Sounds like that would have hurt more then do any good but if success was the outcome then thats all that matters.

Well I had nothing to lose. This fish was on his way out the rot had gone to the end of his tail, side fins and bottom fins. That is why I cut off the dead tissue treated with a neosporin antibacterial onitment and started to create a natural system. Did not have to go through too much of a cycle because I dumped in living matter from our indoor pond to start the cycle and used Seachem stability. So following their change the water once a week completly was not working. One med after another was just going to be fishy heaven. Only creating a cycle worked and having a living plant in the water created a natural filter. Choose pothos because only plant that will live for me in low light conditions .Tried water plants and they all died not enough light for them..This plant seems to be able to do some serious filtering and since it grew nicely in a vase for over a year it can take water culture. I use it in our goldfish pond and have never had trouble with it rotting. I still have no gravel in the bottom of the bowl it is to hard to find bloodworms that fall occasionally etc. No food is ever left to sit on the bottom. No over feeding. I do like I said have the clay house which the good bacteria seems to love since I see a lot of natural goo hanging off of it, and the plant with lots of roots that still allows plenty of swimming room, one small mesh bag of carbon, and a small fake plant with three ceramic bio rings on it( will hold good bacteria)stuff is hanginf off of this plant too.. I was lucky to find a one and a half gallon bowl with a large surface area at Big Lots . The bowl is spread out. I do like this bowl. The bowl betta has gained all of its health back and could not look better. My second Betta is in a Ten gallon tank alone and nicely filtered. Kept the bowl since I was able to cycle it. Needless to say I think wither you do a bowl or a tank all must be cycled and as natural as possible I do not go with their complete water changes for the bowls because by using clay , rock , and plants you can cycle a bowl. These fish do not naturally live in tiny puddles they live in large rice paddies created by monsoons. Puddles that contain natural plants and stones etc.... I guess what I am trying to say is if you have a Betta with fin rot look at the water nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia...... If you have a bowl that is going up and down with these chemicals that is why your fish is rotted... I see a lot of people complain they treat for fin rot only to have it return over and over again and that is no life for a fish. It happened to me.If they tell you you can not cycle a bowl you can without a filter just by using plants and clay pots, gravel, pond rocks, etc.... only do small water changes . I do change anywhere from half a gallon to one gallon a week depending on how much organic matter is in the water and this is not all at once. I will take off about one and 1/2 cups of water say on a monday skip a day or two take off a little more etc. So small daily or every other day changes.. To change too much water all at once you may risk the good bacteria. They need food... They need some of the organic matter to live and the plant too. Goal is your only cutting down on the organic matter. Too much organic matter and the good bacteria suffocates, too little organic matter and the bacteria dies due to lack of food.

P.S. One of the best tools for cleaning a bowl is a turkey baster... I did not know this till a lady from Florida mentioned it over the internet. It works great...... I use it on my ten gallon too . It is great for the little areas....

what kind of plants can i use in my 55 gal. i dont use an ug.filter and only 1/4" of gravel

is there a way to use a heater inside a power filter i have a 55 gal. two marineland emperor power filters with bio wheels i have one oscar and i have heard that they sometimes will break heaters i was wondering if you could put one in one of the slots that hold extra filtering media any ideas thanks!

I would guess that the addition of plants improved the water quality along with the stuff that was added from the goldfish pond and the seachem product. Most finrot is caused by the high ammonia. Live plants, utilize ammonia and almost make the nitrogen cycle un-noticeable because they skew the tests. The seachem product I believe removes ammonia,as well as clorimine and chlorine. The stuff from the existing pond most likely had nitrifying bacteria on it. I am assumeing that you used houshold petroleum based neo-sporin and had to remove the fish from water to apply it. Handleing the fish removes some slimecoat as well as the stress. The petroleum was probably eventually removed with the pwc's. I would have to think that the water quality was more of a benefit than the neosporin. But as I said the outcome is whats important. I could never reccomend neosporin as a treatment though.

Many goldfish owners who have large koi's and goldfish with ulcers use neosporin> I choose to use the ointment because it stayed on the fish.Some pond owners say they use the cream because it is easier to apply to the fish. I found if you dry the fins a little the ointment will stay. There also is a fish product of neosporin called bio-bandage I used a little of it but results were iffy. The one that seemed to work the best was the ointment that stayed on the fish. Did not choose to use the cream many of the creams have pain killers in them and a cream would very likely fowl the water as it disapated in the water. I think the cream would be dangerous to use.I saw no break down in the water of the onitment and it did not harm the fish. Maybe cutting off the air supply to the bacteria on the tail finished it. I do not know I only know the ointment put a barrier over the bacteria.

Look at the pet solutions site on the internet.They are an online pet store . I ordered their free catolog and they sell a heater that goes in the filter.... They say it keeps the ugly heaters out of site and away from view.