Betta with fin rot

[rdd1952]

BettaEddie, from my understanding, fin rot is mainly caused by stress, most often from poor water conditions. Mine have the same symptoms as yours, frayed tail and fins. My water parameters are perfect though so I can't figure out the problem other than he came from Walmart and their fish seem to always be sick and diseased. His tail looked great when I brought him home though. The water flow from the filter may have also been a problem but I have cut it down as low as it will go. I had planned to try Maracyn tonight but when I opened the package, it looks like Maracyn isn't what I needed. I actually need Maracyn 2. I may try to find the Jungle FE tomorrow. Petco has it on their website and there is one about 6 miles from where I work. I do know that Melafix hasn't done anything for him in the 10 days I have been using it.

 

[BettaEddie]

Haiku thanks for the website! its very informative! rdd1952 thanks for the help too; I was just on another betta site and read a thread there by another betta owner with our problem. the members there said that the cause may not be fin rot at all; it may be that the little guy is either tearing his tail on tank decorations or, get this, he could be biting his own tail! this sounds strange to me but I think it might be true in my case because the rest of his fins look great and his tail is getting shorter pretty fast. the other site said that bettas can get bored or stressed and sometimes because of it they bite their own tails. Im going to watch my guy closely to see if I catch him doing this; also Im going to take out his barrel hidey hole decoration to see if he's shredding it on that. it would be easy if it were the barrel, if its him biting, I dont know what to do! If his other fins start going its definitely got to be rot....

 

[rdd1952]

Another good site for beginners (and I consider myself one) is bettatalk.com. I don't think mine is tearing his tail and fins as there isn't anything in the tank except a couple live sword rosette plants and the filter. Good luck.

 

[BettaEddie]

just a quick update on my guy. his tail doesnt look any worse today and his fins are still all OK. I took his barrel decoration out og his tank....I hope your guy is doing OK too! If you still need maracyn petsmart has it on the website, they deliver pretty fast too.

 

[rdd1952]

Mine doesn't seem to be improving. He is still eating and swimming like normal and his color is good. Seems fine except his dorsal fin and tail continue to deteriorate. All water params are fine:

ammonia, nitrite = 0
nitrate = 5
pH = 6.8 (been steady for about 10 days)
temp = 76-78 (unheated)

This is a 2.5 mini bow with a whisper 10 filter. It is turned down as low as it will go. There is one live sword rosette plant and the filter, nothing else so I don't think he is damaging his fins on anything in the tank.

I was doing 25% water changes every day before adding more Melafix but have changed to 75% WC since most everyone says water needs to be changed daily to prevent med buildup. Someone had suggested trying Maracyn but their website says that Maracyn 2 is best for fin rot. Also saw a couple sites that mentioned Jungle Fungus Eliminator but I can't find that locally. Any other suggestions?

 

[BettaEddie]

Petland & Petsmart both carry jungle fungus eliminator if you want to try that. Im kind of in a holding pattern with my guy; he isent any worse so Im trying to "wait and see" if the bottom part of his tail grows back now. All the rest of his fins are still fine. I have been adding a small amount of melafix every day to help the tail grow, so far no new growth that I can see though.

 

[BettaMomma]

Hi.
I have 2 bettas that I accidentally OD'd on MelaFix a few weeks back.
I thought that after a 100% water change and some salt, we were in the clear.
However, a few days ago, I turned ARchie's light on and was horrified to see this:

and this was only the beginning. Since then he's completely managed to have all the ends of his tail gone, almost as if they were caught in a lawnmower.

Sadly, a few days later I noticed the exact same thing with Harvey. And neither of them have ever had much problem with finrot before.
Harvey's tail is ripped, torn, shredded - pretty mutilated.

It disgusts me because I can't figure out what it is from. (Well, I am associating it w/ the MelaFix OD, but it didn't happen til several days, even more than a week I guess, later)
I've been giving them both 100% water changes every 3 days and been dumping salt into the tank too. I'm also dosing them both with Maracyn 2 because it looks like at the ends of their fins and tails now there's a bit of black rot starting.

I'm so irritated by this whole thing so I feel your pain. UUGH.

 

[veen]

have any of you tried salt dipping your guys for like 25-30 mins just to see if it would help? just a thought because my guys seem to love their salt dips.

i tried it every night for a week with my 2 that had gotten into a fight and not only did it seem to perk them up during the dips and after, but their fins are growing like crazy now!

melafix also helped my guys, but i think i told bettamomma once that it might have been because i have 2 filters in the 2.5 with the 2 guys. i had to resort to 2 filters to keep the water stable. when i turned the whisper up too high it bothered bb. when too low the water wasn't doing so great. so i added a small pennplaxfilter on the other side of the divider & turned the whisper down to its lowest level. now the water is always perfect & both guys' fins are growing back.

hope your guy gets better quick!

 

[rdd1952]

Clark's tail still looks bad. It is much worse than what yousee on Archie's. Aonly about half his tail is left and his dorsal is pretty bad too. It didn't seem to get any worse today so hopefully that's a good sign. I really don't know what else to do.