dinatwin

Hi I'm new here and I have a question. I have a girl betta who was in a tiny bowl for a long time about a year then I decided to get a 5 gallon tank. I set it up I have well water but I put 15 drops of water conditioner in it. Then later that day my husband put the fish in. i wanted to wait but he already did it. Since then i have been reading TONS and realized there is so much more than just setting up a tank and putting fish in it. ( I feel bad for my cute little betta having her in such a small bowl. Anyway I noticed the next day she had white raised cotton like dot on her head. I think it's a fungus infection she has devopled 2 more but not as big. They are not flat. So i went to the pet store and bought Fungus Clear Tank Buddies by jungle products. Did i do the right thing? oh and by the way I broke the tablet in half since on the box it says a full tab for 10 gallons. I have a 5 gallon tank.

Here are the tank stats
Temp 78 degrees
pH 6.8 -7.2
alk 80
hardness 25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Amonia 1.0

How long should i keep the carbon filter out?

Thanks so much!

Martinismommy

I use rid fungus for fungal infections but I believe the fungus clear tablets should do the trick....Your nitrates should be at 5-10 and you really need to get that ammonia down ASAP.....You may want to consider doing a 50% water change daily until the tank is cycled....

Can you post a photo of your girl?

jdhef

Welcome to FishLore!

I think you may be caught up in a Catch 22 situation. It doesn't sound like you cycled the tank. If that is the case, the ammonia is going to start to rise and may kill your fish. In order to prevent that, you need to be doing daily 50% water changes, until your tank cycles.

But, while medicating, I believe you shouldn't be doing water changes since it will remove medication from the water.

Hopefully someone will have a better answer than I do.

sirdarksol

Martininismommy and jdhef have excellent advice.
The fungus likely got past the fish's defenses because of the stress it is feeling due to the ammonia. Daily 50% water changes will help get the ammonia down while you're waiting for the tank to cycle.

Jungle-Labs stuff is pretty good quality, from what I've heard (though I think they're the ones that make BettaFix, which, despite its name, shouldn't be used on bettas). The Fungus Clear should be a good solution. Between that and the fresh water, your friend should do fine.

It sounds like you're already on the right track for everything. You've realized your mistake, researched it, and are fixing the problem as you go along. That's pretty much what all of us around here did, but you're a bit ahead of the curve, it seems, because many of us end up here with our fish in much worse condition due to our lack of knowledge, so excellent job.

Welcome to Fishlore!

dinatwin

Thanks so much for the great advice!!! I had water aging with aqua safe and I just changed 25% of the water. ( I need a bigger container to age the water in) the amonia level dropped to .5. I'm aging more water as we speak. Also you guys are correct I didn't cycle the water as I had no clue but i did by this stuff called cycle and put that in a few days ago as I learned more about starting up a fish tank. it says to repeat every 7 days until it's cycled.

Thanks again everyone! Thank you sirdarksol for the nice words

BTW my fish is a betta

pepetj

Hi dinatwin. wellcome to fishlore! I have a beautiful female Betta living in a 5gal tank too!

You are doing great. At this point I suggest you drop the Cycle product idea (it has bacteria that brakes down ammonia and nitrites, but not the right type of bacteria that will sustain by itself once introduced in the tank, so you will be forced to purchase and add Cycle product continuously). If you want to speed up the cycling process, use Tetra Safe-Start.

Nevertheless, since you have a small tank, doing partial water changes daily (and even more if needed) will not be that difficult, and will keep your fish alive. I would worry more on the Ammonia-Nitrites readings than the fungus at this point. If a compromise must be made (the catch 22 situation jdhef points out), then the fungus treatment should come second to preventing lethal ammonia-nitrite spikes.

