Will treated fin rot fall away and regrow or heal where it is damaged?

[Irksome]

I have been giving my betta salt water dips to try and help with his fin fungus but it seems to be getting worse not better. Will the diseased part of the fin fall away and regrow or will it heal? I am unable to set up a quarantine tank in a safe place and his tank is too heavily planted to salt. The fungal treatment I have been using also seems to make it worse not better.

 

[Stefan3289]

@Colin_T @AdoraBelle Dearheart @Deanasue

Could you post some pictures of his fins?

Could you also post water parameters?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi! Sorry to hear about your betta. Would you please copy and paste this template and fill in the info, the more information we have - given that we can't see the fish or tank - the better we're placed to be able to help!

Also for what it's worth, most plants survive salt treatment just fine, especially since it's for such a short period. Which plants do you have? Because you could always remove any more delicate ones, keep them in a bucket with a heater for the duration of treatment.

Personally, I'd rather potentially lose a few plants than lose the fish.

Tank size:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[FishGuest5123]

I have been giving my betta salt water dips to try and help with his fin fungus but it seems to be getting worse not better. Will the diseased part of the fin fall away and regrow or will it heal? I am unable to set up a quarantine tank in a safe place and his tank is too heavily planted to salt. The fungal treatment I have been using also seems to make it worse not better.

Do you have a bucket that is clean? Salt dips aren’t as effective as treating the water he is living in. Cover the bucket with a light towel to keep him from jumping. Add his heater. Change water daily. The damaged parts will grow back. If you see black tips that Is a sign of healing.

 

[Irksome]

Tank size:6.6 gallons /25 Litres
pH:7.9
ammonia:0.1
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
kH: 12
gH: 16
tank temp:72

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
The fish is a half moon betta with large fins. his tail is ragged with small pinholes and his dorsal fin has a large patch of red/blackened membrane covered in grey fluff. The pinholes also firm when grey fluff appears on the fin. The progress of the infection has been slow, without getting significantly worse until the past week. The fish is lethargic, especially after salt baths but eats well. He cannot flare at a mirror effectively any more.

Volume and Frequency of water changes:30-50% water changes every two days with dechlorinated water added.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: King British fungus and fin rot control medication, active ingredient 2-phenoxyethanol 5.66%

Tank inhabitants:1 betta, some ramshorns, a small horned nerite.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): the nerite is new.

 

[Irksome]

I

Do you have a bucket that is clean? Salt dips aren’t as effective as treating the water he is living in. Cover the bucket with a light towel to keep him from jumping. Add his heater. Change water daily. The damaged parts will grow back. If you see black tips that Is a sign of healing.

I give him dips in a bucket. I can’t use the other bucket I have as it is required for cleaning my other tanks. I am reluctant to move him into the bucket for any length of time because my children are very young and curious and a bucket of water with a fish in next to a power supply is not a risk I can take.

 

[hansgruber7]

What testing kit are you using? An Ammonia reading of 0.1 isn't something I've seen before. It's also strange that your nitrates are at zero. My understanding is that in a fully cycled tank, nitrates are usually above zero. I find the API kit to be pretty good. Your PH is a little high and your temperature is low, but probably not the problem. It wouldn't hurt to bring the temperature up to around 78 if you can. The best thing you can do for fin rot in my opinion is keep the water pristine. Transferring him back and forth to the bucket is likely stressful for him and could be counterproductive. Especially if there are significant transitions in things like temp, PH, etc. I assume you are using a decholorinator for water changes.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

How long has the tank been set up?
Does it have a filter?
When you clean the filter, do you rinse it under the tap, or in tank water?
When did you get the betta, and how long has the fin rot been going on?

Sorry for yet more questions! The test results do raise some questions about whether the tank is cycled, or going through a mini cycle or something.

 

[Irksome]

What testing kit are you using? An Ammonia reading of 0.1 isn't something I've seen before. It's also strange that your nitrates are at zero. My understanding is that in a fully cycled tank, nitrates are usually above zero. I find the API kit to be pretty good. Your PH is a little high and your temperature is low, but probably not the problem. It wouldn't hurt to bring the temperature up to around 78 if you can. The best thing you can do for fin rot in my opinion is keep the water pristine. Transferring him back and forth to the bucket is likely stressful for him and could be counterproductive. Especially if there are significant transitions in things like temp, PH, etc. I assume you are using a decholorinator for water changes.

The nitrates were very low when I tested as it was shortly after a water change and they don’t get much chance to build with water changes every other day. I’m using the fish lab liquid test kit which is usually very accurate But is easier to read when levels are high, the 0.1 ammonia being the colour I would guess as between 0 and 0.2 Ppm on my chart.

 

[Irksome]

The tank had been set up for 5 months, it has a sponge filter that was taken from a cycled tank. It gets cleaned in tank water. The betta I got on December, he was 5 months old. The fin rot had been at low levels for several weeks but recently increased, I hoped that keeping up the water changes every other day would help him recover without medication initially.

How long has the tank been set up?
Does it have a filter?
When you clean the filter, do you rinse it under the tap, or in tank water?
When did you get the betta, and how long has the fin rot been going on?

Sorry for yet more questions! The test results do raise some questions about whether the tank is cycled, or going through a mini cycle or something.

 

[Irksome]

Pictures

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

The tank had been set up for 5 months, it has a sponge filter that was taken from a cycled tank. It gets cleaned in tank water. The betta I got on December, he was 5 months old. The fin rot had been at low levels for several weeks but recently increased, I hoped that keeping up the water changes every other day would help him recover without medication initially.

That's all good to hear! Sounds like you know what you're doing Sorry if these all seem like obvious questions, we just have to cover all the basics since we don't know how experienced someone is when they make a post, and so often fin rot turns out to be a water quality or cycling issue, I'm sure you know.

@Colin_T knows a lot more than I do, but personally, I would use the salt water treatment in his main tank (and I wouldn't worry about the plants, mine have certainly survived salt treatment before) and do daily water changes, re-dosing the salt, for two weeks, and see if he improves.

If he doesn't respond to salt treatment, I believe persistent fin rot needs antibiotics to heal. We're restricted in what meds we can get in the UK, but eSHa-2000 works against fin rot, fungus and bacterial infections. Using some right now on some cories and seems to be helping, and eSHa worming meds also worked when I needed to treat my livebearers.

He's a pretty boy!

 

[Irksome]

That's all good to hear! Sounds like you know what you're doing Sorry if these all seem like obvious questions, we just have to cover all the basics since we don't know how experienced someone is when they make a post, and so often fin rot turns out to be a water quality or cycling issue, I'm sure you know.

@Colin_T knows a lot more than I do, but personally, I would use the salt water treatment in his main tank (and I wouldn't worry about the plants, mine have certainly survived salt treatment before) and do daily water changes, re-dosing the salt, for two weeks, and see if he improves.

If he doesn't respond to salt treatment, I believe persistent fin rot needs antibiotics to heal. We're restricted in what meds we can get in the UK, but eSHa-2000 works against fin rot, fungus and bacterial infections. Using some right now on some cories and seems to be helping, and eSHa worming meds also worked when I needed to treat my livebearers.

He's a pretty boy!

Thanks, I will do what I can and try some salt in his aquarium. Oddly the infection really got worse when I started adding the treatment for it.