What's Best For Fin Rot?

[laurasbetta]

Hows the fish Laurasbetta?
Sorry, i lost track of this post....
The bacteria responsible for fin rot are;
aeromonas, pseudomonas and flexibacter....

I'm unsure about the betta hanging at the surface but this is generally a bad sign, does he keep going up for air and/or are his gills working harder than they normally would be?

Personally i wouldn't have removed the filter, even with a labyrinth organ, in poor health, fish will want as much oxygen in the water as possible, they have to work harder to breath (IMHO) due to variety of different factors; stress, the treatment, the weakening effect the illness may be having.
I've heard that placing a breeding trap close to the waters surface may help with bettas in this condition.

Next point; As your tank has been filtered previously the nitrifying bacteria in the rest of the tank, gravel etc. will have had to do little work. Removing the filter IMO may result in a toxic spike. I'd certainly get the filter back in, even if the good bacteria has been allowed to dry out/die off at least it will provide some extra aeriation.

I've never used the treatments you are using, in your situation i'd be using a broad spectrum antibacterial and melafix, both on a half reccomended dose.
His hanging at the surface is unlikely to be a result of fin rot though could be related to the other illnesses associated with the bacteria commonly responsible.

The filter was removed because it was a new (1 week old) addition and it seemed to stress him out more. Actually, we had been using Bettafix/Melafix on a reduced dose in his tank as a precautionary measure since his last (milder) case of fin rot. I assume the carbon in the filter removed the Bettafix from the water and allowed opportunistic bacteria to attack him again.

The fin rot appeared within one day so we started him on Melafix & Pimafix at half dose with 100% water change. Over the next 2 days the rot had progessed to the point that he had lost half his hind fin and was laying on the bottom except to come up for air in brief spurts.

We decided that we couldn't wait for the Melafix/Pimafix to start working so we did another 100% water change and started a course of Maracyn and Maracyn 2 (which are gram+ and gram- antibiotics plus anti-fungal.) After a day, he was back up to the surface, but still pretty sick. His gills are working normally and he doesn't seem to be struggling to get air. The fin rot on his tail had stopped progressing but he wasn't eating so we continued the Maracyn's and added some fresh water since he was no longer coming up from the bottom (about half full). Today, he began eating a few flakes at a time so we continued with the Maracyn's and added more fresh water to about 3/4 level. He has moved around a little bit more, but I don't think he's out of the woods yet.

We have 2 days left on the recommended course for the Maracyn treatments. Hopefully he'll start acting better by then. If not, we'll start a 2nd 5-day course of Maracyn treatments after a 100% water change or switch to Tetracycline. He is an older fish, so I'm not sure if he can tolerate all these changes in medicine?

Once he recovers enough to go off the antibiotics, we'll use a long term course of Melafix or Bettafix to help his fins heal. We might use a lower dose of antibiotics, too as a preventative measure.

I think the whole problem is due to his age (estimated at 2 years) and the change in his tank when we added the filter which created a slight current and removed the Bettafix. At his age, we probably should have considered the stress that these changes would cause. I guess fish are a lot like people - when they reach a certain age, they don't like change in their routine or their surroundings!

 

[laurasbetta]

Wally's still hanging in there. Not very active, but eating a little bit. We just did a 100% water change as he completed his 5 day course of the 2 Maracyn's. He started darting around his tank for a couple of minutes like he was really spooked when we put him back in the new water. He is on his 2nd round of Maracyns and we have added BettaSpa and dechlorinator (of course.) Let's see how he does after this 5 day dosing.