BlueRose
- #1
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 26.9 gallons
How long has the tank been running? 2/18
Does it have a filter? Yes, Fluval 50 HOB w/ sponge and ceramic filter media. Added carbon insert this weekend, and fine polishing pad yesterday to help with algae/green cloudy water issue I’m having right now.
Does it have a heater? Yes, Aqueon Pro 150W, fully submersible
What is the water temperature? 76 degrees F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 1 Male Betta, 3 African Dwarf Frogs (NOT clawed), 8 Neon Tetra, 3 Otos, 1 Mystery Snail, 1 Malaysian Trumpet Snail (hitchhiked into tank). All tank mates have been added gradually, a few at a time, with 1-2 weeks between them. Betta is very chill/not aggressive. Frogs are very peaceful, but opportunistic feeders, and have poor eyesight, so I think they may have nipped at betta’s fins a couple times. Planted tank with 1 Amazon Sword, 2 Anubias, 1 Echinodorus Osiris, 1 stem plant (I think it’s Hemianthus?)
Note: Also have 6500K lights on for 5 hours per day for plants. Have gradually been decreasing the length of time they’re on, from 8 hours, to 6, now to 5, as I believe they are causing the algae/green water issue. I also just installed a dimmer yesterday, so hopefully that will help.
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Once weekly
How much of the water do you change? ~20%
What do you use to treat your water? 50% RO water, 50% tap (well water). Seachem Prime every water change, Flourish Excel every other day for plants, API Stress Coat during water changes if I notice any rips or tears in Betta’s fins, API Quick start if adding new fish.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Both. Lightly vacuum some of the substrate around plants, or if there is visible debris during weekly water change.
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Added betta before I knew better, all others were added after tank was cycled. Tank was bought used off of Craigslist, and had fish in it prior to purchase (fish were gifted to LFS). Used prior gravel and filter material to seed tank, along with API Quick start bacteria, so tank cycled very quickly.
What do you use to test the water? API water testing kit (w/ liquid chemicals & glass vials)
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
pH: 7.2
Also: Phosphate: 0, both in tank, and straight out of tap.
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Betta: 3-4 dried betta pellets 1-2x/day, 1 pinch flake food 1-2x/day for neons, 1 sinking algae pellet every few days for snail/otos, 1 pinch per frog dry sinking pellets 2x/week, fed through a turkey baster, 1 small chunk (~pea-sized) per frog frozen bloodworms 2x/week, fed through a turkey baster. (Frogs get fed Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun)
How much do you feed your fish? See above
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Betta: Topfin Betta Bits, Neons: Tetra Tropical Color Flakes, Snail/Otos: Aqueon Algae Rounds, Frogs: Fluval Bug Bites, HikarI Frozen Bloodworms
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Yes, some frozen. See above.
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Since 2/18
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Late last week. Have been keeping an eye on him for a while. Sometimes belly would look slightly distended, but would generally go back to normal within a day, so I figured I was just being a hypochondriac about the fish (It’s my first real tank!)
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Distended, bloated stomach that looks swollen from side to side, whitish scales where bloated. I have been on the lookout for any pineconing on scales, but have not seen any.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Cut down on feeding late last week, fed small pieces of 1 pea with shell removed (on Friday, I think?). Did not feed him on Sat, but he ate some of the neons’ flakes. Yesterday I put the betta into a mesh breeding box for a brief period while I fed the other fish, as he tends to eat their food as well. Did not feed him yesterday/today.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? I don’t believe so.
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Appearance has changed as described above. Behavior seems the same, though he has been harder to observe over the past few days as our tank is experiencing its first algae bloom. L
Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now) Worried about our betta fish (his name is Hagrid, btw) due to bloated stomach with hasn’t improved over several days. I would guess that he either has bloating/potential blockage due to overfeeding, or dropsy. I test my water 2x a week, do a ~20% water change once a week, and all parameters are fine (minus green cloudy water, which I believe is caused by too much light.) While I try to feed him first, he does tend to swim around afterward and eat food from his other tankmates, so my guess would be that the issue may be bloating/intestinal blockage rather than dropsy, but I’m not sure. Due to the algae/water clouding issue, it’s been a bit tougher to observe him closely, but he still seems to be swimming around/not in distress. How do I determine whether I should treat him for dropsy, blockage, or other? What should the treatment be? If he’s constipated, I could try giving him a pea again, but I don’t want to overfeed him more if that’s the issue. I’ve been avoiding jumping straight to meds, but I’m not sure what my next steps should be, and don’t want to wait too long if I should be doing something else. I could get a 5 gallon tank tomorrow to put him in QT, but I don’t have anything set up right now, so it wouldn’t be cycled. Please help – we’ve grown quite attached to little Hagrid.
Sorry for the poor pictures, best I could get with a cloudy tank and a moving betta!
