My rescue betta was very underweight, had a strange lump on his head and a big chunk of his tail missing. The tail started growing and he put weight on. The lump was still there, so I decided to ask for identification and advice here. As advised, I started an antiparasitic treatment. Everything looked great and then the lump reappeared and that area started swelling, I did some more extensive research and decided to treat again with a double dose for a longer period of time. Finally! It looked like it worked, so I proceeded with an antibacterial treatment since there was still swelling and he started having a slight fin rot. Once the swelling got down, I put him back in his tank. A few weeks passed, he was doing great. His tail grew so big. That's where the next issue occurred. He started being slow and you could see his tail weighting him down. He started resting most of the time and one time when he was swimming he snapped and tried to bite his tail ( I already knew that he might be a tail biter since he was missing a part of his tail when I got him and there was no finrot or anything sharp in the petstore tank). I changed the substrate (took me ages to catch 100+ in the 18gal!!!), added more plants, lowered the water level a bit. He was still resting a lot, at least there were no signs of stress. I was already preparing a swallow tank for him just in case he gets worse or starts killing the shrimp and seeding a filter. I went to my LFS and got some salt and pepper cories (since I was convinced I will move him to the shallow tank). From that moment, I don't know what happened, but from the moment I put the cories in he perked up! I was thinking that it's just because I put new fish in his tank, either way I was planning to move him.
Two weeks have passed since I added the cories. There has been no flaring or chasing/nipping and he is more active with no signs of stress or aggression. He will go to check them out but he will just swim calmly away after a few seconds. He is still resting a lot but way less than before and he is way more active.
The shallow tank is ready to go in case he starts bullying them.
As my title mentions, I wanted to thank everyone again for all the great advice! Without you my boy wouldn't have made it so far!
Two weeks have passed since I added the cories. There has been no flaring or chasing/nipping and he is more active with no signs of stress or aggression. He will go to check them out but he will just swim calmly away after a few seconds. He is still resting a lot but way less than before and he is way more active.
The shallow tank is ready to go in case he starts bullying them.
As my title mentions, I wanted to thank everyone again for all the great advice! Without you my boy wouldn't have made it so far!
