My gfs betta has fin rot so we are trying to do an aquarium salt treatment. I prepared some water for it at 1 tsp of aquarium salt per gallon of water. I saw I should do a 90% water change daily with the salt water but I was nervous so I only did a 70% change. I noticed the betta was panting a lot and lying down all over the place for the next 24hr. The lying all over the place wasn’t new but it was now more frequent, the panting was new though. I was worried the salt content was too strong so I lowered the salt concentration by a third (2/3tsp per gal) and did a second water change with only 50% of the water. The panting and lying around didn’t actually seem to improve so now I’m here looking for advice. Should I go back to unsalted water and use a store bought fin rot treatment? Or is this normal and I should continue with 50-70% water changes for the rest of the week? Also would starting to feed him frozen blood worms maybe help his immune system or smth?
https://v.redd.it/g4uniqkrtzpd1
Posted by AspiringHippie123
5 Comments
Do salt treatments in a separate container and only for a limited time. 1 gallon container for an hour or so. OR load your tank with tannins which will make the tank uninhabitable for bacteria and fungus.
Btw he’s not always on the floor, he spends a lot of time lying down on an Anubias leaf near the surface. He also doesn’t always pant like that, especially when he’s swimming around he stops. He lies down maybe 1/2 the time.
Tank params:
– 5 gal filtered and heated
– Heavily planted
– pH 7
– 0ppm ammonia and nitrite
– 40ppm nitrate
How long had you been doing the treatments for? I’d be nervous re the salt dose but I’m not experienced at all in it tbh. Just thinking from saltwater tanks, without replacing all the water you could well be raising the salinity atm.
It’s half teaspoon per gallon. You’re putting too much salt!
Too much salt