shredded tail

[flautist]

For a while now, my fish has had these white/translucent places on his tail. I thought it was fungus, and was simply adding salt to his water and keeping the temp up a couple degrees higher than usual. Today when I came home, the bottom half of his tail looked like it had been through a shredder. All that is gone is the transluscent places. I added melafix to his water, he is in a 2.5 gallon tank with a whisper filter that stays pretty steady between 80 and 82 degrees. Is there anything else I can do for him? Do you think it was simply fungus, or was there something else wrong? He's just as active as ever, swimming and flaring, and he built a huge bubble nest a couple days ago. I did a 50% wc last night.

Any ideas?

 

[D Chia]

Using a water conditioner that contains Aloe Vera (e.g. Stress Coat®,
Aquamaster Armour Coat®) will not only remove chlorine and chloramine but also neutralise harmful heavy metals and form a protective coating that prevents opportunistic infection and promotes healing if there is any damage to the fish's tissue.

Medicate with MelaFix® or/and PimaFix® if early stages of fin rot is suspected.

If the fin rot is severe (i.e. blood streaked fins), treat with something stronger (e.g. Myxazin®) before the redness reaches the fin base. Severe fin rot can lead to the fish's death.

 

[flautist]

So you think it's fin rot then? I treat the water with AmmoLock since it also removes ammonia. I don't have a test kit yet (I will in a week or two) so I use ammolock to be sure that the ammonia levels are okay.

How would I be able to tell if it were severe? He's a dark blue fish, and he has a red wash in his fins, so I don't think I would be able to see blood in the fins.

I don't see any new transluscent areas this morning, and he's just as active as ever.

 

[D Chia]

So you think it's fin rot then?

The classical signs of fin rot are fin and ray tissue becoming opaque, blood streaked and shredded.

The white/translucent places on its tail could also be new tissue that is growing back. I used to have a green half moon betta who blew its tail. The damaged area healed, but the new tissue was translucent.

To be on the safe side, it's always good to start the fish with MelaFix® (like what you had done) when fin rot is suspected or when there is any damage to the fish's body or fins.

 

[Texaswoman]

Check your filter intake to make sure that he could not get his tail caught in it. That could do it overnight like you mentioned.

 

[flautist]

Check your filter intake to make sure that he could not get his tail caught in it. That could do it overnight like you mentioned.

I thought of that, but I wouldn't know how to check for that... and if I found that that could be the cause, I wouldn't know how to fix it. Do you know what I could do?

 

[Texaswoman]

Well, I'm not sure how to check for it, but to prevent it I've heard pantyhose cut out and put over the filter intake will work. If you can't fix it and you do think this is the problem, then take the filter out, and if you really want one for him, you could get a small sponge filter. His fins shredding overnight I wouldn't suspect finrot. It could also be a possiblity he is biting his tail. Other bettas due this due to boredom or heavy finnage possibly.

 

[flautist]

It would figure that I just went through and threw away all my pantyhose with runs in them!
Thanks for the advice, that makes me feel much better