"PurityFailed" wrote in message
...
BTW, the fin loss is not permanent ... it will grow back most of the
lost
tissue within a few weeks, if the fish is on the way to recovery, of
course.

You know the really frustrating thing? The day before I found him
dead, there
was what my LFS (Byerly's for those of you in Ohio) suggested was
probably
regenerative fuzz. Don't know the technical name but I'm pretty sure
it wasn't
fungal and it certainly was fuzz.

Regenerative fuzz? Fungus is a naturally occuring organism which can
grow in open wounds. It's presence can delay the healing (best case), to
causing the wound not to heal and worsen, exposing the fish to anything
else in the water (bacteria) and death. In proper water conditions,
fungus will not usually be able to establish itself in the open would of
a healthy fish with an active immune system.

Ah well, no more non-LFS bettas for the boyfriend.

Do plants raise PH levels?

Plants remove elements from the water which both lower and raise the pH.
Ordinarily, I don't think that their net effect is to cause the pH to
rise though.

You know, I've wondered about that. I've read that decaying matter can
be the
cause of lowered pH in a tank... but I wonder if the nutrients that
plants take
in can do it as well... and if they DID, then if the plants were
consuming the
pH lowering nutrients it would make sense that there'd be a pH rise, at
least
to what it was before the excess nutrients. I can't really see it
consistently
raising the pH though. This is pretty much all theory here, so don't
do
anything based on what I've rambled about! ~

My best guess for the pH rise in your main tank (just on what you've
shared)
might be that you've vaccumed your gravel from a pretty funky state and
done a
water change. Icky stuff in the tank should lower the pH and
rectifying the
situation seems like it would put your pH back to close where it
originally
was. Again, don't go on my word here... it's all theory!

That's logical )

Interesting side note about meds... I heard from a few people I asked
at the
LFS that if a fish recovers from something that 'needs' erythromycin
(Mardel
tablets) he was probably going to recover anyway. Somethign to ponder.

Maybe you should start visiting better LFSs ? ;~). My understanding is
that Erythromycin is a little different in that it's a gram-positive
anti-biotic, and most bacteria (and anti-biotics) are gram-negative.
Your first line of defence is always to use gram-negative anti-biotics,
but occasionally a gram-positive bacteria will show up and then EM is
handy. Note that none of these anti-biotics are that specific. I think
EM has some gram-negative capability, as the others have some
gram-positve capability. On the power scale of anti-biotics, EM is not
the strongest, which might be why your LFS is being glib about fish
recovery.

Zen masters of the freshwater universe? Oh please correct me if I'm
giving out
bad info.

Zen masters? oh, how I wish there was such a thing, especially with fish
medications. The closest might be Frank in alt.aquaria, but then I need
a drugstore and connections with a vet to get the stuff he recommends ;~)

NetMax

Happy Trails,
Jessica

(Oh please let the tank cycle...)