laurasbetta
Fish Fanatic
I started Bubbles on the Maracyn and Maracyn 2 combo last night, and this morning he looks even worse than ever. As if Freddy Krueger visited in the night and shredded his entire tail.
I'm afraid he may not make it through this, and I'm trying to prepare myself. I feel like a bad mom... I thought I was doing something good by rescuing him from his vase at the wedding, but I just wasn't prepared or well-informed enough about the care he would require. Until now, I thought fish were fish. I had a couple of goldfish in college and it was no big deal.
Bubbles is giving me a keen appreciation for these creatures, and a great deal of respect for the humans who care for them.
I'm not giving up on him! I'll keep everyone posted.
I suggest you turn off the filter as this tends to stress bettas out even more which leads to more susceptibility to infection. You only need to aerate with other species of fish because bettas breathe air above the water. Keep his aquarium light off and keep him away from bright lights like windows since this decreases the effectiveness of one of the Maracyn's (can't remember which.) It may take a few days for the Maracyn to stop the fin rot. You should notice that the progress of the rot has slowed down and then no more new areas will be affected. (And the water will get pretty cloudy!)
Run through a full 5 day treatment and then do a full water change and start another 5 day treatment. After that, it will take a while for the fins to repair themselves. When you have finished the Maracyn treatment, you will need to do another full water change and then use the Bettafix or Melafix at about half dose as a preventative from further infection and to help with fin re-growth. You might also want to add some Indian Almond Leaf extract (IAL) or BettaSpa regularly to his water. You could use aquarium salt instead, but I haven't tried this. Once he has gotten to this stage, keep a close eye on him in case a new batch of fin rot starts. You can then start treatment much sooner since I have found that successive bouts of the disease seem to be worse than the first.
I don't think any of us are prepared to take care of a Betta at first. We all learn as we go along. I have found that there are a million Betta "experts" on the internet and each one takes care of their Betta a different way (and usually don't agree on anything!) You have to find out what works for you and your betta and stick to that. Good luck and don't give up on him yet!
