Finrot

[abby'smom]

Thanks Wuv. I'm not dropping the temp, though. I'm going to try to keep them as warm as possible with out a heater (until I get some). So I guess that means I'm going to have to keep the lights on for now. With the lights on the temps sit around 80F, so that's about good isn't it?
No, the whole passing out thing was scary. But I've never done this, so what do I know?! They were fine as soon as the hit their own waters though, so that was a relief. Except my yellow boy, he just kinda layed on the bottom for a minute. Scared the crap out of me till he started swimming around again!
But, I gave them a good thawed bloodworm dinner after, so I think they forgive me .
Erin

 

[wuvmybetta]

Glad to hear it And 80 sounds perfect. A member of the Houston betta club made an interesting point a few days ago about trimming off severe fin rot. Here's what they have to say:

I have trimmed the fins of bettas with severe fin rot, and bettas who were too heavily finned to spawn -- it is a simple, safe procedure if you are careful. Here's what you will need: an unused rectangular razor blade, alcohol, two small towels, a net, two cups of room temp dechlorinated water.
Lay the towels on a table, pour water onto one of them, leave the other one dry. Take the paper wrapper off the razor blade and swab the edge of it with alcohol. Lay this on the dry towel. Net the betta out and lay him on the wet towel, folding one of the edges over his head and torso, leaving his tail and anal fin exposed; this way you can keep him calm and still while you work. Spread his tail out and cut by pressing the razor straight down; do not drag across. You can cut as much as 1/2 off for fin rot, but I don't do more than 1/3 for spawning purposes. If necessary, you can then spread out the anal fin and trim that as well.
Drop the betta into the remaining clean cup of water. Generally, you will see him flare and swish and dash around like he suddenly has wings. Make sure whe you put him back into a jar that the water level is at least 2 inches from the top, because he may bolt out of the water until he gets used to his new haircut.
On rare occasion, the very tips of the fin will ooze a trace of blood but this has never lasted or seemed to upset the fish. For stubborn cases of fin rot, I add methyblue to the jar after a trimming, just to keep the fungus from coming back... for spawning purposes, I assume he is ready as soon as I see a bubble nest -- and for some of them, they've never been able to build a nest before. Good luck.

This is extremely interesting to me. I haven't dealt with a severe case of finrot in a very long time. But if I ever run in to it again, I think I'll try trimming it. It makes perfect sense.

 

[f250fisherman]

Actually inch worm, I never forgot. I used 27 years of experience raising fish of many types. It has worked for me. If others choose not to follow my example, thats cool. I just say my opinion. Telling me I'm wrong because you don't know if I'm right or not is not the answer. It's obvious we have different opinions on many things. I do things because they work for me, not to impress anyone or because I want to be different. There are many ways to treat many different things. My grandfather had fish for as long as I can remember. He taught me the old school ways of doing things, and Ii try to incorporate the new school ways of doing things into my hobby. Like cation mentioned, we should just agree to disagree, and not try and confuse people with our disagreements.

 

[Inchworm]

[quote name='abby'smom' date='Oct 21 2004, 01:09 AM'] Thanks Wuv. I'm not dropping the temp, though. I'm going to try to keep them as warm as possible with out a heater (until I get some). So I guess that means I'm going to have to keep the lights on for now. With the lights on the temps sit around 80F, so that's about good isn't it?
No, the whole passing out thing was scary. But I've never done this, so what do I know?! They were fine as soon as the hit their own waters though, so that was a relief. Except my yellow boy, he just kinda layed on the bottom for a minute. Scared the crap out of me till he started swimming around again!
But, I gave them a good thawed bloodworm dinner after, so I think they forgive me .
Erin [/quote]
Hi abby'smom

I'm glad to learn that you are seeing results already.

It is a scary thing to do. I was horrified the first time I used it and saw a big bronze cory go belly up! It took only a few minutes for this to happen at first, but after a few treatments they could stay in a little longer and of course, I got much calmer about seeing it.

The first time I tried it, it was to treat a group of wild caught corys that had arrived at my lfs so badly infected that some of them were not only missing their tails, but their bodies were rotting away too. And some of them were completely missing their barbels. I picked the best of the bunch, but even though they had their tails, they had serious damage to their barbels, which is an organ they use to find food.

I have to admit that this old remedy didn't sound too great to me when one of the other mods suggested it, but since I had already tried antibiotics with little success, I felt I had to take a chance. I used it as a last resort, and it saved the lives of all 6 of them. I've since used it to treat 2 bettas that I bought infected and it worked fine. They even seemed to take the salt better than the corys and could stay in it longer right from the start.

I think the most important thing, since you are keeping your temperature up, is to keep it stable. And feeding the worms is very good for them too. It will help keep their strength up to repair their immune systems and regrow their fins.

 

[Inchworm]

...A member of the Houston betta club made an interesting point a few days ago about trimming off severe fin rot....

Hi wuv

Some time back, one of the members posted this link about trimming fins. It has pictures to illustrate the process.

http/www.bettatalk.com/answer30.htm

I hope the time never comes when I have to do something like this!
And I cannot imagine ever traumatizing a fish this way, except to save its life.

 

[wuvmybetta]

...A member of the Houston betta club made an interesting point a few days ago about trimming off severe fin rot....

Hi wuv

Some time back, one of the members posted this link about trimming fins. It has pictures to illustrate the process.

http/www.bettatalk.com/answer30.htm

I hope the time never comes when I have to do something like this!
And I cannot imagine ever traumatizing a fish this way, except to save its life.

Naaah, I don't think it would be any more traumatizing than being pulled out of your tank multiple times a day and given baths until you pass out This would be short and quick and the problem is gone like that.

Just like I tell my daughter when it's time for a shot or to take off a bandaid....this is gonna hurt! But only for a minute

But I think you should be aware of the warning in the link...

WARNING: Do not try this unless you are already experienced with bettas

 

[tekknocolor]

Hi tekknocolor

Did you use repeated treatments in concentrated salt baths that I described, or did you just add salt to your tank?

I just added a little salt to his tank afterwards. I'm sorry for the confusion. I was afraid of the salt dipping solution, but you do what you have to do