Live Plants, Bubble Nests, Fin Growth And General Care

[AundieRae]

Okay, I have a Betta fish named Tony (Like Tony Montana, the boss of the tank ) that I have had for about a year.
He has survived a great many things such as the initial cycle of my 10 gallon tank, from what I understand he is quite lucky to have a 10 gallon tank. He has had maaany diferent tank mates, as well as living alone. He is the only fish who has survived this long since I got my tank a year ago. He has survived a broken heater taking the tank up to 30 degrees celcius, he was survived blackouts with no filter, light or heater. He has survived scraping his side and losing most of his scales and growing them back.
My tank is 10 Gallon as I said earlier, it has a standard filter which hangs on the side on the tank, a heater, 7 plastic plants and 2 structures inside with about a pound and a half of gravel at the bottom of the tank, I believe (Can't be sure, I forget)
I often forget to change 25% of the water each week but my fish dont seem to suffer terribly, I will though ATLEAST every 2 weeks. When I change the water I dump 25 percent, and put in tap water, trying to get the correct temperature, then add in some easycycle, and ecobalance, also aquarium salt. I also have some Melafix incase of sickness breakout or wounds
Currently I have Tony (Betta) Mollie (Mollie) and Sylvia (Platy)
I know the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule, and I am getting 1 more male platty, and one more female, though I do know you need 1 male platty per 3 female, I just don't want to upset the nitrate levels.
I am in the midst of bringing home 2 live plants from the pet store
First question
1) Should I replace ALL my pastic plants with live ones? I have 7, and will be replacing 2 today, will this caus eutrophication in a medium sized tank? Or would it be better?
2) I have had my fish for a year! and I havent seen 1 single bubble nest, they say that if its in a tank with a current you'll see one a few times a year, I still have never seen one. What should I do?
3) Do Betta's really enjoy tankmates? I mean he is never upset by them, but Tony is my number 1 priority and I want to make sure that he is happy. Are tankmates bad for bettas? Stressful?
4) I don't know if it is just me, but it seems like Tony's fins arent as luxurious as before, do they loose their fins? is this a result of the atmosphere? Is he stressed out? He doesnt seem to be acting this way so I want to make sure he is okay. Can they grow their fins back?
5) I have recently had an algae eater, a male platty and a female platty. All three have gone missing... not to be seen in my filter, not in my gravel I just used a syphon this morning to clean the gravel, and tehre were no fragments to be seen around the tank. I also have a hooded tank so they couldn't have jumped out.. what the heck..
Please help me! Thank you very much
Aundrea!
Ps, I have attached a photo of my babies, Tony is at the very top dancing around Mollie is the lovely orange one, and Sylvia is a little hard to see in the purple tree, they all seem pretty happy together, Tony swims around with them, but never flares

 

[Fishy friend2]

1) Should I replace ALL my pastic plants with live ones? I have 7, and will be replacing 2 today, will this caus eutrophication in a medium sized tank? Or would it be better?

it is up to you whether or not you would like to add all live plants. But If I were you I definitely would add all live plants. Plants are great for helping keep ammonia down, and they also provide natural cover for fish..... And fry when youre platies breed

2) I have had my fish for a year! and I havent seen 1 single bubble nest, they say that if its in a tank with a current you'll see one a few times a year, I still have never seen one. What should I do?

Some times bettas will not buil bubble nests, in my experience they don't tend to build bubble nests in community tanks, I never actually found out why. I just made an assumption that the fish would mess it up when the Betta started the nest. Or the filter flow was messing it up, as bettas usually don't make bubble nests in tanks with a lot of flow

3) Do Betta's really enjoy tankmates? I mean he is never upset by them, but Tony is my number 1 priority and I want to make sure that he is happy. Are tankmates bad for bettas? Stressful?

I think that the tank mates that you have are fine right now, but mollies can get 4 to 5 inches so it might intimidate the betta. I would just watch out for aggresion once the Molly gets larger.

4) I don't know if it is just me, but it seems like Tony's fins arent as luxurious as before, do they loose their fins? is this a result of the atmosphere? Is he stressed out? He doesnt seem to be acting this way so I want to make sure he is okay. Can they grow their fins back?

do his fins have a black edging to them, If so he could have fin rot. If he does then I would do a 25 percent water change every other day. And treat him with fin rot treatmeant such as Betta fix. Then his fins should grow back in no time. But it could also be the plastic plants, as they are notorious for ripping fins. If you do chose to get live plants then the fins should grow back beautifully. Once you get them.

5) I have recently had an algae eater, a male platty and a female platty. All three have gone missing... not to be seen in my filter, not in my gravel I just used a syphon this morning to clean the gravel, and tehre were no

they most likely died and got "consumed" by the other fish. Or they could have possibly jumped out, you know yet hey ca jump out of holes just as big as 1cm so maybe were the heater goes, they jumped out their

 

[AundieRae]

Thanks so much for your time!

1)I have the 2 new plants in right now, I do definitely plan on replacing the atleast 3 of the 5 remaining plastic plants, the other 2 are a favorite with the fish. After some more research I have decided that live plants are definitly the way to go. And I think it makes it more home-y too which I love.

2)I'm not particularly worried about the bubble nesting, as I dont plan on breeding until I have a few more years of expirience and tank managing under my belt, but it would be nice to have some concrete reassurance that he is enjoying his home.

3)I only have 1 Molly, but I have noticed she has grown. My betta hasnt shown any agression towards any of the fish since I initially added my very first three platties last february, and he seems to enjoy swimming with them and chasing them.

4)It's hard to tell if he has black edging or not as his fins stem from a rich red to a veery dark navy blue, I can't see much,but I have noticed alot of black on my Molly's fins, I do not have a spare tank to seperate her to medicate her, would it be okay to add treatment to the whole tank? And is Mellafix a suitable treatment? The closest pet store to me is 45 minutes away and I dont have my own vehicle.

Have any ideas?

 

[Liquid skills]

U have to make sure they deffjnatly have fin rot and havnt just had an accident bettas change colour as they age by the sounds of it u bought a juvy when u first got him and as times gone on hes got his adult colours

 

[Fishy friend2]

The molly that you have could just be a dalmation molly Can you post a pic of the Betta so we can see if it really does have fon rot? And yes melafix is a suitable treatmeant it helped me when my goldfish had severe fin rot

 

[AundieRae]

The molly that you have could just be a dalmation molly Can you post a pic of the Betta so we can see if it really does have fon rot? And yes melafix is a suitable treatmeant it helped me when my goldfish had severe fin rot

Okay so the first one is Tony, though I don't think that he has fin rot, I could be wrong of course, his fins just look tattered, have looked like that since I got him

And the following one is Mollie

 

[AundieRae]

YAAAY for. The first time ever in an entire year I woke up with the scattered bits of a bubble nest across my tank, my filter obviously ruined it, but I've never even seen one I just added in almost all live plants, clearly he likes them