Rick-o
06-22-2009, 9:10 AM
I first posted in the "Newbie - Introduce Yourself" forum but figured I'd move over here for updates on his condition and to hear your comments and advice.
We rescued a royal blue betta male (his name is "Fysh") from a fishbowl about 10 days ago. My daughter's roommate abandonded Fysh when she moved home for the summer so she brought him home with her. His water quality was poor in the 1/2 gallon bowl and Fysh was very lethargic. His tail stayed drooped over and his fins were rotted. We did a complete water change, cleaned the gravel and silk tree, and started doing 50 percent water changes almost daily. Fysh hardly ate any of the betta flakes that had come home with him. Neither my wife or I had an aquarium before so we started reading up on the care of bettas on this forum and at Nippyfish.net. Then one day we noticed Fysh had patches of fungus growing on his sides. That did it.
One Friday morning, about 10 days ago, we went shopping and bought Fysh a new 10 gallon tank. It came as a kit with a filter and a lighted hood. We added some gravel media, filled the tank, and treated the water with Aqua Clear, added some aquarium salt and got the temperature stabilized at about 78 degrees (without a heater). We put in a little "roman ruins" ornament to give him a place to hide and to get out of the currents caused by the filter. We also added Fungus Clear and a dose of MelaFix. We left the charcoal filter element out of the filter so it wouldn't filter out the medications. That night we moved Fysh into a quart sized zip-lock bag half-filled with some of his fishbowl water and floated it in the new tank to let the temperatures equalize. After about an hour we eased him into the tank without letting much of the old water go with him. We worried about the shock of the new environment and all the chemicals but figured it was no worse than his current conditions.
The change in Fysh were almost immediate. When he was in the little fishbowl he had spent most of his time lying near the bottom on the gaudy pink gravel. As soon as he was in the new tank he began exploring. He still liked spending time alone in the "ruins" but would come out and swim around a lot more than before. He still wasn't very interested in the betta flakes or the new betta pellets the nice "fish lady" at WalMart suggested. I had read that bettas were carnivores and liked fresh frozen foods. I splurged and bought a buffet of 6 different foods: tubifex worms, blood worms, mysis shrimp, daphnia, spirulina brine shrimp, and beef heart. He immediately perked up when I introduced him to blood worms. After trying all the foods, I've found that Fysh's favorite above all is the beef heart.
The turn-around in Fysh's appearance is dramatic. His color is much brighter. His tail is held erect now and he flares out his damaged fins routinely. His body has filled out in general. We vacuumed the tank after 4 days which resulted in a 50% water change then repeated the Fungus Clear treatment as recommended. We continued the daily MelaFix treatments through 7 days. Now, after 10 days, you wouldn't recognize Fysh. He is absolutley a different betta. He plays in the bubble curtain, repeatedly swimming down into the bubbles at the bottom and riding them back up to the top of the water. Then he'll take a break and find a calm, dark place to rest awhile. He occaisionally faces his reflection on the tank wall, bows up his back, flares out his gills, his tail and all his fins and tries to frighten away the "competition". I turn off the bubbles and filter when I feed him so the water is calm and the food doesn't go everywhere. As soon as I shut things down, Fysh comes over to the same corner where I always feed him and starts peering out at me and checking the top of the water. I have to be careful not to over feed him. I think he'd eat till he popped if I'd let him.
Well, I've gone on and on about our first fish experience. We've been lucky, I guess. I've read lots of stories that didn't turn out as well. We are glad Fysh came to us and that we were able to improve his situation. Now we are anxious to get another tank and other fish. We may try to find Fysh some tank mates but don't want to "screw with his head" and make him paranoid or aggressive. We'll see.
We welcome any comments and advice.
We rescued a royal blue betta male (his name is "Fysh") from a fishbowl about 10 days ago. My daughter's roommate abandonded Fysh when she moved home for the summer so she brought him home with her. His water quality was poor in the 1/2 gallon bowl and Fysh was very lethargic. His tail stayed drooped over and his fins were rotted. We did a complete water change, cleaned the gravel and silk tree, and started doing 50 percent water changes almost daily. Fysh hardly ate any of the betta flakes that had come home with him. Neither my wife or I had an aquarium before so we started reading up on the care of bettas on this forum and at Nippyfish.net. Then one day we noticed Fysh had patches of fungus growing on his sides. That did it.
One Friday morning, about 10 days ago, we went shopping and bought Fysh a new 10 gallon tank. It came as a kit with a filter and a lighted hood. We added some gravel media, filled the tank, and treated the water with Aqua Clear, added some aquarium salt and got the temperature stabilized at about 78 degrees (without a heater). We put in a little "roman ruins" ornament to give him a place to hide and to get out of the currents caused by the filter. We also added Fungus Clear and a dose of MelaFix. We left the charcoal filter element out of the filter so it wouldn't filter out the medications. That night we moved Fysh into a quart sized zip-lock bag half-filled with some of his fishbowl water and floated it in the new tank to let the temperatures equalize. After about an hour we eased him into the tank without letting much of the old water go with him. We worried about the shock of the new environment and all the chemicals but figured it was no worse than his current conditions.
The change in Fysh were almost immediate. When he was in the little fishbowl he had spent most of his time lying near the bottom on the gaudy pink gravel. As soon as he was in the new tank he began exploring. He still liked spending time alone in the "ruins" but would come out and swim around a lot more than before. He still wasn't very interested in the betta flakes or the new betta pellets the nice "fish lady" at WalMart suggested. I had read that bettas were carnivores and liked fresh frozen foods. I splurged and bought a buffet of 6 different foods: tubifex worms, blood worms, mysis shrimp, daphnia, spirulina brine shrimp, and beef heart. He immediately perked up when I introduced him to blood worms. After trying all the foods, I've found that Fysh's favorite above all is the beef heart.
The turn-around in Fysh's appearance is dramatic. His color is much brighter. His tail is held erect now and he flares out his damaged fins routinely. His body has filled out in general. We vacuumed the tank after 4 days which resulted in a 50% water change then repeated the Fungus Clear treatment as recommended. We continued the daily MelaFix treatments through 7 days. Now, after 10 days, you wouldn't recognize Fysh. He is absolutley a different betta. He plays in the bubble curtain, repeatedly swimming down into the bubbles at the bottom and riding them back up to the top of the water. Then he'll take a break and find a calm, dark place to rest awhile. He occaisionally faces his reflection on the tank wall, bows up his back, flares out his gills, his tail and all his fins and tries to frighten away the "competition". I turn off the bubbles and filter when I feed him so the water is calm and the food doesn't go everywhere. As soon as I shut things down, Fysh comes over to the same corner where I always feed him and starts peering out at me and checking the top of the water. I have to be careful not to over feed him. I think he'd eat till he popped if I'd let him.
Well, I've gone on and on about our first fish experience. We've been lucky, I guess. I've read lots of stories that didn't turn out as well. We are glad Fysh came to us and that we were able to improve his situation. Now we are anxious to get another tank and other fish. We may try to find Fysh some tank mates but don't want to "screw with his head" and make him paranoid or aggressive. We'll see.
We welcome any comments and advice.