Never Ending Finrot?

[Chrissy]

Since I brought Sushi home back in November he has had finrot on and off. It gets better, then all the sudden it's back. I've tried Bettamax and Maracyn 2, but they don't seem to work.

Also, one of his fins seems to be growing back, but the other one is still a lot shorter, and it's been that way since I got him, never growing, could it be a birth defect or something?

I plan on going out to Petsmart tonight and getting him a nice live plant since the one I have now seems to be bothering him. I'm going to give his tank another thorough cleanout, once he is out of there I'm going to stir up the gravel and do a huge water change and get any gunk out of there.

Any ideas on what it could be? One fin looks healthy, the other one isn't growing back, or just taking a really long time to.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Well, according to the pic in your sig,he's a dragger and this could be your problem. How would you feel about removing his gravel for a few weeks?

 

[red_fish_blue_fish]

I agree, remove the gravel and try a full run of Betta Fix..that stuff always works for me. Good Luck!

 

[Sorrell]

What do your water changes look like? How much, how often, etc

 

[Chrissy]

That picture was from when he first came home, I've never seen him drag at the bottom or anything since then.

I just got him a java fern, so maybe it was just his plant that was tearing his fins? If things don't clear up I'll take the gravel out. (Right now there are really smoothe stones and the bottom covering the sharper gravel, though)

I do water changes about 2-3 times a week and I take out maybe 15-20% of the water. I just did a (approx.) 90% water change last night, stirred up the gravel, and got all the junk that was down there. (From when the fish sitter decided if she dumped 1/4 the can of food in there, he would be good for the week and she wouldn't have to feed him ) This is the second huge water change I have done because of the fish sitter, but I suppose I would have needed to do it sooner or later.

So, hopefully this will clear up now.

 

[BettaMomma]

If he's in a smaller tank (like a 2.5G tank or whatever) you should be doing 100% water changes a couple times a week rather than partials. With partials, most of the goop that you should really be getting rid of in a water change stays right in there so his water is always dirty to some degree then.

Also, I don't know if your tank is heated and at a constant temp, but my 2 boys had CONSTANT problems with finrot and just fin problems in general when they were in their tanks where the temp of the water was allowed to fluctuate with room temps (We have baseboard heating, not a furnace), so I am in the process of getting them into a tank that's got constant temps. So far it seems to be helping Harvey and I haven't put Archie in yet.

 

[Chrissy]

He lives in a 1 gallon tank w/ a filter. It isn't heated because I heard that you can'tr keep a heater in anything smaller than a 2.5 gallon. I keep his light on all day, so his temp. stays at around 75 degrees F.

 

[Sorrell]

Sounds like water quality for sure then. 100% two to three times a week to clear the rot and then 100% once a week for maintainace (or more if you feel like it )

Filters for a one gallon are just crap. They move the water around but that's about it. As BettaMomma said about the smaller betta tanks, the only filtration the fish can really count on is you.

 

[Chrissy]

Ok, I'll be doing that. I was looking at him last night and his fins look a little better, they were longer. So I'll just keep doing the water changes, hopefully it will work!