as great and wouldn't stress them so much? Also, the warmer the water the easier bacteria is going to grow, esp. if it is a sudden spike in temperature.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, probably, but it has to be warm outside in order for it to be that warm inside.
I guess the summertime will be same story, cuz we'll have the a/c on then.

UUugh.

Guess I better start tank shopping.

Mr. Betta will be so excited.

 

[newfishies]

you could always get a divided 5 gal and NOT cycle it, just keep up with water changes, since we know how the last filter worked for you...

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, and with the way Harvey likes any movement in his tank....
He almost pops a vein in his neck when I try to put a teeny bubble bar with about 1 bubble coming out per second.
He's psycho.

I'd of course have to get a divider they couldn't see through too. It could be ugly, now that I think about it.

lol