# Cotton Balls and Hand Sanitizer in Fish Tank



## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

I left my house for less than 48 hours, and my mom calls me to let me know that my nine year old brother has managed to make the water filthy. She says that they found cotton balls in the tank and that my brother has admitted to playing in the water with hand sanitizer on his hands...

I told her to get the fish out and put him in the gallon pet keeper that I have, and told her how to put in dechlorinator and even had her put in 1/5 mL of melafix (even though that's controversial in the betta world, I figure that at this point it won't hurt him, sadly).

She sent me a picture, and he is just laying in the bottom of his tank, occasionally swimming around, but not to the surface. Is there anything else I can do for him? Does the poor thing even really have a chance? *H2


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## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Alcohol is obviously toxic to fish, any idea how much hand sanitizer? Cotton balls in themselves should be pretty harmless...what was he doing??

And how big is the tank? Are you able to get back to the tank? Need more information. If the fish is swimming sideways / weirdly it could be a symptom of alcohol poisoning. Don't know if bettas will survive that. You probably did the right thing by getting him to clean water. Do you have a heater/etc for your tank? Did the new water parameters (pH, temp etc.) match the old ones? What is your water maintenance routine?

-Zeke


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

All I know is that he was put hand sanitizer on his hands before putting his hands in the fish tank and moving stuff around. Not sure if he actually put any in the tank, but who knows. He has ADHD and is extremely compulsive, but he had been a lot better lately. Ugh.

He was in a 3 gallon, heated, filtered tank. Not cycled because I gave him the fish for Christmas, and he bought the bigger aquarium for it roughly a week and a half ago, but I'm moving back to my college campus tomorrow and my mom didn't want to mess with it. Has live plants in it though, and water change is a gallon/week.

My mom has been sending me pictures. At first he was just laying on the bottom, then he started slowly swimming around the bottom, then he almost swam to the top before he went back down to rest. So he seems to be improving.

The fish is obviously not going to be his anymore if the fish lives. We figured nine was plenty old enough for a fish of all pets, but I guess not with him!


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

He is now in a gallon tank, but being kept in a heated room with my other fish. I will try to post the photos.

The absolute maximum amount of time he could have been in the dirty water was seven or eight hours.


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

EDIT: I believe I can only see these when I am logged into my gmail account. I will repost from photobucket.


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

Tank he WAS in.









Laying in bottom of gallon container.









Starting to swim slowly around bottom.









Almost swam to top but went back to the bottom to rest.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I would change water to remove the melafix,if the betta is still alive today.Any of the TTE(tea tree extracts{not really from tea tree}),but oily products none the less,blocks the labarynth fish(in particular) from being able to breath at surface.Most labarynths HAVE to breath at surface,as few have developed their inner ear into "lungs" to" breath in water".


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

I am about to leave my grandparent's to head back to my mom's before I leave to go to school. If he is still alive (haven't been told otherwise so I am assuming so), I will be cleaning out the 3 gallon really well and setting it back up again.

EDIT: Was just told he was swimming around more, and even went all the way to the top of his container.


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## karajoy (Dec 22, 2012)

UPDATE: Betta fish can, in fact, survive hand sanitizer, glitter, axe body spray, bath and body works perfume, cotton balls, and rusty drill bits. However, the decorations in your tank cannot. Any ideas on how to get the perfume smell off of the decorations or will they forever be unsafe for use?


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## zwanged (Nov 4, 2012)

Maybe try nail polish remover (acetone). Or isopropyl alcohol. Of course those might react with your decorations, but they're probably fine if they're just plastic.

Make sure you wash them off real well with water (preferably dechlorinated) before putting them back in the tank, obviously.

If you want to play it extra safe just ditch the decorations. Might not be worth the trouble.

-Zeke



karajoy said:


> UPDATE: Betta fish can, in fact, survive hand sanitizer, glitter, axe body spray, bath and body works perfume, cotton balls, and rusty drill bits. However, the decorations in your tank cannot. Any ideas on how to get the perfume smell off of the decorations or will they forever be unsafe for use?


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