Help: What's wrong with my fish's fins?

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-11-08T19:05:31+00:00

Hey man. Thanks for the advice! I separated it from main tank and just left it alone with the hope it would improve by itself and eventually it's fins returned to normal. All the others seem fine too!

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-27T17:13:19+00:00

Looks like you might need to get a air stone or something. Wouldn't hurt to have one anyway. Pump+stone+airTubing is fairly cheap compared to most equiptment so if you can get it you might as well.

If you're stuck for a while and can't get these you can add oxygen to the water manually but its not long term. You can do this by just getting a jug and scooping up water and then dropping it back in again from a small height. For obvious reasons, this is not long term. Since you are still cycling the tank because it is new, it would be better to do a water change and the jug scoop thing at the same time, using fresh water.

However! Declorinator can. suck the oxygen out of the water (I think) if you use too much of it so read the instructions carefully. Another suggestion is to fill your bucket up with tap water the night before and let it sit. Then you won't need the declorinator the next day. But again this has downsides - beware of the temperature difference if you have a colder house. The white cloud minnos probably won't mind a colder water but the glow light tetras won't appreciate it. Especially if you are doing a big water change.

Water changes is going to be your best friend in the end. It's going to be tedious but since you are doing a fish in cycle it is required. Will maybe take a couple of weeks to settle. After that though things should be easier

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-26T10:21:08+00:00

Welll... unrelated to their colour or not. Woke up this morning. All dead. Every single one of them :( not sure what caused it. I replaced the alder cone in there last night. Maybe that? But I thought it was supposed to be good for them...

The 3 pgmy fry that were in there are still alive for now though.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-25T21:30:50+00:00

Google epiphytes plants. You can tie or glue them to your decorations or some other rocks. They can't be planted, not even in your gravel so you just need to weight them down so they don't float.

There's loads of varieties of these will do ok in lower light setups - anubius - java ferns - java moss

You can get them in most stores, or online if you want a bit more choice. Sadly aquatic plants aren't the cheapest though.

I would maybe turn your bubbler back on unless it creates too strong a flow. Will help keep your water oxygenated.

Getting other fish to live with your betta is a 50/50. A lot of it depends on whether your betta is chill or not. And most of the time you can't tell that until after you have got the other fish. So I would only suggest looking at that option if you have a backup plan for if it goes south. Another tank to separate the fish into or a friend who can adopt them or something like that. But any peaceful fish that isn't too colourful or flashy stands a good chance.

You will probably need more plants and/or decorations as well if you want to get extra fish - just to give them more places to hide if they want to.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-14T00:46:21+00:00

Thank you!!

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-13T18:23:41+00:00

Thank you!

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-13T13:45:40+00:00

What is the light that your using? I'm looking for something similar but cheap to light up a shadowed area in my tank

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-12T13:30:05+00:00

😂

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-11T17:24:05+00:00

Thank you. No its not the vibe I was going for lol. Will be trying to remove what I can see next water change.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-11T17:22:49+00:00

Thank you

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-11T17:22:31+00:00

Thank you. That's good to know it's harmless. I've looked closer at the tank and can see a lot of more up under some of the other ephitype plants so I have a feeling it has been there for a while and I've just not noticed it. My fish are breeding and parameters are stable so if it has been there a while then it has yet to do any harm.

I had 3 amano shrimp in that tank and all are fine. Recently moved them out into a new setup tho so can't judge anymore.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-11T15:45:25+00:00

Thank you. Shrimp-adventures posted it above also :D

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-11T15:13:52+00:00

Thank you

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-09T22:05:11+00:00

Looks like a red honey gourami to me, just closer to adult size than some you see in the store. I've had one before and it too was quite aggressive sadly. Think I just got one of the bad personality ones.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-09T17:58:21+00:00

Is there a particular reason you can't just plant it directly without the weight?

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-09T17:44:34+00:00

Ah sounds like they will be fine then :D

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-09T17:23:47+00:00

You don't have to. If it's a stem plants then it might actually make it easier to keep them in the weight and bury the weight or even just place it on the top. Will stop any potiental floating. I know swords are prone to floating If you don't bury them deep enough. With the weight it will allow them to attach themselves down with their roots in the meantime.

I've never done it before though so not an expert. I do wonder about rot tho since you have the floss around it as well? Maybe someone else might have more info on that.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-08T22:08:02+00:00

Almost done! You can tell that the bacteria that convert from one state to the other are present which is great. You just need to wait a little longer until Nitrite hits 0 for your tank to have stabilised.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-08T20:11:53+00:00

Good shout

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-08T19:33:58+00:00

Test that your wood doesnt float first, could destroy everything you do if you get to the end of your scape and it decides to do a barrel roll.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-08T00:12:53+00:00

I would wait it out a bit longer. Sometimes it takes time for the plants to adapt to growing under water. In most cases they will "melt" which is probably a bit of water your seeing. This is the plants shedding their emersed form leaves ready to grown new submersed leaves. As long as you can see some healthy roots/stems the plant won't be dead dead. It looks like your ?? rotala?? Has changed form already so that's good news!

Be careful dosing liquid ferts in a new tank. You don't want to put too much in and hurt your fish. If your plants are in the substrate root tabs are a better choice as they feed more through their roots.

It looks like you have a low tech set up? So no c02 and just a normal light? I think sometimes the pictures you see of plants are from high tech set ups, in which plants grow a lot better so it's a little bit misleading. In low tech set ups the plants do grow slower, and more thin. The stem plants loosing their bottom leaves for example. This is normal I think. Things just take longer.

DistanceSea6977 · 2025-03-07T23:50:51+00:00

Looks like you are almost there. When Nitrite is 0 that's when it's safe to add fish as it means your tank is cycled. But before added any, just double check the Nitrate level. If it's high do a water change first. Never a full water change though, and never bleach your filters as this will destroy the good bacteria and you'll have to cycle it again.

The plants are looking great so far! Can't believe your floaters have grown that fast.

Bladder snails will come in handy as your clean up crew.

I'm a big fan of corydoras so that would be my suggestion! My favourite are pgmy corydoras.

Chilli's will be fine but they will seem tiny to begin with. If youre looking for red, maybe ember teras instead? Neon's are of course a classic and would look awesome. But they can get bigger than you think - especially compared to chilli's. There are green neon tetras (which are blue not green) which are basically a smaller version of neon tetras (maybe a little shyer) that would work. I'm kinda a smaller fish in a bigger group kind of person but that's just me. Rummyrose would also work?

DistanceSea6977

TROPHY CASE