comments:
Im happy to try and help! I only had her for ~1 month before she got columnaris so I wasnt toooo attached, but it was really frustrating because I thought she was healing fine and was acting normal the day before! I learned a lot though. Keep your current filter where it is. With hospital tanks you do daily water changes so the fact that it isnt cycled is no issue. You are taking the place of the bacteria and keeping the levels of ammonia and whatnot from getting too high. I like to do an air stone with some aquarium sponge around it and keep it on a low setting. That gives you a little bit of filtration and the aeration it provides is especially important if youre medicating the water, since some meds can lower the amount of oxygen in the water. You can add plants, but I would add new ones - preferably tissue culture plants like an anubias or Java fern which you can find at Petco or Petsmart for $10 or less. You dont want to bring over contaminants from your main tank to the hospital tank that could have the columnaris bacteria on them. I'd also add some Indian almond leaves to the new tank, the tannins are really good for their immune system. As far as prevention goes, I know this bacteria likes poop and delaying plant material. So it's important to not let either of those things pile up. I was unaware of some of the dead zones I had until I lost my last betta. Since, I have re-arranged a little and added a second filter, so I have 1 HOB and 1 internal filter now. I have them pointed so they create gentle a circular current around the tank and blow waste into the other's intake. You can also get internal filters with UV lights or I got this clip on UV light that attaches to my HOB filter: https://a.co/d/04reW7kL UV is supposed to kill the bacteria. I used that for a while after my fish died to try and cut down on the bacterial population in my tank as I went through the process of making it safe for my new wild type betta. I have also been reading about using kaolin clay to prevent columnaris infections. It binds to the bacteria so the bacteria cannot attach to your fish and infect it. You can use that in your aquarium as well, but you'd need to remove any activated carbon or things of that sort from your filter if you use it. You may also need to clean your filter out a bit more if you use that, but according to the research it can help a lot with prevention of new infections. I havent tried it yet but I am thinking about it.