UPDATE: LB has a hole in his analfin

Re: LB has a hole in his analfin

Good to hear the penicillin is helping.  As long as LB doesn't try to escape through the gravel vac, you should end up with a successful treatment under your belt.

Never saw LB flare his gills before, huh?  Depending on his frame of mind, GB will show off his fins.  But he'll flare at me if I sneak up on him and have a baseball cap or a white shirt on.  Then he'll go back to doing whatever it is he does when he determines I'm not lunch, nor a threat.

As for GB and his fin rot, he still has it, and today is Day 5 of his penicillin treatment.  I plan to discontinue the penicillin treatment tomorrow and get into research mode to see what to do next.  I have Furan 2, but have already tried JL Fungus Clear, which has two of the three meds found in the Furan 2, and which didn't appear to do the job.  His tank is clean (40% water changes daily), the temp is at 84 degrees, there are two filters running (the Hex 5 built-in and a sponge filter, which also aerates), there are no dangerous decorations to cause injury, and no gravel to drag his fins across.  It's really baffling.  I guess as long as he has some fins there's still time to find the cure.

Keep up whatever it is you're doing Nicole, it seems to be working.

Mike

 

Re: LB has a hole in his analfin

Mike,

Have you tried to use Bottled Spring water in your tank? Some experts say that it is a problem with the chemicals and pH of the tap water and I wonder if you used a tank of Bottled Spring water that has none of that to see if it would make a difference....?? Then maybe you could kind of wean him into the use of the tap water gently when the tank is cycled and hopefully he could adjust.

I am just throwing out a possibility. This is the only safe way that I know of to change the water chemistry without fluctuations that would damage him. I had to do it for a while when the tap water here became unusable due to agricultural chemicals. (nitrates) but I have heard of it being used for other parameters being out of whack also.

Rose
???

 

Re: LB has a hole in his analfin

Don't mean to HJ Nicole's thread, so I'll take the GB discussion back to <a href=" back in the Hex 5</a>.

Mike

 

Re: LB has a hole in his analfin

That's ok. We all do it at one time or another. Especially when everyone's fish seem to be suffering from the same things.

Nicole

 

Well after a 10 day round of penicillin, I have decided to give LB a break. There was some new breakage on his fins around day 4, but they are looking much better now. I will monitor him over the next few days to see how he does. I will have to continue with the daily water changes because all the meds knocked out what little bit of cycle I had going. Hopefully, it will not take long for the tank to finish cycling.

I also think I may have found out part of LB's problem. I couldn't figure out why his fins would be ok in the morning when I left for work and be tattered when I got home in the evening. Well, tonight, I caught him. I walked up to the tank to prepare to do the last water change and add the carbon filter back in. I looked in and saw LB plastered up against the intake tube of the filter! All of his fins were wrapped around it. In a panic, thinking he was stuck, I geared up to stick my hand in there to "free" him. Lo and behold, he saw me standing there and disengaged himself, swam right over and gave me his betta dance. He looked pretty content plastered up against that tube and I suspect he has been doing this for a while. He kind of looked guilty when he saw me looking at him. That would explain his lack of fins when I get home.

I tell you, this little fish is going to be the death of me...LOL.

 

;D
They do the craziest things don't they?  He probably found that the little bit of suction kept him from having to try to balance himself and being the laid back creatures they are, he found it a nice place to nap. Lava's tail is looking ragged too and I have found him wrapped around the filter intake tube too. It isn't that they are stuck... they can get away well enough but it tears up their fins and they don't feel it. Probably putting a piece of nylon would help keep his tail from getting sucked up into the tube.

Lava nearly gave me a heart attack this morning too.  I went to wake him and found him lying upside down with his body curved around and his face in the gravel under his bridge. I thought he was dead! I turned on the light and gently knocked on the tank and he woke up, hid deeper under the bridge and peeked out from the side with one eye at me. I could swear he was thinking "Hey! What's the big idea? Turn off that light and let me sleep!"  He came out after a few minutes and was back to normal. 

 

That might explain the loss of LB's tail feathers.  Hard to experiment with that, though.  Seems these Bettas of ours are always up to something, huh?

Mike

 

Blaze did that the other morning too. I was so afraid he was gone and he just wiggled right off the thing. He was the one with finrot for me and just got over it. Now I have Nate with it. I looked at him this morning when I fed him and he was fine and by 9:00 am his dorsal fins were tattered.

The whole tank is getting Furan-2.

I think too the nylon idea is great.

Yes, what they do not find to do is probably not worth doing...the little stinkers.

Rose

 

BenjI is also being medicated for finrot at this time. I wonder if he is doing the same thing and I just haven't caught him yet? They are definitely little stinkers that llike to make us worry.

CherryRose

 

Yes, they are always up to something.  They are like mischievous little kids, but that is why we love them.  The little things they do are both amusing and vexing...sigh.  Sometimes I wish I could set up a camera to see what he is up to when I am not home.  I have caught him bubble-diving a few times, too.  I turned the air stone back up because I cranked up the temp in his tank and I suspected he liked it.  Every now and then he will swim straight down into the column of bubbles and then "ride the wave" back to the top.  If the lid is ever open when he does that, I am sure I will see a flying fish....LOL.

Nicole

 

I find it very strange that fish who are supposed to like everything quiet and calm seem to go right for the most current and bubbling action and work like crazy to stay there. I worked hard to calm everything down in the new tanks and the bettas head straight for the wildest areas. Go Fish... ;D

Rose