Dorm pals Jerry and Larry

[malesict]

Walmart VT Jerry...

And his buddy on the other side of my desk, Larry He has always had that hole in his fin. It never goes away!

[bettons]

they are beautiful!!

The holes can be a sign of bad water conditions such as ammonia, that happened to me, or sometimes stress.

(I see that larry's fins are clumped together which can mean a sign of ammonia present in the water, check to see if there is.)

[malesict]

Ah. Another trip to petsmart..... I have been changing about 1.25 gal/wk in their tanks hoping it would be enough until I get my test kit and new aquarium but I'll get a hold of a kit soon.

[bettons]

If your tank is cycling with your betta you need to at least do some water change every two days. I recommend water change each day depending on your tank size. I am having the same problem and recently learned that in my case a 2.5 Gal. tank, its water change every day to keep nitrites and ammonia at a level that won't injure my betta until cycling finish.

[malesict]

Well....right now I have them in separate 1-gal "tanks" but am not using the filters due to their small water capacity. I am hoping to get a 5-gal minibow for Christmas (if I don't, I'm going to buy it myself anyway ) and then I'm going to try the fishless cycling route. I would like to use sand as the substrate, does the cycling work the same with sand as gravel or other substrates? thanks

[bettons]

umm...Yeah I think its a good idea to have them in unfiltered tanks to evade the stress of cycling with fish. Good idea on doing the fish-less cycle. It really doesn't matter what kind of substrate because mostly the bacteria will live in the filter media and other surfaces, but if you use gravel there are less chances of possible ammonia spike since that nitrifying bacteria will colonize the gravel, I don't know if it would do the same think with sand.

As far as I know it will not affect the cycling process.

[amanichen]

bettons said:

umm...Yeah I think its a good idea to have them in unfiltered tanks to evade the stress of cycling with fish.

You're mixing things up here, and I'd like to clarify things:

Keeping the fish in an uncycled tank means it's living in some level of ammonia all the time, while fish in cycled tanks live in cleaner water.

Sure, the initial stress of the cycling process isn't good for fish, which is why I tell people to do a fishless cycle if possible.

Bottom line:

It's best to have a fish live in a cycled tank. It's possible, but not ideal to cycle a tank using live fish. The best way to cycle a tank is using pure ammonia and bacteria to seed a colony.

[bettons]

yeah, I know ammonia is present in an uncycled tank. what I am trying to say is to keep him in the uncycled tank temporally while doing water changes to keep ammonia at 0 while the other one is going through fishless cycle. That way the fish won't run the risk of being poisoned. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.=|

[malesict]

thanks guys

[amanichen]

BTW, the hole in the one fish's anal fin might be a sign of malnutrition. The scrawny appearance of the fish's body combined with the hole makes me believe that he had some nutrition issues before you got him.

[malesict]

Thanks amanichen. I have only had them a few months... is there anything special that I could do for him now to reverse earlier effects of malnutrition? Right now I feed the Tetra BettaMin tropical medley and give freeze dried bloodworms a few days a week. I try to go by the 'eyeful' amount that produces the look of a mildly rounded abdomen...don't want to get into swimbladder problems.

[amanichen]

malesict said:

Thanks amanichen. I have only had them a few months... is there anything special that I could do for him now to reverse earlier effects of malnutrition? Right now I feed the Tetra BettaMin tropical medley and give freeze dried bloodworms a few days a week. I try to go by the 'eyeful' amount that produces the look of a mildly rounded abdomen...don't want to get into swimbladder problems.

start feeding bloodworms more often, make them about 1/2 the meals. Hopefully the extra protein will help him.

[beta3chg]

I've had very good experiences with the freeze dried bloodworms. they're good, and my fish love them. Those are some great bettas you have!!! They're both gorgeous, despite the fin trouble.