Hey rick :) This happens to a lot of fish keepers, especially with bettas. This happened to me once, the exact same scenario. Now everytime I take him out for a waterchange, I cover the cup tightly with tinfoil. They are especially prone to jumping during the waterchanges because they are stressed and want to go back in their tank. The absolute best thing to do is keep the water quality perfect. Keep ammonia at 0, and if you've got a filter, nitrite at 0 and nitrate very close to 0. If you don't already have a bottle of waterconditioner that detoxifies ammonia, I suggest you get one, like Prime. You can add this to the water instead of doing the waterchanges for now to eliminate stress. Keep tank and room lights off. Don't feed, or add melafix or aquarium salt just yet because food will most likely be uneaten, and some bettas have bad reactions to the other two. He will go through bad stage, and hopefully he'll make it. Watch for fungus. I hope he gets better soon!

Did you mean Novaqua? First of all, PLEASE research fish before you buy them. None of those tank can handle cycling a tank and none can survive in a tank that size, especially the bala. They have very specific needs, like they need to be in a school of at least 3 and need a 100 gallon tank eventually. Take back the clown loaches if you can and research a more suitable fish. Here are some ideas. Don't buy all of them, they are just ideas to go from, then we can help you with care, tankmates, and numbers. Guppies, platies, balloon mollies (make sure they are all one sex before buying) cories dwarf gouramis most types of tetra (must be kept in a school of at least 6) Otocinclus danios (prefer schools) African Dwarf Frogs 1 fancy goldfish killifish rasboras (schooling) For more ideas, try this site: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830 Also, the best way to cycle your tank is Fishlessly. There are a few ways to do this, and it is superior because you don't have the stress of doing water changes every few days to multiple times a day, and no fish will be harmed or killed. 1) If you've got another healthy and cycled fish tank, hook the new filter onto that tank for 2-3 weeks to seed benaficial bacteria. When you buy your new fish, switch the filter over. 2) Add a tiny bit of clear, scentless, soapless, surfactantless cleaning ammonia to the running tank every day. Moniter the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and when the first two hit zero (about 4-6 weeks), do a series of large water changes over a period of a couple days. Now its safe to add your fish. 3)Sometimes the safe type of ammonia is hard to locate. You can also add a few cheap fish flakes to the running tank every day; enough to feed the fish you intend to buy. Once a week change 25% of the water (just as if you had fish in there) to keep phosphates low. Once ammonia and nitrites hit zero (5-7 weeks) do a series of large waterchanges over a period of a couple days, then add the fish. Please consider the fishless method of cycling. It is humane and perfectly safe and effective. I, and many other fish keepers use this method instead of the old method of cycling with minnows or danios.

Disclaimer: I’m sharing this in the hopes that this will be able to save many lives of bettas suffering from dropsy. I can’t assure you that this will work for all bettas but pwera bati, I have my official first dropsy betta survivor by using these meds. Marami na akong namatay na betta sa dropsy. My only wish is sana I should have known this earlier. Important reminders: 1. For me, minimum tank size should be 4x6x8. If you have this type of container for your betta, make sure to do 100% water change at least 2x a week. If your betta have longer fins, the larger your tank should be. 2. Do not overfeed. Pellets, tubifex, dried foods, or kung ano man iyan. Do not overfeed. 3. Know your bettas personally. Yup, I’m serious with this one. If buhay silang lahat, all my 40 bettas have their own names. You will know if they’re not being themselves kahit matakaw pa rin sila. The more if they refuse it. When they feel good, they only know one thing. FOOD! 4. When you’ve noticed that they are not feeling well, check for any signs of bloating or abnormal swimming patterns. These usually lead to dropsy. Pine-coning is dropsy already. 5. If they appear not to have energy without any sign of bacteria infection, do 100% water change and put 1 tablespoon each of magna salt, aquarium salt, and rock salt. Add 10 drops of prime to get rid of chlorine and other chemicals and 5 drops of vitagold for vitamins. Add 3 drops of stress coat. Strictly no antibiotics! Everyday ito until they act normal. 