Muffymouse

I think i have my husband talked into letting me get another betta since it has been more than 6 months since I lost Sir Gawain. I recently dosed my tank with melafix (trying to save my guppys). Since they have all gone on, I have done a 50% water change and added carbon to my filter. How long should I wait before trying to introduce a new little guy or girl to my tank?

COBettaCouple

The carbon should have cleared the melafix out and I think it's safe to acclimate a new Betta to the tank.

It might not hurt to clean the substrate and do another 50% pwc, maybe even run some new carbon for a few hours if you'd like to be extra certain of it being cleared.

pamd

But ... shouldn't Muffymouse be concerned that whatever killed the guppies could still be residual in the tank? It seems to me a complete tear-down and sterilization might be in order.

COBettaCouple

Yea, that's a good point. You could run the tank for 3 weeks feeding it flakes and running the heater at maximum or do a breakdown & sterilization. The 2nd option would put you back at the beginning of the cycle.

Muffymouse

But I have corys living in there right now. Although one is certainly sick and it came on all of a sudden tonight and he appears to be going down hill rapidly. This is seriously unpleasant. Any thoughts on what to do for my cory?

COBettaCouple

Ah, I thought you'd lost the corys too. Would you have a pic to post of the cory in the FW diseases forum along with his symptoms? You'll want to wait a minimum of 3 weeks after the corys are 100% before adding a Betta, preferrably 4-6 weeks.

Muffymouse

that makes really good sense and if for some reason all of these guys get sick and don't make it, i'll go back to square one, no point in letting an unknown underlying problem cause more suffering. Thanks for the good advice.

chickadee

You definitely do not want to add a fish to a tank that has fish in it that are not doing well and the cories can be removed to another container like a new bucket with the heater and filter running in it overnight until you can clean the tank and decorations and gravel in the tank. You will have to take a bit of a loss on the cycle if you take the filter apart or discard the media without seeding it with a piece of the old media since you will need to clean the gravel completely (no bleach on the gravel) or replace it with new gravel.

I would definitely try to treat the cory with some medication depending on what the symptoms are. You need to let us know what the problems are so we can recommend something. If the fish has been treated with Melafix, the chances are the Melafix is not going to fix the problem. My next suggestion would be to try a Maracyn/MaracynII combination for 5 days to kill off any bacterial infections that may be present with them but if it came on suddenly and is progressing fast, there may not be time for it. That would be the most comprehensive treatment for the most problems. If you are going to do this just take the carbon out of the tank and do a water change and gravel vacuum before you treat them and then put the meds in and don't do another water change for the 5 days you are medicating. When you are finished medicating the cories and can see they are healthy then you clean the tank up and get the meds cleared with carbon and water changes and then you can think of getting more fish.

Rose

Muffymouse

sounds good. no, i certainly wasn't going to be adding any more fish for several weeks to a month anyways and then after Fighter got sick and died so fast i know I will have to be especially careful with making sure there are no infectious things living in the tank. So at best i'm thinking later June or July before getting anyone new.

Rose - the trouble with my cory is in the diseases section under "Urgent Cory Problem" any thoughts you might have on it would be greatly appreciated.

Muffymouse

seems I spoke too soon, more details under the disease link.