Hello Good People,
Novice fish keepers here. Our little boy received a betta fish (Moon!) and 2.5 gallon tank kit as a gift. Took us a while to realize there's a lot more to it than daily feedings. We added a heater, a stone bubbler, started doing water changes and testing water, etc. It is likely the fin rot started before we even knew enough to notice and before we got water quality stabilized. The Facts:
Dec. 18, find Aquarium Coop blog, begin medicating with Trio in accordance with all Coop guidance (i.e erythromycin, ichx, paracleanse; thorough tank cleaning, no food, no charcoal, bubbler on for one week).
Dec. 25, feed, insert charcoal. In spite of the advanced fin rot, the whole time Moon's been with us up to and including the Trio treatment Moon was lively, energetic, acting fine; great appetite.
Dec. 26-30. Moon in terrible shape. Not interested in food. sinking to bottom. Body curved, breathing labored. We thought he was a goner--it was very distressing.
Dec. 30 - Started treating with aquarium salt--high dosage (3 tbsp per gallon dosage). 20% water changes when needed (while replacing salt dosage for water removed). Within 2 days Moon was active again and eating. Has been lively and eating ever since.
At NO POINT during meds or salt treatment did Moon's fin rot stop progressing, let alone get better.
My question to you: at this point, do we start another round of Trio meds? Keep up the salt? Something else? Current water parameters:
Temp: 78
GH = 0
No3 = 0
No2 = 0
CL = 0
KH = 80
PH = 7.2
Ammonia = 0
Really appreciate any guidance. For what it's worth, we have a new 15 gallon Fluval tank planted with live plants and cycled (no other fish) that we wanted to move Moon into, but we were hesitant to do it before getting him healthy again.
Thanks in advance (truly) for any help/advice you fine folks might have.
Regards,
Moon's Mom