6. If they appear to have any kind of infection, you’ll notice them because it literally is a physical damage. Do 100% water change and put 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt and rock salt. Add 10 drops of prime to get rid of chlorine and other chemicals and 5 drops of vitagold for vitamins. Add 3 drops of stress coat. Add half-cap of melafix, methylene blue, and general aid. Strictly no magna salt! Everyday ito until they act normal. 7. Talk with your bettas. It does sound crazy but for some reason, my bettas know their individual names. They appreciate it whenever you talk with them or even play music with them. My bettas have different tastes for music. Some love classics while others react to pop rock. Maintenance Solution: 5 drops of Prime, 1 drop of Vitagold, 1 tablespoon of Rock Salt, 1 Drop of Melafix, 1 Drop of Stress Coat, 1 talisay or banana leaf. Saktong size for your betta to rest on but not block the water surface Magic Ingredient: EUGENOL (Clove Oil) Warning: Eugenol is both a natural antibiotic and antiseptic. Beware though, an overdose of Eugenol will euthanize your fish and we don’t want that. Others use a controlled dosage to sedate the fish so they can put a syringe on the bloated area of the betta to get rid of the unwanted body fluids because of the dropsy and another unknown disease. I’ve tried and have successfully removed the fluids causing the bloat but it’s already too late for my betta. Kumbaga sa cancer, it’s stage 4. That is why early detection is the key and you can only do that by personally knowing your betta, their behaviors, etc. Sequence of Events: Day 1: I saw Nymph, even with her usual large appetite for any food despite having a small body, a bit bloated and the dreaded pine-coning. I immediately did Step No. 5 as detailed above. Day 2: She’s still hungry as she is every morning but still with the bloated body and the dreaded pine-coning. This time, I did Step No. 6 as detailed above. Day 3: I’m losing hope. I just had a very remarkable betta die last week because of dropsy. I wanted to do the syringe process on Nymph and so I purchased Eugenol. Imagine normal size of a drinking water bottle, not the small and not the big one. I say the normal size. Fill this up half-way and put 5 drops of Eugenol then shake vigorously so the solution will have an equal amount of Eugenol in its content. By the way, you can buy this at any drug store. I placed Nymph in a bowl, one like what you can buy from a supplies store. Plastic bowls, small ones for some soup. Fill it with ¾ tap water with 5 drops of prime then ¼ should be the Eugenol solution you have. I was expecting Nymph to “sleep” but for the next 8 hours, she will randomly stop swimming then whenever we have decided that it’s time to do the syringe… she swims like normal. Doing her normal fast swimming like she doesn’t have any sickness at all. I got tired of her game and was afraid that she might suffer from overdose so I placed her on a net hammock for easier surface breathing in another plastic bowl with 5 drops of prime and a bubbler/airstone to get rid of Eugenol in her system/gills. In other words, to wake her up. After a number of hours, just make sure the fish doesn’t jump overboard, put the fish in another solution the same as Day 2 in her original tank. Day 4: I’ve noticed Nymph has significantly increased her energy level and also has significantly decreased her stomach bloat. The dreaded pine-coning is still there though. I put her into another water solution the same as Day 1. Day 5: The bloat is 90% gone while the pine-coning is only 10% visible. I put her into another solution the same as Day 2. By the way, I only stopped feeding her for 1 day but I fed her only a very, very small amount during the whole process. Like 1 pellet a day. She usually eats 2-3 pellets a day. The big round ones. I’m not feeding her pellet though. I feed my bettas dried tubifex. Live tubifex is good but I’m not very fortunate in prolonging their lives. Day 6: Tomorrow I plan to do the alternate Day 1 and Day 2 solutions until Sunday. Pwera bati but so far, she’s doing great. Thank God. She’s the only betta with positive results as early as Day 4 after applications of meds for dropsy. I’ve always been doing the Day 1 and Day 2 techniques with my previous bettas with dropsy but none survived. What made Nymph different from all my dear beloved now-angel bettas is besides her fast recovery, she’s the only one who tried a Eugenol solution as part of the medication process for dropsy. But please beware of the dosage as mentioned in the warning section earlier. I researched Eugenol and found out that it actually works naturally to kill infections. Sorry for the lengthy message. If ever you do try this method, I hope that your fish will have the same result as Nymph’s. Happy Betta Keeping!

