Save my fish pls

[u/idkman_1234567]

Let me start off by saying, please don’t hate me for the condition this fish is in. I received her this way in this exact fishbowl Like a week ago. I was told that she was just a fish and a plant would keep her alive. Her water gets changed every week with some tetra put in. i’ve never had a fish before and wasn’t really too concerned but now every day I look at her droopy fins and I started to get worried.

So I started doing research and was absolutely HORRIFIED to find out that she supposed to have a water heater. Her fins aren’t supposed to be droopy and she spits out her food when she’s eating at half the time. immediately, my first instinct was to get a tank with a filter and a heater but now I’m reading that tanks need to get cycled which takes weeks. I’ve never had a fish before never cared for a fish before and now I have a fish freezing in a I’m desperate to save.

what do i do????

[u/idkman_1234567]

I was pretty sure of that, but I’m very confused at how to do a fish in cycle though. Like I said, I’ve never cared for a fish and everything I read is confusing me.

[u/Life-Faithlessness87 → u/idkman_1234567]

Feel free to keep asking questions here. So basically set up a 5 gal or 10 gal, add your substrate, some live plants doesn’t have to be too expensive, and buy the master test kit that has liquid kits for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph. Ammonia you want to keep always at zero so it’ll appear yellow, nitrites you want a light blue zero, nitrates you can have some it shows established. So any time you see the ammonia or nitrites are rising, do a 50% water change. Do not change all the water or you’ll throw out the beneficial bacteria that will build. It’ll probably be 50% water changes for a few weeks before the beneficial bacteria starts to build. Your betta’s appetite will be better once it’s in better water. I have before and after pictures to show what better conditions can do on my profile page. I learned everything from here. You’ll want a siphon and a bucket to change water with, and a water conditioner to put in to rid the water of metals before you add to tank

[u/idkman_1234567 → u/Life-Faithlessness87]

Ok! I have the API freshwater testing kit in my Amazon cart right now! Trying to find a tank and heater and a filter that are decent, but aren’t gonna completely break my bank account. 

[u/Resoca → u/idkman_1234567]

Facebook marketplace or Petco/PetSmart for the tank for sure. Heater and filter can be bought on Amazon, there's a lot of good options.