Fungus killed everything... almost. HELP

[Newtnewb]

So I had a very stable set up in my 5 gal Fluval Spec tank for about 4 - 5 months with my Betta. I then added 5 baby neons to the tank (with the intention uparading later). Everything went well for several weeks, then a fungus bloomed and killed the neons. In a panic, I contacted my LFS, but now I'm afraid they may have given me bad info.. Iwithout a second thought, i did as he said which was to remove the betta in some water with a little defungal by Seachem and meanwhile deep clean the tank, except for the filter. I filled the tank with new water, dechlorinated and added Tetra Safe Start and a little of the LFS's water squeezed from a filter for extra help... supposedly. I'm freaking out, I can't keep my betta in a cup of old water waiting for a tank to re-cycle!?!? I do have API Master Kit and the current levels scare me. Ph is 7.2, ammonia is .50ppm, nitrate is 10ppm, nitrite is .50ppm. Temp is stable at 77°F.

I'm scared to lose my betta....

Do I need to speed the process by adding fish to cycle? I'm freaking out!

 

[fishorama]

You need to do some water changes & Prime dechlor daily in your beta's cup. Any ammonia but especially nitrite is very hard on fish. Bettas can live in a small amount of water...but not with those #s for long. It'll be easy to do in a small container, but needs to be done!

I'm wondering if it's "fungus" (relatively unusual) or something like "neon tetra disease"...dead fish, from whatever, can quickly fungus & some bacterial growth is kinda fuzzy like that too ,(columnaris in some forms, etc).

Good luck! & when (if ? ) you get everything stable & happy, you might want to try cardinal tetras instead of neons. Cardinals are much happier at higher betta temps (78-82F); neons are better at, say, 73F. Both are similar looking but slightly different needs.

All that said are you sure you betta didn't kill the tiny neons? Way back in the day, we used to buy very small neons (6/$1) for our betta's tank. He'd often kill a few until they got too big...& they'd nip his fins sometimes...so we'd move them...& buy him more babies. Happy betta & lots of neons too!