Fin rot or tear?

My betta Echo has a torn fin. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think he may have always had a little indent there (previously it didn't look torn, just like a little defect or something) but now it's definitely worse. I have silk plants and I haven't found anything super sharp. I felt all my plants and decor last week when I noticed the fin problem. I was thinking fin rot, but my parameters are great, 0 ammonia and nitrite and about 25 nitrate. Could something else be causing fin rot? Could it be that he nipped them? Or does it look like a tear? The concerning thing is that it's been at least a week since I saw this and it doesn't look like it's growing in.
He's acting totally normal. He doesn't have any tank mates. He lives in a 10 gallon, heated at 78, filtered, with 20% water changes weekly. Tank is fully cycled.

(I'm sorry the photos are bad, he's so hard to get pics of when he spreads his fins, he doesn't stay still very long.)

It looks like rot to me. I had a betta who had something similar. I thought it was a tear but it progressed and got really bad.

Ok, that's what I was afraid of. If anyone else can confirm before I use meds that'd be great! I do notice some dark black spots around the torn edges but it's hard to know if it's rot because his tail is already black. I know that can be a sign.

Does anyone know what could've caused fin rot since my parameters are good? I don't want this to happen again if I can prevent it.

And finally does anyone have any opinions or experience on indian almond leaves for treating fin rot? I think I'd like to try them before meds since all natural is my preferred method and Echo's fins don't seem too bad yet.

Hiya unfortunately it does look like early signs of fin rot to me I’ve kept quite a few bettas and whilst most of them lived very happy lives, I did have one that came to me with a pretty bad case of fin rot. His tail was extremely frayed and I honestly didn’t know if he’d last a week.
But I found that doing 25-30% water changes everyday and adding stress coat helped a lot! I also used half doses of Melafix daily for the first week.
I’ve never personally used Indian almond leaves to treat any disease but I have heard that they have anti fungal/anti bacterial properties when left in a tank and begin releasing tannins into the water.

I would get your nitrates down too, water changes are your best friend. I have a Betta with an injury at the moment and I’ve been doing daily water changes but it’s not improving, I have heard good things about seachem stress guard so I have some on order. See how the daily water changes go that will also reduce your nitrates and I will let you know how I get on with the stress guard, then if you don’t see an improvement you could give it a try. I’m not very experienced so just a suggestion and I’m sure others will correct this if it’s not good advice.

Ps I would do 50% water changes

xxamyxx85 said:

Ps I would do 50% water changes

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I second this after reading how small your tank is

alli789 said:

Ok, that's what I was afraid of. If anyone else can confirm before I use meds that'd be great! I do notice some dark black spots around the torn edges but it's hard to know if it's rot because his tail is already black. I know that can be a sign.

Does anyone know what could've caused fin rot since my parameters are good? I don't want this to happen again if I can prevent it.

And finally does anyone have any opinions or experience on indian almond leaves for treating fin rot? I think I'd like to try them before meds since all natural is my preferred method and Echo's fins don't seem too bad yet.

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Bettas are bred with overly long fins. Sometimes they cannot pump blood and oxygen to the bottom of the fins. This causes the fins to rot.