Subject: Betta Disaster
From: "thewes"
Date: 1/28/2005 1:47 A.M. Central Standard Time
Message-id: .com

Snipped for legnth.....

I have three male bettas in a ten gallon tank,
separated of course

I have been
treating their water with Rid-Ich and it seems as though the Ich has
cleared up. Now, here is where all the problems are. I think they might
be developing Finrot..

Ok....you need to treat with Quick Cure for 7 days. Personally, I do a 25%
water change right before doing the 4th day of treatment.
Make sure you have no carbon in the filter.
You didn't mention removing it from the fiter cartridge.
You say you have a Wisper 10 power filter. The cartridge they use can be easily
emptied (removing the carbon). If it the type with a clip and you can open the
top of the filter pad..just dump it out and replace the filter cartridge. If
it's sealed at the top (some cheaper version of the filter pad are like this),
simply make a slit at the top and dump out the carbon.

I can't treat
the water with my BettaFix Remedy, or other Finrot Meds...because i
could have a potential disaster with the Rid-Ich

After the 7 days of Quick Cure and another 25% water change, run carbon in the
filter for a couple hours. It absorb any remaining Quick Cure. Then...get
yourself some Jungle (brand name) Fungus Eliminator (not Fungus Guard..it's not
the same meds). It's about the best thing for Fin Rot.

Being new to owning bettas, i thought their water seemed a bit
too cold for them (low 60s at the bottom of the tank)

Poor water conditions are about the best way for a Betta to get Fin Rot.
Poor water conditions doesn't always mean your tank is kept dirty, just not
correct for that type of fish.
Bettas need to be kept between 78-80*f in order to thrive.
That 60* temp at night could be the very reason why they're getting Rot, and
had Ich.
Ich is going to be there....it's when your fish are stressed that they become
susceptible to nasties.
Your boys were/are terribly stressed because of the Ich and the cold temps.
You really need to get them a heater. I just hope your dividers in the tank are
not solid.

so i thought
"hey! why dont i put hot water in their tank from the tap!" good idea
right? wrong.

= O
Oh my, never do that.
When changing the temp of the water, it must..absolutely must be done slowly. I
don't mean slowly over a ten minutes...I mean slowly over a 24 hour period.
Basically, to be safe...a 2 degree change per 24 hours is recommended.

im figuring i
need to get busy and siphon out the bottom....but i cant! the fish are
so stressed because of the water temp craziness that they would
probably flip out and die after i terrorized them thouroughly with a
siphon in their homes.

No no no...you *need* to do their water changes. You're actually adding to
their stress level by *not* cleaning the tank.

I think you're worried, stressed your self, and don't have the knowledge needed
yet to help your fish.
Let us folks here help you through this.
I know it's hard to be told...hey you're not doing that right, etc...but it's
better to learn that way than end up with dead fish and learn the hard way.
Trust me...when I first started out in this hobby I made all the mistakes.
Stick around and the many folks here will get you through this and you will end
up with the knowledge that can help you in the future...or even better..the
knowledge to prevent it. = )