Chronic Fin Rot Problems

[BettaMomma]

I have a total of 6 betta boys.
Each one of them at some point has battled finrot, except the last 2 I got. )Charlie and Lucky). (It's pretty impossible for Lucky to have tailrot LOL)

Anyway....
I am a freak about keeping their tanks clean.
I feed every stinkin one of them ONE pellet at a time to make sure that no food sinks and stays in the tank to rot.
I do water changes (100%) about every 5 days for everybody.
Everyone's in a 2.5G tank except for Archie - he's in a 2G tank.
All of them start out with the slighty curling of the bottom tail....
then it starts to turn black a bit... and then in some cases it just hangs on as the curled tail - but Jasper's is black. Looks like it could get out of control rather quickly...

Am I doing something wrong?
Everybody stays around 76 - 78 degrees, all the time.

I just noticed that Jasper's now starting to have black stuff around the edges of his tail. I just did a 100% water change and tossed in a pinch of salt.

Why OH WHY does this finrot always happen to my boys. Should I be doing something differently??
I'm gettin SO irritated with this whole recurring nightmare and I'm SICK of it.
Thanks.

 

[littlefishie]

You're not doing anything wrong that I can think of.. if anything, you probably take better care of your bettas than most people I know!

The only thing that I can think of to truly stop the finrot is something you probably wouldn't want to resort to, given Lucky's condition.. it's called tail-trimming, I don't know if you've ever heard on it.. do a quick search and there'll be some topics. Yeeviabetta could tell you more about it than I could. From my understanding, if you trim from just above the fin rot, that should stop the infection because there's no way for it to spread any further.

Not 100% positive though.. I'm not the expert on it.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, I've heard of tail trimming.
I won't ever do it except as a very last resort.

The problem with that is - I'm afraid it'd start all back up again from where it was cut to, because it seems like no matter who comes to live with me they end up with finrot.

 

[littlefishie]

If you cut say, 2mm above where the rot is, it should be okay.. just keep it in mind, even as your last resort as you said.

The only thing you can do other than that is just keep medicating and hope it goes away. I'm not sure what else you could do.

 

[BettaMomma]

I guess I'll have to try a few things to see waht works best and then stick with that solution for all the bouts with it.

I'm just getting SOOO completely sick of dealing with it!
Uugh

 

[Raechal]

All of the bettas I've had had finrot which usually cured up with melafix, except for Angus. The two boys I have now are looking okay. Deiter has some black on the edges of his tail and I am monitoring that. Don't know whether it is his coloration or the beginning of fin rot.

That is the only downside to male bettas. They can get it so easily. But it is worth caring for. I love my babies.

 

[SRC]

If your guys are in 2.5 gallon tanks..I'd do a water change more often then every 5 days. I'd say every 3 days...while they have the fin rot I'd probably do it every 2 myself.

I change the water on my officemates 1 gallon tanks and I change them every 2 days...if they happen go 3-4 days (like if I am off work) they get the red fringed fins (the startings of rin rot). If I do it every 2...they stay happy and healthy.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.mushi.petfish.net/finrot.html

 

[Raechal]

In my 1.5 gallon bowls and the 1 gallon tank I do water changes everyday and sometimes every other day if I miss a day, but that is rare. I do water changes on my divided 10 gallon (5 gallons per betta) every 3-4 days.

 

[BettaMomma]

If your guys are in 2.5 gallon tanks..I'd do a water change more often then every 5 days. I'd say every 3 days...while they have the fin rot I'd probably do it every 2 myself.

I change the water on my officemates 1 gallon tanks and I change them every 2 days...if they happen go 3-4 days (like if I am off work) they get the red fringed fins (the startings of rin rot). If I do it every 2...they stay happy and healthy.

Hmm... that's interesting.
the stress that water changes cause them is worth doing the changes every 3 days???

I'm willing to do the changes that often, it juset seems like they HATE water changes and are freaked out for half a day after i do them....

They're fine, but they're just pissy.
hmm...

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay - well after reading everyone's posts I guess I need to be doing water changes more often.
I might move them up to every 3 days then I guess. we'll see how that goes.
There must be a reason why everybody in my care gets bad fins.

Thanks for the info!

 

[SRC]

The more you do water changes..the better they are at handling it..they get used to it when it happens often enough for them to remeber nothing bad happens to them while it's going on.

Try feeding them their favorite food/treat (liek frozen blood worms) during water change time..they actually start to look forward to it after a while.

When I do water changes..I take the net and go under them and scoop them out..instead of trying to come up behind them...they can't run too far when it comes from underneath lol.

 

[Raechal]

Okay - well after reading everyone's posts I guess I need to be doing water changes more often.
I might move them up to every 3 days then I guess. we'll see how that goes.
There must be a reason why everybody in my care gets bad fins.

Thanks for the info!

Well I do water changes every 2-3 days basically and some of my boys still get finrot. If it's not from bad water, it's from stress. Either caused by not enough water changes or too many changes.

 

[BettaMomma]

Aren't nets supposed to be bad for fin ripping?
I usually just put a solo cup down and patiently wait for them to swim in on their own.... but that gets monotonous waiting and waiting

 

[Raechal]

Aren't nets supposed to be bad for fin ripping?
I usually just put a solo cup down and patiently wait for them to swim in on their own.... but that gets monotonous waiting and waiting

I do the same thing, all of my boys swim right into the cup as soon as I put it in there. I've also put two new plastic cups in their tank as a cave so they are used to "the cup"