This is long, but important, so please read all the way through. My personal theory as to WHY the dirt in these pads do not like to come clean in the first place is because they are all made out of synthetic microfiber blends. This is NOT a rant about doing everything in your life all-natural so please stay with me. In the beginning of my Cosmetology education, I learned that synthetic fibers (such as those used on wigs and cosmetology tools and brushes, do Not like hot water. Only cold or at least tepid water could be used unless you enjoy having your brushes, cloths and wig hairs get all tangled and matted up in an instant, melted in some cases, or hairs/fibers fused together. It’s synthetic. It can’t take the heat. With that said, I suspect these companies insisting on using microfiber steam mop pads are setting us all up for failure from the beginning. Steam is insanely hot and WILL melt and fuse the little fibers together during use (this is why they say not to put them in the dryer). Steam blows open the fibers in an intense way which is something else I learned in Cosmo school. Steam always works better than hot water in opening up skin pores for instance. Material fibers are no different… unless that material blows up but then breaks down with said heat. Polyester and Nylon just can’t take the heat. You might ask why the heck these companies would make their pads with microfiber if that were true. I’m glad you asked - I suspect the mop companies use these materials anyway, because it’s much cheaper than cotton and will slide nicely across the floor. They know if their customers feel they have to push too hard, they won’t want to use it and will go with the other company that does use microfiber. Let’s be honest, “microfiber” is like some positive buzz word in the retail industry when actually many of us avoid it like Covid. It only has a few good qualities, none of which are involved with mop heads. Microfiber, is good only for scrubbing, acting as a water repellent in some cases, and behaving somewhat like Velcro when used for dry sweeping. Have you ever tried to remove things that stuck to microfiber material after being in the wash or dryer? It’s not fun is it? When microfiber is used in wet cleaning applications however, that synthetic material DOES NOT ABSORB. It just doesn’t. It’s synthetic. Synthetics don’t absorb like a natural fiber (e.g. Cotton) does. Try wiping dry your kitchen countertop with a microfiber wash cloth, and then try again with an all cotton and you will see what it is I’m saying. All of this to share that I finally found a solution to not only keep my microfiber pads from getting too dirty (or worse than they already are), but to also pick up dirt far better than what the pads were originally doing (I have one of the Bissell Power Fresh Pet steam mops for reference). SOLUTION: I take a damp, wrung out steam mop pad, flip it inside out (I also cut off the scent disk pocket), place it on my steam mop, then place the mop down on top of a 100% cotton shop towel and click down the flip scrubber piece in the back of my mop so that it grabs my towel. At this point, I use the mop as usual on the highest steam output setting. Why do I flip the mop pad inside out? Because I discovered that it allows the towel underneath to stay put a little better and glides across the floor better as well. I have also only ever done this with a damp, completely wrung out mop pad in place, but with a dry shop towel. After the towel gets dirty, I rinse out the mop pad and wring it out again as much as possible before placing back on my mop and grabbing another clean, dry shop towel. The benefit here, is not only are my floors getting that much more clean, but I can buy cotton shop towels by the mass for much cheaper than those mop pads AND they clean up white so much easier! If you want to bleach, then bleach. If you want to use your usual make-em-white method, then do that instead. The world is your oyster. Cheaper Works better Cleans up Whiter Easy It’s what has finally worked for me and my mop. I hope it helps some of you too.