cycling with fish

Question
QUESTION: I have a 5 gallon tank with a female betta in it. It is heated, uncycled and unfiltered, and I had been doing partial water changes about once or twice a week. I noticed last week that she has some red spots on her head now, one big one in particular, and I'm told it is probably a bacterial infection. I've been doing partial water changes every other day and adding Melafix but it isn't getting better yet. I was also told she'd be a lot better off with a filter, and that if I am going to filter I should cycle... so is it smart or safe to cycle the tank with her still in it? I have a little 1 gal unheated bowl she could stay in but I heard this could take up to a month and I didn't know if that would be even worse. If it is okay to cycle it with her in there how should I do it? Or should I just filter it and not cycle? Also with just a little betta in there, would one of those small 1" 1$ tank cleaning fish be helpful? I didn't know if there would be enough waste from just one little betta girl for it to live off of. Thanks a lot.
ANSWER: Hey ashley,

Sorry to hear your having problems with the betta and tank. First off glad to see your using a heated tank for your betta many people dont know they are in fact tropical fish. I'd  suggest doing water changes every week just to keep up with the tank. I like to see that your using a filter for your betta, every fish loves a clean tank but in a bettas case they dont like fast water current so what i'd suggest is getting a sponge filter. They are very inexpensive and are driven by a air pump and will aid you in the cycling of the aquarium. The cycle wil take about 1 month to complete but with regular water changes they should be ok, dont clean the filter as it will be providing the beneficial bacterial buildup for your tank. Bettas are pretty hardy and i dont think harm will come to her aslong as she can get over this red spots on her body. I'm honestly not sure what is, the closest thing i could find is the following:

Hemmorahagic Septicemia



Cause
Bacterial, common in the Live-bearers and Goldfish.
Symptoms
Blood-Red streaks on the fins close to the body, without any signs of skin damage.
Treatment
Any of the antibiotic treatments, like Tetracycline. Available by many brand names.

You could try this website to see if there is somthing more fitting for what your fish has:
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Diseases1.htm

What i would do if i were yous is stop treatment unless you cannot find somthing better to treat her for. Buy a sponge filter and stick it in your tank and within a month your tank should be fully cycled pretty much. This will aid the fish and reduce stress due to high ammonia levels. doing regular water changes weekly will help out alot. Keeping the fish in the tank will help with the cycle because it's producing ammonia that you need when cycling the tank. Hopfully that works out for you let me know if you have anymore questions.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks. the tank I have came with a filter, but the filter uses one of those bio filters you don't need to replace and only has one speed and it was WAY too strong for her at first. I heard you can put old hosiery over the outlet, so I did, and its slowed it down some but if she goes to that half of the tank it still pushes her around a great deal. She's already been in the tank for a day or two and we started cycling it with this filter... will it mess up if I change it out with a sponge filter?

Answer
The filter you have is a good filter, i would use it on any other fish but bettas prefer slow water. They are a labarenth fish and prefer it like that. You wont make a difference switching it out, the bacteria had probably not even had a change to do it's job yet to affect anything. If you can slow it down it would be better, it does not have a flow regular eh? If it did then that would be best, but a sponge filter will work aswell.