Fin Rot

[Pixie25]

hi betta people,

im fairly new here, ive had my betta for a over a month now and i noticed a few weeks back his tail was starting to look thin.

i started treating him with melafix (under the instructions it says on the bottle) but he didnt get any better, and then i found this site and changed his treatment to half the recommended dose and i am doing 50% changes every 2 days at least. (he's in a filtered 5G) i have also added a few granules of aquarium salt to his water along with the melafix. is this ok? it said on the packet it is good for aiding treatments.

so my questions are, what should i do if no improvement within 7 days of melafix treatment and salt?

and, the substrate is sand in his tank and i was wondering if this might be making the tank a little less clean than it should be if i want him to get better? should i remove the sand? the water looks kind of murky all the time, despite however many water changes i might do.

any advice would be gratefully recieved, as his tail is starting to disintegrate at the tips now.

 

[Durbkat]

Are you sure he is just not biting it when your not around? Are the tips of the fins black or discolored? For fin rot I'd recommend a medicine called maracyn and use some salt with it but I'd recommend you use 1 rounded teaspoon of salt instead because what you put in there isn't doing anything. Can you post a pic of the fin(s) that you think have fin rot?

 

[Pixie25]

well he is all red and his fins have just gone see through at the tips, in between the spiney bits and the ventral fins have started to go white up to about half way up (they used to be red).

i dont have a camera at the moment but i could try and get a pic soon.

he built lots of bubblenest when i fisrt got him, he hasnt done this since i added a filter to his tank, do you think it is annoying him and making him bite his fins?

 

[Durbkat]

Well clear fins usually means those are fins that are growing back. It could be many things to make a betta stress out and bite its fins. One of my bettas was biting his fins because he couldn't see any humans then I moved him onto my desk and he stopped then another betta that I have was biting his fins because when he saw other bettas or his reflection in the mirror so I moved him away from bettas and stopped letting him see his reflection and he stopped but he is to old and his fins never really grew back any.

 

[Pixie25]

oh, nothing is ever simple is it!!

well, the fins are half dark red, not the bright red they were when i bought him. the seethroughness seems as if it is spreading up the fins (but that is with my untrained eye).

he can actually see his reflection in one part of his tank, maybe i should buy a bowl as a temporary home and see if it improves (without a filter, sand, or reflection problems). i could also use it for salt baths i have read about, if nothing else does the trick to getting him back to his glorious colours.

do you know anything about indian almond leaf?

thanks for your replies

 

[tttnjfttt]

I agree that it probably is tail biting rather than fin rot. If you see black edges, that is usually finrot.

Bettas usually bite their tails when they are stressed. This can mean too much action around them, not enough action, seeing reflections or other bettas, or even the current of the filter. Since you said he is in a filtered tank, try turning off the filter for a few days. That may help things. Bettas can survive in non-filtered tanks. My recomendation is without a filter, you do want to use somethign to absorb ammonia.

Salt in a betta tank is fine, I've used that numerous times. Here is pinned topic about Indian Almond Leaf. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=41676

Honestly, my first course of action would be to kill the filter. THe clear part can also be "spreading up his fins" because more is growing in, so it appears to be getting longer.

 

[Pixie25]

thank you so much for your reply.

i have turned his filter off and i am going to buy a critter keeper to keep him in for a while to work out exactly what is causing it. hopefully he will be on the mend soon.