ich and fin rot

[smpthy4thedevil]

well... my poor boy had fin rot when i brought him home from the horrid little jar in the pet store several weeks ago. i tried treating him with some triple sulfa stuff, which seemed to work at first but now i'm not so sure. afterwards i added salt and melafix, and that definitely slowed the tail loss -- for a couple days i thought it had stopped for good -- but then, for the last few days i've been noticing just a tiny bit more fraying and tail loss.

and this evening i noticed several very small white specks on his body that werent there before. i'm fairly sure he's now got ich. *sigh*

what's the best medication for fin rot, and what's the best medication for ich? is there anything that could take care of both, or will i have to get two medications at once? will it be okay to treat him for both at once, or will i have to treat first for one thing, then for the other?



also... i'm not sure if this is a problem, but he either cant or doesnt want to close his mouth all the way. it always stays just a bit open. it hasnt affected his eating or anything -- he seems healthy and normal but for the fin rot, and now the ich. but is this a problem? i've never heard of it... but it worries me.

 

[endparenthesis]

I haven't had any fin rot so far, but I managed to cure my ongoing ick infestation by heating the water (slowly) to 84 degrees or so and adding Jungle Ich Clear. The temperature alone could have probably done it, but I wanted to make sure the little things really suffered.

 

[Nes]

Make sure his temperature is a nice & constant 80F that will help his immune system.

Melafix is a very good medicine. I would not suggest you switch to a new type of medicine after you have been treating him for a few days - the switch would most likely kill him.

So keep going with the melafix, primafix is better for bacteria (or the other way around) - they are basically the same medicine, but again do not switch right now.

Sounds like you are pretty much doing all you can right now. I would suggest 10% water changes/day (more is possible if he's in a big tank) that should help a bit.

Make sure you remove your carbon from any filters you have running in that tank while using the meds (I know it says that right on the package - but sometimes people forget).

Some amount of "trail-rot" or really just tail loss is normal in bettas (though with out seeing it - it's very hard to diagnose) & unfortunatley over-reacting with medications often worsens the problem my lowering their immune responce.

The mouth-open really may just be that he's not feeling well so he's trying to take in some more air, but I would definitley keep an eye on that

Good luck & Hope he feels better soon.

Nes.