Pinholes In Betta's Fin?

[Spitter33]

It's worse than in the original pictures, but it hasn't progressed any further during the past 24 hours now which is good. I'm hoping it's slowed down or stopped completely and it will start to heal.
 
I still have him in the larger tank, but borrowed a tiny heater for the little tank in case he continues to get worse. My real problem is ammonia now, I have no clue what's going on this is incredibly confusing. 
 
My ammonia has been spot on for about a month now, next to none, it has been perfect! But during the past 2-3 days now it's been spiking and going weird. I checked that day I made that post about high ammonia, it was at 0.50... I did a 25% change, that brought it down to 0.25.... This morning it was back at 0.50 again, and so I did a 50% change, and now just at about 0.35... This is so strange... 
 
During the 50% water change today I also added 2 new water wisteria's because I heard these are fast growing, therefore should technically reduce ammonia? 
 
I now have 3 Cobombas, 2 Moneyworts, and 2 Wisterias. My ammonia should be next to nothing? All of these plants are relatively new though (originally I only had 1 Cobomba for about a month, and my ammonia was fine during that whole time... now that I have a ton of plants, my ammonia seems to be worse...)
 
I'm thinking they need time to start growing before they'll help take care of these ammonia spikes... But I've had all 3 of my Cobombas for over a week now and they've grown surprisingly fast! The Moneyworts have stayed about the same (but I don't think they're fast growing anyway, right?) and the wisteria i just got today so we'll see..

 

[Spitter33]

He's as worse as ever today. I put him back in the 2.5 Gallon 2 days ago, which seemed to help great! But today he looks terrible, he seems limp... His fin is now split into two, it used to be so spread out and beautiful, now it looks shrivelled and limp. 
 
He's spent about 80% of the day just laying on the bottom of the tank. He did eat but not as much as usual. And he just looks completely awful. 
 
I'm afraid he's going to die I don't know what to do, I've been changing the water every day to make sure it's as clean as possible. I've taken all things that could hurt him out of the tank. I've been keeping the tempature at 83F. I'm not sure what else to do  

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

Im so sorry for your guy Make sure you keep dosing I wish you luck

 

[Wildbetta]

Do you have any current pics of him looking as he does now?  I am really sorry to hear that he is not doing well at all.    
 
Did you get some antibiotics yet?  If so are you making sure to follow the directions about water changes that are on the package/in the instructions?  
If you have not gotten the antibiotics yet, I recommend you go ahead and get some since he has went downhill.  This might actually be a bacterial infection which will need treatment to heal.

 

[Spitter33]

He's dead  
 
He was laying down on the rocks, like he was most of the day. I went to do the daily water change, so I got the net out and he didn't move from it... So I thought that was a little weird, I scooped him up... Nothing. Didn't budge. At this point I realized... 
 
I took him out and put him into his cup I always put him in, soon as he rolled out of the net into the cup half of his fin just dissolved  
 
I think I'm in denial, I've left him in the cup for over an hour now thinking maybe he's sleeping... I feel so bad, I was going to give him bloodworms as a treat because of how terrible he looks, but I was like "I'll do it after the movies over" ... Now he never got them... 
 
I never thought I'd feel so bad over a fish, but I do. He had a personality of his own and everything. 

 

[RyanTheFishGuy64]

RIP  

 

[Wildbetta]

Oh man I am soo very sorry to hear this news.  

 

  Sometimes no matter how hard we try, there really is nothing we can do to fix our little friends.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

In the wild they live in puddles. Judging from the pics I saw I doubt your water ever got bad enough for fin rot. I find that stress or inactivity seems to kill them more than anything. It's a funny thing finding that balance sometimes. Sometimes a noisy filter or air hose will drive them bonkers and stress them out. You obviously cared a lot for your fish. I keep killing cactus and jade plants because I'm worried I'm killing them, I think it leads me to over watering or moving them too much to more "ideal" spots. Those "pinholes" are usually tears from plastic plants or from nets.  If you plan on getting another fish with fins I'd suggest getting rid of both. I always herded my bettas into cups or containers and that seemed to work well. Every time I would clean the tank out I'd throw Ed Wood(my black&white betta RIP) in a bowl with daphnia and mosquito larvae. Cleaning day was always his favorite day -there was no stress for him during the process and he got some good exercise hunting down bugs. Also floating plants like water lettuce, or water sprites are essential. When a labyrinth fish gets sick it's also good to put them in a shallow container so they don't have far to swim to the surface to breathe extra air.

 

[Spitter33]

In the wild they live in puddles. Judging from the pics I saw I doubt your water ever got bad enough for fin rot. I find that stress or inactivity seems to kill them more than anything. It's a funny thing finding that balance sometimes. Sometimes a noisy filter or air hose will drive them bonkers and stress them out. You obviously cared a lot for your fish. I keep killing cactus and jade plants because I'm worried I'm killing them, I think it leads me to over watering or moving them too much to more "ideal" spots. Those "pinholes" are usually tears from plastic plants or from nets.  If you plan on getting another fish with fins I'd suggest getting rid of both. I always herded my bettas into cups or containers and that seemed to work well. Every time I would clean the tank out I'd throw Ed Wood(my black&white betta RIP) in a bowl with daphnia and mosquito larvae. Cleaning day was always his favorite day -there was no stress for him during the process and he got some good exercise hunting down bugs. Also floating plants like water lettuce, or water sprites are essential. When a labyrinth fish gets sick it's also good to put them in a shallow container so they don't have far to swim to the surface to breathe extra air.

 
I'm thinking this may have been the case. He seemed perfectly fine, even with the pin holes. But... Once I saw the pinholes that's when I got over paranoid, started taking him out of the tank every day to change stuff with the tank, to move him to a different tank, to change his water every day. Maybe all that stress is what did it. 
 
I don't think I'll get another fish for a while. But when I do I'm not sure what I'll get, I have a 10gallon and a 2.5 gallon. I might make the 10 gallon a very small community tank. The 2.5 I'm not sure, what can really live in there? I know a Betta can, but I feel kind of bad having a Betta in there. Is there anything that could be perfectly happy in such a small rectangle? Shrimp maybe.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

shrimp are cool -they don't handle temp changes very well. I had a small shrimp tank in our front window- It turned into a bit of a solar oven My bettas were always happiest in a 10 gallon half filled) Bumblebee gobys are cute and don't require much room, they don't have a swim bladder so it's easier for them to eat in a smaller tank IDK 2.5 may be too small though. I use mine as nursery tanks for my guppies. If I notice a female is about to give birth I'll put her in until she does. I end up with 30 fry instead of 12(unless I don't get her out in time then I have nothing)