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Betta Quarantine Questions from a Beginner


K-Davis
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My 1 year old Betta has a white cotton-ish area on his tail between the top and bottom fins.  He's does not act sickly, but is a little lethargic.  I used Pimafix for about a week and saw significant change, but his 10 gallon tank got quite murky.  Since I know it helped I want to put him in his own hospital tank away from the 4 ottos and plant life in the 10 gallon.  The fish bowl holds about 3 liters.  How much Pimafix is safe? Would 0.6 ml work?  I also have Super Ick Cure.  Would that be better?  Do I need to worry about the temperature before relocating him?   I also read aquarium salt with the medication would help, is this true?  Since he is as old as he is, I just don't want to hurt him and I will admit, I am a beginner at this.

Thanks in advance.

 

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Hi @K-Davis sorry to hear about your Betta but glad something is working for you- if it is then I'd stick with that treatment. I'm not great with math but sounds like for Pimafix it is 5ml per 10 gallons, which makes it half a ml for 1 gallon, 3 liters is .79 gallons. So I'd say up to .8 ml would work. You want to keep his stress to the absolute minimum, you are already going to move and medicate him. Try and keep his quarantine the same temp as his tank if possible. I'm not sure about the salt but you can consider 10-15 minute salt baths if he is not improved or add the salt later once you do your research again if nothing improves. Keep the water super clean. Now while instructions on Pima say dose every day for 7 days THEN do a water change- *I* have found doing water small changes every day before redosing has worked for me- but I've done that for Ich not fungal infections. Ich is a parasite- but keep Super Ick on hand as I have used it to cur Ich when I've had it in my tanks and it does work. Hope this helps. 

Edited by xXInkedPhoenixX
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Thanks for the help!  I have him settled in this morning and he seems to be doing fine.  I put his Betta log in the bowl with him to give him a little privacy.  What sort of lighting do you think would be best? Should I keep him in the darker kitchen or close to a window with natural light? I figured less light less stress?

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We lost him.  😥 He was a little over a year old.  The tank seems fine. I put a little aquarium salt into the 10 gallon when my betta started looking sick.  I have 4 ottos and they don't look like they have anything and are doing fine.  Should I just be cautious and keep and eye on everyone?  My 4 year old daughter wants to get a new fish.  How long should we wait to make sure all is good for another member in the 10 gallon?  Since this is new to me, are there any recommendations on fish that would live well with 4 ottos in a 10 gallon with live plants? 

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@K-Davis I'm very sorry to hear about the poor betta. 😞 Sadly though we try we cannot save them all. Are you looking for something other than a betta? ...always keep an eye on tankmates after a death. Heck I look at all my fish every day for any physical signs, and count my herds so to speak. Though it's a little tougher for my Otos since during the day they hide and in one of my tanks since they've bred I don't know EXACTLY how many I have anyway! 

If you want a single fish what about a Dwarf Gourami? The boys can kind of be jerks to some fish I've heard but if they are the only middle dwelling fish it might work well for your tank with just 4 Otos. You could also do a small group of neon tetras, maybe 6 would be manageable? 

Edited by xXInkedPhoenixX
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I’m so sorry to hear about your loss 😞 

as far as getting new fish, I’d wait a couple weeks and make sure that the otos all look normal and are acting alright. As for what to put in there, I do believe the CoOp channel has a few videos on this exact topic, but I’ll go ahead and throw my 2 cents in the ring. If you want to have a bunch of smaller fish, I’d go with something like green neon tetras, Glo lite tetras, or something similar. These are schooling fish so they’d prefer groups of 6 or more. Personally, I have 9 Glo lite danios and a betta in my 10 gallon along with shrimp and some peaceful gobies, and I love all the activity. You could also do a dwarf gourami, or maybe a single male apistogramma cichlid in place of what’s called your “showpiece” fish.

Another route you could go is the live bearer route, which can be super fun. For this you could get a trio (1 male and 2 females) of endler, guppies, or platies, and likely get lots of babies that you can raise up. That’s what really got me hooked on the hobby when I was a kid. The best part about livebearers is the fry can eat the tropical flake food that the adults eat, just crushed into smaller pieces, so it’s very little extra work on the caretaker to get them breeding and thriving.

there’s some other oddball stuff you can do but I don’t want to overwhelm you. 

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Oh I agree with Steph as far as waiting a couple of weeks HOWEVER. Do yourself a favor and have that quarantine/hospital tank cleaned/set up for the new residents. In fact if you have that already set up to go then you can go get your new fish and watch them for a good 2 weeks to a month THEN add them to your 10 gallon and you should have no problem. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@xXInkedPhoenixX @Steph’s Fish and Plants thanks for the help.  So far the tank is fine, plants and ottos.  I will probably try to add a few more ottos in before others, but the thought of possibly raising some fry sounds intriguing.  My 4 yr old would LOVE that!  We haven't had good luck with Neons....think it might be where I am getting them.  Pet Smart is the ONLY fish store in town here.  We have 2 guppies already in a 5 gallon in her room and they are quite hardy, but both males.  So I will look into the kinds you sent me and check it out.  Do any of those seem to be jumpers?  Only bad part about my tank is that I do not have a lid....

I appreciate your advise, thanks again.

 

 

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The tank looks beautiful!!! I'm sure the Otos are super happy. I think it's a neat thing to have a breeding project. My question is though, do you have a plan for the offspring? Some live bearers can have quite a few babies. The reason I ask is that you had said the closest fish store is a box store and they don't generally tank fish from their consumers. As long as you are prepared for selling/giving away the fish then you should be good to go. 

I had my Otos breed, funnily I picked them because the internet told me it wasn't likely or near imposssible- I thought, GREAT, cause I didn't want to breed ANY fish. So when I accidently bred them I had to make a plan. Thankfully I already had a floating breeder box (I had it for my fish first aid kit, a way to keep a sick fish in the parent tank but contain it for observation)- I highly recommend one of those. THEN I ended up with another 10 gallon tank to house what would eventually be my 60+ Oto babies. I've had them since March, but the LFS won't take them until they are well past an inch- some of them are not quite there yet. 

Since I've never intentionally bred anything I'll have to defer to others for those recommendations. If you don't want breeders I'd highly recommend Harlequin Rasboras- while they can be bred supposedly they're near impossible to and I can at least attest to that so far (*knock on wood*). I love my Harlequins. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks again folks for all of your advice. I went out and got two more Ottos and 5 Zebra Danios.  Sadly the selection we have here isn't that great, and I abhor the thought of shipping a poor fish through mail.  So far so good, the Danios are very active and have brought out my shy Ottos.  Everyone seems happy and good to go.  This forum is great and I am pleased with how helpful everyone is.  I look forward to more aid down the road as I hopefully get better at this aquatic hobby.

😉  Kari

 

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@K-Davis I was apprehensive the first time I ordered fish online as well. Me and my sister have since placed multiple online fish orders and it's always been fast and the fish arrived healthy. Fish are shipped all the time. The fish you see in any local store was shipped from someplace else. Online retailers have pretty much mastered the art of livestock shipping.

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