Advice Is Nice!

[loraxchick]

Hi all,
Im a noob beta keeper and i recently rescued two males from a wedding i was working (i do catering- they were centerpieces and no one was taking any home so i saved two)...i brought them home in their cheezy vases they were in where i kept them for a month...both were doing very well, active, eating VERY well and doing their beta thing...i preformed regular water changes and cared for them very well, but i HATED those vases...so last night i got a nice big tank with a divider (the kind that slides into plastic holders at the sides of the tank)...i put one male in each side (of course) and one managed to breech the divider and found himself WITH the other beta...so, of course, there was a fight which i was very quick to break up and i fixed the problem...but NOW, im left wit htwo rather ratty looking betas and im worried about their health until their tails/fins grow back...they seem fine this evening (24 hours after the big match)- they are both very active, eating fine, swimming around and basically as they were before, only they are soooo ratty...and they were both sooo beautiful before...i have not seen ANY signs of infection upon very careful observation...no redness, swelling, spots, dicoloration...the tank water is always treated with aquarium salt, has a heater and i am obsessed with clean water (i check ammonia levels everyday with a water testing kit that i originally bought for my turtle tank maintainence)....i also bought them bloodworms as i read on several occasions that protein is very important for them when they are regrowing...and that makes sense from a biological standpoint....my question is, should i be proactively treating them for something like fin rot, so they dont get a fungal or bacterial infection???should i medicate the tank??? i know im doing everyting else right (well, with the exception of EVER letting them get to one another)...if someone could help me out that''d be AWESOME as i was just trying to give them a better habitat than those horrid vases!!!
thanks sooo much
REBECCA J

 

[tangokitty]

If they seem to be doing well i wouldn't medicate them. just watch them closely maybe have the medications on hand and use it if they have any signs of illness. Glad you saved the little guys!! They should be fine. Just takes them a while to grow back their fins.

 

[ReMz]

you should be proactive. reason: you will be kicking yourself if a problem arises and you relied on clean water.... let alone in a divided tank. a small infection can turn internal and terminal quickly.

isolate the fish and treat them. if one of the bettas does in fact contract a disease, you do not want it spreading to the other in the tank. fish that are damaged and stressed from a fight are vulnerable to disease. Large 1 gallon tupperwares can even work for isolation/treatment tanks if need be.

If you do not want to be overly proactive and treat with antibiotics right away, add a bit of aquarium salt and Melafix (a very good preventative medication as well as fin growth enhancer). Regardless of if you want to "treat" them, this is a good natural fix for faster fin healing.

Good job saving the guys. I have experience with a divider debacle that led to the same thing you are describing. I didn't treat accordingly and lost one of the guys and the other one barely made it.

And welcome. always good to have a member that isn't moronic on their first post glad to see you are seeking advice on this

 

[loraxchick]

i already bought the melafix- i read that it was for healthy fin growth and repair, and it is not "medicine" (at least not antibiotics which id rather not use on ANY animal unless need be, and as for now they dont need "medicine")...i will take your advice and separate the two- back into their cheezy vases (they are big, but i thought that was tacky in a vase- prob aroun .75 gal/vase)...how long should i treat them before i put them back into their new tank? in the mean time ill let the new tank cycle and then wont have to worry about ammonia as much when i put them back in...just a little worried becasue i can put a heater in the vases (too small for that sort of heating anyway)...the air temp here is around 70 at night warmer in daytime (in ny) but i know they like WARM water- mroe like 80+...esp if they may be sick or become sick...so what do you honestly suggest...do i treat them together in the divided tank that is warmer or do i separate them back inot their smaller vases and treat them there? and for how long or just as the drections on the melafix suggest- 7 days?
oodles of thanks
REBECCA J

 

[ReMz]

separate and treat with melafix asap.

give it 3 days. if they show no sings of illness (lethargy, not eating, visible signs) then you would probably be safe to move them to the larger tank and treat with the appropriate dose. keep in mind that Bettafix is basically the same as Melafix, but a smaller dose..... so, you may want to use that in the vases.

7 days is good, but as i said, you can move them if they seem healthy.

As for heating, I kept my small treatment tanks on a cloth to avoid heat dissipation. And I was doing this in Colorado in the spring (50's at night). Just kept a space heater on at night pointed towards the tanks. No problems at all. the tanks never got over 75, but it's just temporary treatment.

