Tigerfishy

So I noticed my new betta Neptune had his fins all raggedy and eaten away shortly after I moved him into his very own tank bought especially for him. There was a tetra in the other section of the tank (he had a divider) he was previously in that had Fin rot before and I thought he may have been the culprit.
I put in a small dose of the fin rot medicine (after checking there were no oils in it that may affect him) and within a short time, my boyfriend asked what was wrong with him. He was floppy and just going round in the current on his side. The old tank was still divided, so I immediately put him in it and within half an hour he was fine. I wondered if he was just being silly, so put a tetra in (previously unaffected by medicinewhen used before) that was in Neptunes tank before him to see everything was running OK, but within 2 minutes he was on his way out so he got put back in his tank too. Within 1 min, he was OK.
I can only think it was the medicine, as the water had been ammonia: 0, Nitrates: 0 and Nitrites: about 10. (Or the other way around, I get confused between them!)
So I did a 70% water change and am leaving it to run empty again until water conditions return to perfect. So beware everybody out there, it's now Vita-Chem all the way for his fins...
Sorry for long post, but I would like at least 1 person to learn from my mistake, luckily it was noticed in time and all fish are now completely back to normal after a good night's sleep, so sorry for my massive post.

P.S, I promise to get Neptune pics up ASAP, and thanks to Paul for noticing his plight!!

hooxeii

Just a word of caution from dread experience: tetras can be nippy. I lost a much-loved female to a case of what I thought was fin rot, but it turned out to be nipping from the tetras. They reduced her dorsal fin to almost nothing over the course of a week, for reasons I can't fathom. They were removed, but it was too late and she went into shock and passed on.

Monitor them really carefully. The tetras just can't stop themselves sometimes :c
EDIT: I just saw the tank was divided. Oops.

That said, I'm definitely an advocate of more natural method/meds verses most commercial meds. Fish are not a species that always deal with the meds well, and people tend to overmedicate. I had my LFS tell me that I should use ICH meds as a PREVENTATIVE. A huge issue in fish veterinary medicine is medicine-resistant nasties. Dosing tends to be hard for small tanks too :/

Glad to hear he's doing well now

Tigerfishy

Yes, from now on, that's the way it will be...
Just it had been so good before, only 2 doses needed for my fish to get better and regrow fins, but for bettas, never again! He can make do with water changes and Prime, nothing stronger

hooxeii

Some fishies are more sensitive than others about certain things. My betta female reacted poorly to aquarium salt, whereas the more "sensitive" cory cat largely ignored it. Who knows?