White Streaks on Betta

[wuvmybetta]

yeah ,now that ya mentioned it,moving might stress him further

here's a tip for a smooth transaction if you do decide to move him, it may sound corny but it seems to work. This is how I acclimate new bettas.Set the tank up within his viewing range (if at all possible). Let him check it out from where he's at and gesture that it's for him, being a 2.5 you could probably move it over by his current tank (no pun intended) so he can scope it out and get the idea. Cuts down on a lot of stress. Sometimes they're just skitzy about being moved because thier new home is sooo much better than a cup and they couldn't ask for anything more .
I upgraded a male from a 1 to a 2 the other day and I let him watch the entire process, set it up with all kinds of fancy silk plants, used a lot of his old tank water ,filled his old and new tank with clean water and let him stare at it for awhile, he was so excited looking into it from his old tank, the whole transition went very smoothly & I really think he KNEW what was going on


your ph situation is a little strange,but no matter what you do don't use chemicals to raise it. Does he have a still corner to "bubble nest" in? (just curious) one of mine with an air stone NEVER bubble nested until I turned his bubbles off , he seemed so happy I left them that way

 

[jaywings19]

your ph situation is a little strange,but no matter what you do don't use chemicals to raise it. Does he have a still corner to "bubble nest" in? (just curious) one of mine with an air stone NEVER bubble nested until I turned his bubbles off , he seemed so happy I left them that way

I will take your advice on the transition... if I decide to go that route.

Umm... this may be bad, but I already use the Wardley Bullseye 7.0 to control my pH level. My tap water (after conditioner) is around 6.4 pH... which is too low for my bettas and corys. I hope you're not going to tell me that's what is causing his stress ... because my other betta (unfiltered) is doing just fine and dandy.

Dex has never bubble nested or flared since I brought him home... meanwhile, my other guy does plenty of both. Dex still has the back corners of the tank, which are basically "current free" zones.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I hope you're not going to tell me that's what is causing his stress ... because my other betta (unfiltered) is doing just fine and dandy.

no, I wasn't even thinking that, that kind of stuff just freaks me out that's all, chemicals & whatnot. Since your using it with no ill effects I would imagine it's fine. But it's easier to adjust your fish to suit your ph than it is to adjust your ph to suit your fish. They're very adaptable
A few seashells may raise your ph a bit, or so I've heard,it never worked for me

 

[wuvmybetta]

I just thought of something....

you said your ph was 6.5 but if your using Bullseye 7.0.....how come it's not 7.0?
maybe it's dropping drastically at certain times of the day

 

[jaywings19]

I just thought of something....

you said your ph was 6.5 but if your using Bullseye 7.0.....how come it's not 7.0?
maybe it's dropping drastically at certain times of the day

Petco's "dipstick" reading was 6.5 pH... but my "test tube drops" reading was 6.8-7.0 pH at home. That's what I found strange about it.

Also, I didn't add Bullseye 7.0 directly to the tank when I first started using it... figured the change from 6.4 to 7.0 so quickly would totally stress out my fish. I used the 7.0 solution in my water change supply... so it got gradually introduced to the tank... that was several weeks ago. The tank has been at or around 7.0 right now because of all the water changes I've done, plus the large one I did yesterday.

Also, the guy at Petco said a pinch of baking soda would raise the pH? Wasn't sure, so I didn't want to try it. Seashells have the same effect?

 

[wuvmybetta]

hmmm, maybe you shouldn't even worry about your ph for now, that stuff may be causing your ph to jump around a lot and any change over .1 is terrible & stressful for a fish, I don't know why exactly, but when you alter the ph it should be done over a long period of time. I know that ph either goes up or down at night naturally (can't remember which is which,I think it's down) , maybe the bullseye is affecting it from being "at one with nature" and doing what it's supposed to do , something's going on in there that's unclear to the naked eye, maybe Dex is a little more sensitive to it then the others....go by his behaviour because apparently the other guys can deal with the situation

I've heard of the baking soda trick, just unsure of the dosage etc... you can always post in chit chat and maybe get more answers there, but I think the main answer you'll receive will be....don't mess with your ph! , but ya never know
I use the shells and crushed coral in my cichlid tank and it hasn't altered the ph a bit, but it did raise my gh a bit , but that's about it

and just think....if Dexter winds up staying in his current palace you have another 2.5 for....possibly another betta!!

 

[Alien Anna]

I have a perfectly healthy betta in pH 8.5 water with some black neon tetras. Adjusting pH is not only risky for your fish, liable to cause algae and expensive, I also think its completely unnecessary. pH is a lot trickier than most people realise and fish are a lot more tolerant to pH than people realise (well, unless you have discus of something like that).

 

[jaywings19]

Okay... I made the move today... well, Dex made the move today.

I set up the 2.5 gallon unfiltered on Sunday... and Dex moved in today. I prepared the tank with a 1/2 teaspoon of Melafix.

I feel so bad for this little guy. His colors are ever fading because he wasn't eating. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting, but I think his eye color is starting to get cloudy now. Does anybody have a picture of cloudy eye? What's a good treatment for that?

I really hope that this move will help him... or else I honestly don't think he's going to last long.

Wuv - I was reading in another post about Colloidal Silver. Do you think that's a worthwhile investment to try and restore my Dex? He does have a hole in his lower fin.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I'm glad the move went smoothly , did you take a couple of handfuls of gravel from the old tank too? to keep your bacteria alive and caught up with the new water.

As for silver, I always think it's worthwhile, I use it for everything. It's the only thing besides bettafix/melafix that I use. Not trying to jinx myself but....my fish are extremely healthy and I credit that to silver. I even use it in my large tanks on a regular basis as a precaution,very small drops but it's never affected my readings because it destroys BAD bacteria & doesn't touch the good bacteria. It's wild. Maybe your little guy has an internal bacteria infection or something like that, maybe the cories were carriers of some sort of germ and he caught it , either way, silver can't hurt anything and your fish can only benefit from it, it's an immune booster on top of all the other things it does
We even take it ourselves. My daughter is in pre-school so I give her silver once a week so that she doesn't pick up germs. Since I began giving it to her I notice the small things such as mosquito bites...which use to bother her & get infected, they now just disappear within a day

I recommend it to everybody, I wanted to tell you about it too, but I didn't want to sound like a broken record trying to "sell" people on the stuff in two different posts ) But I'm glad you noticed & mentioned it
I say...get some!! and with as high a ppm as you can find/afford, usually 500 is the most common

 

[jaywings19]

Thanks... I always take the time to read other posts on the forum to pick up helpful tidbits.

I will try to get the 500ppm. Based on the ppm... how much would you use as a single dosage? (assuming it was 500ppm and a 2.5 gallon tank).

 

[wuvmybetta]

I'd use a whole dropper dose in a 2.5 @ 500ppm, one dose should do the trick (maybe two doses for good measure )