_groove_
New Member
Last week on Monday morning I noticed that my betta's tail fin was looking ragged on the edge, a few bits were missing. I hoped he had bit his own tail in frustration and hunger because I didn't feed him for a day (as usual once a week to give his system a rest...). I fed him really well, to be sure that if he nipped his own fins, he would not be tempted again, because he would be too full. Other than that he was his usual self, very curious about stuff, looking at me and swimming around as usual.
Tuesday the fin was shorter and more ragged and tattered. I saw a piece had fallen off at one point, and I decided I better treat it. Only problem I was leaving Friday for 5 days, so I couldn't start antibiotics since I know that you should always treat antibiotics the entire prescribed time interval and I would be away and unable to comply with that. I also didn't have anyone who would be able to come and do all the treatments properly. So I opted for salt baths and if he was still alive and not well when I got home again, I'd go for the big guns...
I started by disinfecting his bowl, net, decorations etc with a bleach solution (1:20 bleach:water) for 1 hour, and I did 100% water changes daily for the rest of the week.
I did a salt bath of 1/2 tsp salt in a cup of water and put him in this for about 5 minutes, closely monitoring and removing if he showed alot of stress. You have to basically judge for yourself knowing your fish how much he can take. Too long, and you will hurt him, take him out too soon and the salt will do nothing for the infection.
I also put about 1/3 tsp salt in the water in his bowl (1 gallon) as well as 24 drops of bettaFIX to promote the healing. As I said, I changed this water each day and did the same treatment to the water each time. To make sure the water for his salt baths was at the same temp I took it directly from the bowl.
By Friday I could see the tattered shredded edges of his tail had a tiny fringe of clear new fin growth, and hoped that he would not relapse while I was away.
I came back home last night, (a friend fed him every 2nd day during my absence) and found he's continuing to regrow his fins and doing very well. I had decided on the salt bath treatment based on info I found here in the betta section of fish forums, and I wanted to thank you guys. This is my first fish since child hood, when I had a small tropical aquarium. Those days, nothing ever worked for any of my fish, if they got sick, they always died, so this is actually the first time I've successfully treated a fish! YAY
)
I'll also point out that I realize that this was a fairly easy case, I know that it can be harder to clear up and I was probably lucky. I also think my fish is pretty strong and that his own natural resistance to disease helped as well, but I guess there's no way to know for sure. Anyways, thanks guys
Tuesday the fin was shorter and more ragged and tattered. I saw a piece had fallen off at one point, and I decided I better treat it. Only problem I was leaving Friday for 5 days, so I couldn't start antibiotics since I know that you should always treat antibiotics the entire prescribed time interval and I would be away and unable to comply with that. I also didn't have anyone who would be able to come and do all the treatments properly. So I opted for salt baths and if he was still alive and not well when I got home again, I'd go for the big guns...
I started by disinfecting his bowl, net, decorations etc with a bleach solution (1:20 bleach:water) for 1 hour, and I did 100% water changes daily for the rest of the week.
I did a salt bath of 1/2 tsp salt in a cup of water and put him in this for about 5 minutes, closely monitoring and removing if he showed alot of stress. You have to basically judge for yourself knowing your fish how much he can take. Too long, and you will hurt him, take him out too soon and the salt will do nothing for the infection.
I also put about 1/3 tsp salt in the water in his bowl (1 gallon) as well as 24 drops of bettaFIX to promote the healing. As I said, I changed this water each day and did the same treatment to the water each time. To make sure the water for his salt baths was at the same temp I took it directly from the bowl.
By Friday I could see the tattered shredded edges of his tail had a tiny fringe of clear new fin growth, and hoped that he would not relapse while I was away.
I came back home last night, (a friend fed him every 2nd day during my absence) and found he's continuing to regrow his fins and doing very well. I had decided on the salt bath treatment based on info I found here in the betta section of fish forums, and I wanted to thank you guys. This is my first fish since child hood, when I had a small tropical aquarium. Those days, nothing ever worked for any of my fish, if they got sick, they always died, so this is actually the first time I've successfully treated a fish! YAY
) I'll also point out that I realize that this was a fairly easy case, I know that it can be harder to clear up and I was probably lucky. I also think my fish is pretty strong and that his own natural resistance to disease helped as well, but I guess there's no way to know for sure. Anyways, thanks guys