One side note:I am confused about your alkalinity and hardness readings. I assume hardness in your readings reffers to KH (carbonate hardness) PPM and alkalinity to GH (General Hardness) ppm. If that's the case, you may need to increase the KH to 50 or 60ppm (around 3dH) so you prevent pH swings, which is even more likely to happen in smaller tanks (say less than 20gal). An easy, and safe way of doing so is by placing some crushed coral (from the saltwater section) in the substrate.

Read some threads about similar situations lived by others here in fishlore. It's a common mistake to add fish and later realize about the cycle. You and your betta can survive this ordeal, keep in mind you were trying to improve her quality of life... in the end she will love the 5gal tank!

Pepe
Santo Domingo

mrsmuffin

You mentioned that you are ageing your water but I believe you are also using a water conditioner. If you are using a water conditioner, then I don't think there is any reason for you to age your water...

dinatwin

thanks again everyone!!!

Pepetj I have test stip kits that do all the testing and a seperate one for ammonia. I will have to look into what the hardness means. (general hardness I'm guessing right now) May I ask What is a substrate?

mrsmuffin I'm aging the water strictly for temperature changes. I didn't want to add straight tap water for fear it may be too cold. or can I?

thanks a gain!! You all are sooo nice to help me

Martinismommy

Substrate is the gravel, sand or marbles you have on the bottom of the tank..

clinton1621

Substrate is your bottom (gravel, rocks and etc.) the strips you use to test with are most likely not very accurate and thats why your getting weird hardness readings... if you want a good test you should get a liquid test kit (its a lot more expensive but worth the money)

You're right about letting the water warm up, you want it to be the same temp as what your tank is or you will shock the fish, so good thinking

dinatwin

is this a good type of testing equipment
http://www.petco.com/product/103685/...-Test-Kit.aspx

clinton1621

Yep, thats probably the most recommended one!

mrsmuffin

I just use my hands to judge the temp of the tap water and adjust it to closely match the temp of the tank. You are right though, you don't want it to be a huge difference.

jdhef

You can use a mixture of hot and cold water from your tap to get the desired temperature. Betta's should be kept between 79 and 80 degrees. If I'm not mistaken, lower temps lead to ick, fungus and fin rot, whereas higher temps will lead to a shorter life span.

ShaynaB

I put water conditioner in water straight out of the tap and then put it in the tank. After a while I got used to the water temp it was supposed to be when I put it in. You can always throw a thermometer in for a minute to check if you're not sure.

I hope your betta girl feels better soon!

dinatwin

I added a picture of her. I'm not sure I'm doing this right though

sirdarksol

She's a beautiful fish. She looks pretty healthy. When they get really stressed, bettas can lose most of their color.
She should recover from this with some fairly simple care.

dinatwin

Thank you

pepetj

Wow what a beautiful girl! What's her name?

Sorry it took so long to reply. Test strips are good for screening purposes -quick checking. Accurate measurements take some time and liquid reagents (for nitrates, even adding a solid reagent: Zinc dust).

In a short, simple way (in reality this is an extensive subject, with some disagreements or misunderstandings not solved yet): GH general Hardness: a measure of dissolved molecules in the water. KH carbonate hardness: a measure of dissolved carbonate molecules. GH is usually greater than, but could be equal as KH (in the event that carbonates compose most of dissolved molecules in the water).

Since your water seems to be too soft, it is prone to pH swings or a sudden pH crash. Adding crushed corals (not live stuff) to your sand, gravel, or even the bare bottom surface of the tank, would slowly bring your GH and KH higher. Just add little by little, I have only read about it, and have no personal experience with that (I'm doing the opposite, which is a little more tricky: softening mid-to-hard water). Someone here will tell you how to do it, for sure.

Glad to know you are being careful about temperature shocks.


Pepe
Santo Domingo

PS: See below:
Edda, sleeping female Betta...

COBettaCouple

How is she doing? If she still has any fungus, I would recommend Rid-Fungus for treating her. Just add the recommended amount each day after a 50% water change. Treat all water with Prime for your water conditioner to protect her from the nitrogen toxins.