I have a male betta, had him for about 2 months now, he was really sick, lost most of his fins, ( lot of newbie mistakes )
Why don't they include instructions?

Anyways he seems to be better now after I got it rigtht with meds, water changes etc.

Now my question is I had him in a bare tank for about 2 weeks so I could medicate and monitor if he was passing his food okay.
But now there seems to be all this black "dust" on the bottom of the tank, I've cleaned it out, it came back.
I now have some small rocks and java moss in his betta keeper, change the water 20% about every 3-4 days.

Any one know what the black dust is, is he shedding in some way, his fins are growing back and his appetite is as good as ever.

i wish i knew i have seen it before in my tanks too and it has also concerned me. my thoughts that it was the filters generating it, carbon filters possibly could be the cause.

it's probably his waste breaking down and settling on the bottom.

what size tank do you have him in? is it filtered? etc

when you say you have him in a "betta keeper" do you mean this? (less than 1/4 gal or this? less than 1/2 a gal

if so then 20% water changes every 3-4 days is nowhere near enough. in these size "tanks" you would need to be doing 100% changes AT LEAST once a day

This post has been edited by ibbledibble: Jul 18 2008, 06:03 PM

he's in a small betta keeper, proably around 1/2 gallon. I've read that you aren't suppose to do 100% water changes. Won't that stress out the fish
more?

I wouldn't do 100% water changes every day, but I would be doing 50% every day with a 100% every other day.
You gotta get him a larger tank.

As for the black stuff.... no idea.. maybe dust? Or maybe it is his poop.

For some extra stuff you should check out my post...I of course am no help haha, but the people on this forum are great and know a ton....but yeah, you could pick through the links and maybe find some more tips that would help you out

http://www.fishforums.net/content/Bettas/2...-Complete-Noob/

thanks for the advice, unfortunatly I think his swim bladder is permently damaged, he can no longer reach the bottom of his little bowl, and just lays at the surface all the time.

I tried putting him in a 5 gallon filtered tank, but he just looked too sad in it.

He's been through alot, that's why I just can't give up on the little guy, he's got such spirit, you should see him go when he tries to get my attention for food.