There's nothing wrong with treating with antibiotics tho. Maracyn 1 & 2 is what i would recommend actually. Knocks out any bacterial/fungal disease and the sooner you treat the better. You're just helping the fish, but the downside is it's not cheap.

edit: for shredded fins, you will want to go on and off with Melafix treatment. 1 week on, 1 week off. does no harm to the fish, you just do not want to treat them non-stop.

 

[metromyers]

I just went through the same thing. Remz is dead on! Charlie's tail is healing nicely. I thought about changing his name to Ribbons. It has been about a month and a lot of his tail has already grown back.

 

[Athena]

Can I just ask a question about the tank divider you used? Is it a clear divider or blacked-out? Just that if it's clear, then surely when you put them back in their prospective sections, they will see each other and flaring will begin and no doubt one or other will try to jump the divide again - and even if they didn't manage that, won't they be constantly getting stressed by all the flaring?
Of course, if the divider is blacked-out, then not a problem.

Athena

 

[loraxchick]

thanks for all the feedback!
the boys are now BACK in their vases...no decorations...no gravel...just them...i looked at their injuries and all's well...in fact the red guy (the perpetrtor) had some tiny holes from the fight and they are already growing back...hardly there anymore...both feisty as ever and no signs of disease...lets keep a finger or three crossed and hope that is a good sign of whats to come...the divider is a clear small-mesh type...they do flare a lot at each other but no more than before i put them in the big tank (their vases were next to each other- i figured that would stave off boredom...but most of the day they are busy doing beta things like staring at the plants, building bubble nests and patrolling around their digs...im going to rearrange the plants in the tank and line them in the middle, kind of like a natural privacy screen...as for the divider debacle, i fixed the problem- there was a relatively small gap between the top of the holder and the actual mesh where the one wriggled through...i just moved the holder up past the top of the water level and filled the lower gap in with gravel...so most likely no more fighting! but they seem to be fine and i will do the treatments suggested and hopefully have them back in their tank by sometime in the middle of next week. i did do a lot of research on care for them (including diseases to watch for, etc. when i initially brought them home) so i had a good idea of what to do- just glad i had nice folks like you to reassure me that my thoughts were the correct ones......thanks a bunch and ill be posting updates!

 

[tibby25731]

I have a clear divider, but I sanded it doen with some fine sandpaper, so although they can see shapes through the divider, they cannot see clearly! You mihgt wanna do that instead.

 

[Athena]

I have a clear divider, but I sanded it doen with some fine sandpaper, so although they can see shapes through the divider, they cannot see clearly! You mihgt wanna do that instead.

Hey, that's a really good idea, Tibby. I shall bear that in mind for myself if ever I end up using a divider!

 

[Netty]

Also the penplax ones do go opaque after a short while too.......so again they can see shapes but that's all. The only down side to sanding is that it leaves hundreds of tiny scratches which algae will grow in which makes it harder to clean after a while.

 

[metromyers]

The first divider I had was made of a smoked colored plastic. Then I changed to the clear one with the small holes in it. I don't think it made any diffrence...the flaring was the same in both cases. Just make sure you get a cover that fits into the frame of the tank, then they can't get into the other ones area. I forgot to do that one night. When I went to feed them the next morning Fred was in the wrong side of the tank whipping up on Charlie. The results weren't pretty.

 

[LauraFrog]

Betta fins grow back amazingly fast. I managed to shut one VT's anal fin in the edge of a tank lid once, cutting the whole thing off about 1cm from his body. Salt, clean water and rest and he recovered fully. You'd seriously never know he had been injured. Melafix would have sped it up even more but it's hard to get except in 3 gallon containers that cost over $100 - don't need quite that much!

 

[loraxchick]

just an update...
the boys are doing marvelous!! everyone appears healthy and HOLY did they have appetites last night...both ate about twice as many pellets as usual...i will, of course, watch for constipation from overeating and have peas on hand anyway(because they are yummy to ME ...but im glad for all the good advice. as for now, its pooping as usual im thrilled to have saved them from killing each other as i have grown quite attached to them in the past month( although still sad it happened in the first place)... ive had lots of other fish, but betas are FUN! i play with them everyday. not something that you can really do with neons and corys. so HORRAY!!! but im still gonna treat them seperated for a few more days, JUST in case...i also got them snails to look at for their sides of the tank when they go back in there...so that'll be fun for them. Has anyone had any luck keeping ghost shrimp with their betas??? thinking about getting a FEW for the tank....helps keep things tidy in my turtle tanks so thinking about some for the betas.
REBECCA