What is the water volume of the tank? 26.9 gallons
How long has the tank been running? 2/18
Does it have a filter? Yes, Fluval 50 HOB w/ sponge and ceramic filter media. Added carbon insert this weekend, and fine polishing pad yesterday to help with algae/green cloudy water issue I’m having right now.
Does it have a heater? Yes, Aqueon Pro 150W, fully submersible
What is the water temperature? 76 degrees F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 1 Male Betta, 3 African Dwarf Frogs (NOT clawed), 8 Neon Tetra, 3 Otos, 1 Mystery Snail, 1 Malaysian Trumpet Snail (hitchhiked into tank). All tank mates have been added gradually, a few at a time, with 1-2 weeks between them. Betta is very chill/not aggressive. Frogs are very peaceful, but opportunistic feeders, and have poor eyesight, so I think they may have nipped at betta’s fins a couple times. Planted tank with 1 Amazon Sword, 2 Anubias, 1 Echinodorus Osiris, 1 stem plant (I think it’s Hemianthus?)
Note: Also have 6500K lights on for 5 hours per day for plants. Have gradually been decreasing the length of time they’re on, from 8 hours, to 6, now to 5, as I believe they are causing the algae/green water issue. I also just installed a dimmer yesterday, so hopefully that will help.
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Once weekly
How much of the water do you change? ~20%
What do you use to treat your water? 50% RO water, 50% tap (well water). Seachem Prime every water change, Flourish Excel every other day for plants, API Stress Coat during water changes if I notice any rips or tears in Betta’s fins, API Quick start if adding new fish.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Both. Lightly vacuum some of the substrate around plants, or if there is visible debris during weekly water change.
*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Added betta before I knew better, all others were added after tank was cycled. Tank was bought used off of Craigslist, and had fish in it prior to purchase (fish were gifted to LFS). Used prior gravel and filter material to seed tank, along with API Quick start bacteria, so tank cycled very quickly.
What do you use to test the water? API water testing kit (w/ liquid chemicals & glass vials)
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
pH: 7.2
Also: Phosphate: 0, both in tank, and straight out of tap.
Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Betta: 3-4 dried betta pellets 1-2x/day, 1 pinch flake food 1-2x/day for neons, 1 sinking algae pellet every few days for snail/otos, 1 pinch per frog dry sinking pellets 2x/week, fed through a turkey baster, 1 small chunk (~pea-sized) per frog frozen bloodworms 2x/week, fed through a turkey baster. (Frogs get fed Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun)
How much do you feed your fish? See above
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Betta: Topfin Betta Bits, Neons: Tetra Tropical Color Flakes, Snail/Otos: Aqueon Algae Rounds, Frogs: Fluval Bug Bites, HikarI Frozen Bloodworms
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Yes, some frozen. See above.
Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Since 2/18
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Late last week. Have been keeping an eye on him for a while. Sometimes belly would look slightly distended, but would generally go back to normal within a day, so I figured I was just being a hypochondriac about the fish (It’s my first real tank!)
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Distended, bloated stomach that looks swollen from side to side, whitish scales where bloated. I have been on the lookout for any pineconing on scales, but have not seen any.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Cut down on feeding late last week, fed small pieces of 1 pea with shell removed (on Friday, I think?). Did not feed him on Sat, but he ate some of the neons’ flakes. Yesterday I put the betta into a mesh breeding box for a brief period while I fed the other fish, as he tends to eat their food as well. Did not feed him yesterday/today.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? I don’t believe so.
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Appearance has changed as described above. Behavior seems the same, though he has been harder to observe over the past few days as our tank is experiencing its first algae bloom. L
Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now) Worried about our betta fish (his name is Hagrid, btw) due to bloated stomach with hasn’t improved over several days. I would guess that he either has bloating/potential blockage due to overfeeding, or dropsy. I test my water 2x a week, do a ~20% water change once a week, and all parameters are fine (minus green cloudy water, which I believe is caused by too much light.) While I try to feed him first, he does tend to swim around afterward and eat food from his other tankmates, so my guess would be that the issue may be bloating/intestinal blockage rather than dropsy, but I’m not sure. Due to the algae/water clouding issue, it’s been a bit tougher to observe him closely, but he still seems to be swimming around/not in distress. How do I determine whether I should treat him for dropsy, blockage, or other? What should the treatment be? If he’s constipated, I could try giving him a pea again, but I don’t want to overfeed him more if that’s the issue. I’ve been avoiding jumping straight to meds, but I’m not sure what my next steps should be, and don’t want to wait too long if I should be doing something else. I could get a 5 gallon tank tomorrow to put him in QT, but I don’t have anything set up right now, so it wouldn’t be cycled. Please help – we’ve grown quite attached to little Hagrid.
Sorry for the poor pictures, best I could get with a cloudy tank and a moving betta!
