I Think My Betta Has Fin Rot

I think my betta has fin rot. Yesturday I used Melafix to treat the fin rot, but when I wake up the fin rot grow. So I put a little more in the tank and made him move around and it came off. When I got home for school I saw something that looked like string hanging off of his fins with some of his fin hanging off it. What can I do to make him better? (Aka this is a crowntail betta.)

Can't really help on the stringy thing thats hanging of his fin. I heard of it before but I forgot. But I heard that Melafix does help alot with the healing of fin rot. Im not really sure, Hope he gets well soon!

-Arrowhead

Melafix is great for fin rot. Its not a magic solution though, make sure you follow the instructions on the bottle and keep up the treatments for at least 7 days.

I feel so bad for him, I tried feeding him betta bits and he doesn't have the strangth to swim that far. (It must hurt really bad.) It took me a while to figure out how to feed him. I put some freeze dried brine shrimp on a fork and put it in the water next to his mouth. He ate only three bites though so I left a little brine shrimp next to his mouth just in case he gets hungery.

DragonLass said:

Melafix is great for fin rot. Its not a magic solution though, make sure you follow the instructions on the bottle and keep up the treatments for at least 7 days.

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With Melafix and bettas, DO NOT follow the directions on the bottle! Bettas are particularly sensitive to Melafix for some reason, so you'll need to dilute it 1 part Melafix to 5 parts water (or just do what I do and give about 1/5th of the recommended dose).

If you've already given him a full dose, you need to do a full water change and then give him a 1/5th dose. The same company that makes Melafix also makes a product called Bettafix, which has the same active ingredient but is more diluted... so obviously they know about this problem and have simply neglected to warn about it on the bottle
Giving him full doses of Melafix several days in a row can not only make the problem worse, but can potentially kill him.

I have been using melafix since June and when I slack off on the dose the rot comes back with a vengance. I also have to use 1 teaspoon aquarium salt in the gallon tank the help with the healing and making Apollo more comfortable. I think this fish goes into remission and then gets it back again.

Good luck on the fishy!!

I'm sure some bettas can handle it, but I figured I'd give a warning, since I once lost a tank full of 4 females from using the recommended dose for 4 days... they died bleeding from the gills, when before the only problem was a little popeye on one of them
That was before I had the sense to isolate the infected one, but I did know how to follow directions correctly.

Well theres good news and bad news. The good news is Midnight is better now.

The bad news is his dead And thiers even more bad news another one of my bettas has fin rot AND his the brother of the one that had died of fin rot.

Im sorry to hear of the loss of your Midnight. They so become one of the family. Good luck curing your other boy.

I was following your post because one of my boys came down with fin rot at about the same time and i was also treating the tank with melafix, but luckly he is doing well.

I still feel bad because Midnight and Blaze (His brother) were the only two males that survive that spawn. (The owner told me that.)

Sorry about your fish. Mine is not doing well either. I think the rot is coming back full force and there may be nothing I can do about it this time.--I have had him since early June and he has had fin/tail rot since he was with us 2 weeks. It is really frustrating when some Bettas get better and others just don't. That is life I guess.