lyndra

I was out on Friday night and it was about time to clean out my betta's tank... He has his own little 12 litre tank with filter and heater that gets a water change every two weeks.

My father decided that seeing as I wasn't home and the tank needed a change he would just put Firesong (my little Betta boy) into the community tank.

When I got home muttered something about putting neons into the little tanl.. I stopped.. thought.. and rushed to the community tank.

Our community tank is about 90-100 litres and only contains : two Honey Gouramis which are about 5cm long, Four Cichlids wo range from about 3-4cm long, one red tail shark, two albino plectos and two neon tetra... yes they are a bunch of aggresive fish.. but surprisingly we have very few problems with them, the Cichlids stick to the lower portion of the tank, the red tail shark to the middle and the gourami to the top, and apart from feeding time they hardly interact with each other except for they annoy the tetras who have learnt to avoid the bigger fish. This is not my tank, I have no say in the set up.


My betta was still alive but not very happy. I have taken his backing from his tank (it causes reflection in the evening due to the lighting of the room) to stop him flaring at it because he has already split his fin in one place

I have added photos where you can see a 'before' shot and you can see him grumping out this evening.

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aquarist48

Hello Lyndra. Welcome to Fish Lore. Sorry to hear that he's been beat up a bit. If you have him in his own tank now I would suggest adding two or three drops of garlic juice. You can use garlic juice from the grocery store, in a jar, or minced garlic, fresh garlic. Garlic is a natural immune system booster. Garlic Guard can be bought in fish stores. Too, a product called Vita Chem will help as well. Keep his water as pristine as possible and I think he'll recover nicely. He sure is a beautiful boy!
Best wishes!
Ken

lyndra

Thank you, I don't have any garlic juice, just fresh garlic (well whole frozen cloves and fresh) so I have cut off a very thin slice of the clove (it is so thin it curls.. frozen garlic is handy like that) and have popped it into his tank (he is back to his own tank now) and he is actually munching on that at the moment. I may just pop a slice between meals to see if that helps.. until I can get to the pet store on the weekend when I don't have work.

He still has not regained his proper colour he is usually a wonderful blue colour with red fins.. but at you can probably see he's a bit jaded.. I will just keep with maintaining a clean tank (heh, on looking at that photo.. I really need to wipe down the outside of the tank.) and hope for the best.. everytime I go near his tank I keep expecting to see the worst.. he is having a great deal of trouble just moving about and hasn't even lounged on his marbles since is happened (he loves to 'play dead' by lying on the marbles for a nap)

Beth1965

Lyndra! Welcome to fishlore. You'll have a great time here.
Sorry about your betta is not in good shape, if u follow Kens advice I think he will do fine.

Beth1965

Do you have a plant that he can rest on? Close-ish to the top of the tank so it won't be too difficult for him to get some air?

lyndra

He has plants in there, if it will help I may add more as I removed some so he would have less objects to bumble around He usually has an assortment of real plants, marbles of various sizes and smooth edged glass cubes as tank decorations. The lying on the bottom of the tank is typical for him, he hasn't been doing it lately.. at first I thought he was sick.. it took me about two months of fussing over him and being confused because he seemed happy and kept making nests.. I everntually came to the conclusion that he just liked lying about watching whoever was in the kitchen.

His other typical lying about spot is on top of the filter cartridge about an inch from the water line, which is where he has been hanging out most of the day, he stays near the top of the tank more then usual at the moment and has also been hiding in a clump of plant that I brought back from the community tank when he came back. He was hiding in it from the other fish and it took some pursuasion to get him out of it so I could net him.. he seems to feel safe in it so I have left it with him until he settles a bit.

Beth1965

Poor boy, I hope he settles down and comes around--Im sure he will. I can see you really care about your CT. Be sure to post pics when he comes around.
Beth

Lucy

Welcome to FishLore
Your poor boy! It looks like he got really beat up in the community tank.
Ditto Ken's advice.
Best of luck.

lyndra

Thank you - I will try and post photos of his recovery. He's such a special little fish, his tank sits on one end of the breakfast bar that separates the kitchen from the main living area.. he gets talked to whenever someone is in the kitchen, he gets played with at lunch on the weekends which I tend to have on the bar (he follows your finger), I tend to play with him whenever I'm sitting about watching Tv in the kitchen or reading at the breakfast bar. He is in the focal point of the house and is very much a part of the family and this little episode really has me worried

bolivianbaby

Welcome to Fishlore! I'm so sorry he got beat up on. Great advice above.

Zenandra

Poor little man! I'm sure with your love and care he will make a turn around in no time!

Red1313

Poor boy.
Like said above Garlic Gaurd, clean water, and stress coat can work magic. Also maybe try a nice high protein diet to help him regrow. Or else up his feeding just a touch it may help him out a bit. Other then that just give him time