I've had my betta Norbert for around 3 months now. When I started, I thought I knew what I was doing. I cycled for 4 weeks, bought all the nice plants I could, and made a decent scape. I had a horrible algae bloom right after I put him in, and I never got rid of it since. Fast forward to now, and he just started suffering from fin rot and pop-eye in one of his eyes, and his tank is an absolute junkyard because I thought the algae would go away. I feel like a failure because I bought him from Petco (I know, but I felt guilty) in relatively good health, and I look at him now and feel guilt. I'm almost ready to just give him up and never touch an aquarium again. What can I do to save him? My Kanaplex arrived yesterday and I just dosed him with it. I have caused so much suffering because of my negligence and I don't want him to go through any more.
Posted by dismemberment_
6 Comments
Norbert hasn’t given up, why should you
If everyone whose pet got ill on accident gave up, noone would have a pet.
My lil guy has fin rot so I can empathise.
What have you tried regarding the algae bloom?
Do you test your water parameters? What are they?
Do you do water changes regularly? Do you treat the new water with a dechlorinating water conditioner?
Answers to those could be really helpful, so we can help you help Norbert. He could still be okay, let’s give him the best chance we can.
Mate, don’t beat yourself up. Algae blooms and fin rot are very common hurdles, even for experienced keepers.
You’re taking the right steps with Kanaplex for the fin rot/pop-eye. For the algae thing, just cut the lights for a few days (“blackout”) and do small, frequent water changes to lower the nutrients fueling the bloom. It’s definitely fixable, so hang in there, Norbert can bounce back.
Gotta check your water parameters, algae bloom comes from too much lighting and/or too much ammonia/nitrates. Maybe more frequent water changes until the nitrogen levels are low? Sorry to hear about Norbert but don’t give up! If you can recover from this, your knowledge can help others too
I don’t see it mentioned yet, how long are your lights running during the day? I cut mine back quite a bit and it has helped with algae.