MommaOlenik

Finally… I think the nightmare is over. After feeding kanaplex via food for a little over two weeks. Then waiting another week or so, I am finally starting to see fin growth AND bubble blowing. He is even getting the blue back on his face 🥹. He got a bad case of fin rot after the cycled crashed. Now, water is good, fins are growing, and Moby is my happy, gentle, and excitable little guy. Thank you all so much for your help, you literally saved his life and my heart!! ♥️

I ended up feeding him the kanaplex Mix for two and a half weeks skipping about three feedings total here and there to not overload but wasn’t seeing much progress fin-wise. I stopped after that and just waited to see what happened and his energy level was about back to normal. Anyway… we have fin growth and bubble blowing!!! It worked! He’s even starting to get some blue back on his face ☺️How is your little guy doing?

I don’t know that mine is. I’ve been giving it to him for a little over a week now and I think he is still losing fun. Maybe not as fast but it’s so hard to tell. He’s still eating and everything just lost over half his tail. 😢

It is? I think mine is doing well. At least doesn’t seem to be getting worse 🫣 How is yours?

Oh good I’m so glad he is feeling better. I started giving mine that mixture yesterday so no improvement yet. But he is still eating well. He just has lost about half of his fins since what I thought was fin growth was actually the fin turning white before falling off 😢 How many times a day are you feeding?

How is he doing? I just went to the fish store to get the stuff y’all suggested because my fish is having similar symptoms after some recent issues with my nitrogen filter. Anyway, I ended up having a 15 minute badgering session where the employees argued with me for wanting to feed my betta the kanaplex. They said fin rot is an external/cosmetic issue and needs to be treated externally by treating the tank. When I told them I didn’t want to do that after the recent nightmare I had when I crashed my good bacteria they laughed at me and said kanaplex won’t kill my bacteria. They also said that Focus was only for some other kind of meds and wouldn’t work with the kanaplex. So I’m just curious if this method is working for you. I hope your little guy is feeling better. He is beautiful!

That’s awesome. She probably enjoys having the company. That’s why I try to interact with Moby so he doesn’t get bored. Haha

Oh wow Grace is beautiful. Love the setup and everything. Is she an adult or baby?

That’s so cool. I’ve read about them having very loving personalities.

Oh she sounds awesome. Do you have any pictures of her??

The crazy thing is I don’t remember a time where I haven’t had a betta and I’ve never had issues like this. And I even had them in those crazy small bowls believing the pet stores that they were happy in a small space like that. I never even had a filter or a heater. Definitely never tested my water until I started with cichlids and dabbled with saltwater. I think breeding has a lot to do with it. I’ve rescued a few in bad shape from the chain pet stores and have had mixed luck. I just lost the last one that had a terrible case of fin rot. He started getting better then it just came back with a vengeance. I absolutely recommend them. They have fun personalities. When I was doing all of this stuff to his tank he would literally follow me until I would stop moving so he could curl up in my hand. So cool. Thank you so much, very happy days!!!

He’s hard to get a good picture of but you can kind of see the little white spots of fin regrowth. And happy hugs for his home no longer being a toxic place ♥️

Super cute little fin bump from Moby today!

I definitely am happy to be hopefully at the end of this. I can’t believe what a roller coaster this has been. Definitely was a lot more tolerable with all your support. Thank you!

No, I’m finishing what’s left of the spring water still. So it’s definitely not from the tap. I think maybe I just got a sample of where he just peed or something lol. It was weird. Or maybe I put in too many drops. Who knows. But I tested two more times after that and both had just a tiny amount. The passed few days have been pretty good with no ammonia or just trace amounts. I’ve also noticed some brown algae starting to grow. And a bit of fin regrowth on Moby from the touch of fin rot he got from all of this. Today is a good day!! 🥹

Haha I never even thought about you guys seeing the chart. That’s my bad lol. Thank you all so much for the information. Im going to try to get the air stone this week using your suggestions. The water has been holding pretty steady the past few days. Except yesterday the first test showed super high levels of ammonia but the subsequent tests showed the same as above. So not sure what happened there, but it seems to be leveling out. I’ve only done one water change in the past four days. I appreciate everyone sticking with me through this and I know Moby does too. He has been swimming all around and enjoying his log more only rarely looking out the back of the tank♥️

Oh wow yeah the one I got was too much. I need something like those that I can control. Where do you get yours from if you don’t mind sharing? Thank you so much! Anyone interested in an update… I spoke too soon 😩 It’s not terrible but still there 🤬

I don’t know if it was the cartridge. It could just be a coincidence. At this point who knows. I’ll just be happy when it stays this way and I can go back to testing once a week or so. I’ve gone through so many of the test kits since this all started lol. I should have just listened to you on the airstone. I did the opposite and bought a cheap one so it is not adjustable and probably more suited for a 50 gallon not a 5. I would love to see yours if you wouldn’t mind. That would be great thank you!!

Alright so after having an existential crisis over whether I should even have a fish in an aquarium in my house after this whole debacle. I decided to go ahead and get rid of the filter cartridge. It was making the water smell funky and I have been wanting rid of it for weeks now. So I just pulled off the bandaid and removed it. Everyday since the water levels have been steadily going down and for the passed 2 days 🤞🏼 it has been staying at zero. I’m not going to get too excited but that’s where we are. On another note… the air stone is NOT for Moby. He took off running as soon as I put it in and would not come out. So I’ll just remove any film by hand. Thanks again everyone. Hopefully we are getting there. I watched this video a few weeks ago. Super helpful. I just watched it again as a refresher. Thanks for posting it for others to see if they haven’t seen it.

Thank you all so much for your help. I really appreciate it. Either way we are still better than we were when I first came here. So I am nothing but thankful. I just ordered an air stone. It should be here Sunday so hopefully that will help too.

The only thing with this is that I’m not seeing ammonia. Or do you mean it could be converting it to ammonium and that’s why I’m showing no ammonia with a ton of nitrite? Or am I missing what you’re saying? I am doing water changes every other day but still using spring water that I’ve tested prior to treating with anything to ensure there’s no ammonia or anything in it. I want to keep with that until I see it has fully cycled to ensure there’s enough bacteria to handle the ammonia in my tap water which can sometimes be at 1 ppm or higher. What do you guys think?

Ok, so I used the two pieces of sponge I already had in there. Putting the coarsest one on the bottom and then layered a piece of each of the other ones I got on top. I rinsed them all thoroughly. There was just enough room for the little bio max ceramic things on top. Lastly, I put the filter cartridge next to the filter. Just in case. What do you think? And of course Moby… cause he’s cute but a little too wiggly for a glamor shot but that’s just one of the things we love about him ❤️

Just went to the local pet store. They didn’t have any small air stones so I’ll have to get one off of Amazon. But does this look about right? And just to be sure… no charcoal right?

The one sponge is cleaner because I just had it under the bottom of the filter where the intake is so it was just vacuumed there. Because I was afraid to touch the filter. But I put it inside after I took it apart to show you.

Here are some pictures of his tank too. The heater is set at 79 and there’s this new oily looking stuff floating on top of his water.