I think my first Betta, Finnigan, has fin rot. I've been using Betta fix for 10 days and thought I was having improvement until I came home today to find that Finn has a new spot on his head. She had a spot before but it had disappeared after adding the first chunk of aquarium salt. His fins have not grown back but they have not gotten worse either. I've been doing daily 25% water changes and have had my water tested several times with nothing it of wack. I've also added one piece of aquarium salt every third day and added an Indian almond leaf. Is it time for antibiotics or does he have something else?
Betta Fin Rot?
- Thread starter Finnagain
- Start date
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SeanTrollope
Fish Addict
Right so to start with can you please give the actual readings on the water tests. This is because petshops often say it's okay when really it's not. And thus they make more money.
Also betta fix is apparently not very useful. Rather stop using it and increase the percentage water changed.
Could you also please give us some more info on your tank. How long has it been running. Is it heated. Is it filtered. Is it planted. How big is it. Etc.
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Also betta fix is apparently not very useful. Rather stop using it and increase the percentage water changed.
Could you also please give us some more info on your tank. How long has it been running. Is it heated. Is it filtered. Is it planted. How big is it. Etc.
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The spot on the head looks like a bruise, It will disapear in a few days.
Can you answer the following questions
Can you answer the following questions
- is the tank cycled - how did you cycle it?
- does the tank have a filter?
- does it have a heater - what temp is it set to?
- how much water do you change and how often?
- what water conditioner do you use?
- apart from the fish what else is in the tank - fake plants, live plants etc?
- apart from the new fish have you added anything else recently?
- What do you feed him?
- How much and how often do you feed him?
I wasn't given the actual readings, but I'm failing to see the correlation between a pet shop telling me my numbers are good and them making more money. They didn't make anything off me by telling me that.
I can stop the Bettafix. I'm already doing 50% water changes every other day now. Should I do that daily then?
I brought Finn home about four months ago. It's a new tank that I ran for a day before I got him. It is not heated and maintains about 82 degrees as I have a thermometer. It does have a filter. I'm not sure what planted means.
I don't know what cycled means.
Yes to filter
No to heater. It maintains 82 on its own.
I've been doing 50% water changes every other day
Bettasafe for conditioner
Nothing fake in the tank. Rocks on the bottom. Some shells. A marimo ball. A Java Fern plant on drifwood. And his friend Dozer the mystery snail.
Dozer was added about six weeks ago, long before any symptoms. No other changes since day one.
He gets three Tetrabetta pellets twice per day for food with the occasional bloodworm once per week
For the first two months, I was given some wrong information by someone telling me to do complete water changes every three weeks... Could this have anything to do with it?
The reason for a shop saying 'fine' when the readings aren't is because they don't care if the number for ammonia and nitrite is above zero - if there is ammonia and/or nitrite in the water and the fish gets sick, you'll spend money on medication; if the fish dies you'll spend more money on new fish.
Cycling is the term used for growing 2 colonies of bacteria that 'eat' the ammonia excreted by the fish. These bacteria are in our tap water in tiny amounts - the water company adds chlorine or chloramine to kill bacteria but a very small number do survive. These then have to multiply in the tank till there are enough of them to 'eat' all the ammonia made by the fish. The bacteria are very slow growing and it takes weeks to grow enough of them.
Since you didn't know what cycling means, you can't have done a fishless cycle (where we add ammonia from a bottle to feed the bacteria and get them to multiply before we get fish) so your betta would have gone though a fish-in cycle. During a fish-in cycle ammonia build up so we have to do lots of water changes to stop it harming the fish. After a few weeks, the first bacteria start 'eating' the ammonia and they turn it into nitrite which is also toxic. That too builds up until the second colony of bacteria has grown enough to 'eat' all the nitrite made by the first bacteria, and again we need to do water changes to keep nitrite low.
When the person told you to do complete water changes every three weeks, did you do partial water changes between the complete ones? If you didn't your betta would have been harmed by the ammonia and nitrite in his tank water. And this can cause health problems for the rest of the fish's life.
The tank will now be cycled since it has been running a few months - the snail is fine and they are more sensitive to ammonia & nitrite than fish (or at least the snails we pay money for are; pest snails seem immune to everything)
The best treatment for finrot is water changes. I would do one every day for now. And stop adding aquarium salt. Bettas are fresh water fish and should not have salt in their water. The daily water changes will dilute he salt you have added till it is all gone. Make sure that you add dechlorinator to the new water and warm it to the same temperature as the tank water before putting it in the tank.
The wood in the tank - does it have any rough edges or sharp points? Bettas' fins are delicate and can snag on rough things.
Does any of the decor have tiny spaces? Bettas will squeeze through the tiniest holes and can scrape their bodies - or heads if they try to get through and find they don't fit.
Cycling is the term used for growing 2 colonies of bacteria that 'eat' the ammonia excreted by the fish. These bacteria are in our tap water in tiny amounts - the water company adds chlorine or chloramine to kill bacteria but a very small number do survive. These then have to multiply in the tank till there are enough of them to 'eat' all the ammonia made by the fish. The bacteria are very slow growing and it takes weeks to grow enough of them.
Since you didn't know what cycling means, you can't have done a fishless cycle (where we add ammonia from a bottle to feed the bacteria and get them to multiply before we get fish) so your betta would have gone though a fish-in cycle. During a fish-in cycle ammonia build up so we have to do lots of water changes to stop it harming the fish. After a few weeks, the first bacteria start 'eating' the ammonia and they turn it into nitrite which is also toxic. That too builds up until the second colony of bacteria has grown enough to 'eat' all the nitrite made by the first bacteria, and again we need to do water changes to keep nitrite low.
When the person told you to do complete water changes every three weeks, did you do partial water changes between the complete ones? If you didn't your betta would have been harmed by the ammonia and nitrite in his tank water. And this can cause health problems for the rest of the fish's life.
The tank will now be cycled since it has been running a few months - the snail is fine and they are more sensitive to ammonia & nitrite than fish (or at least the snails we pay money for are; pest snails seem immune to everything)
The best treatment for finrot is water changes. I would do one every day for now. And stop adding aquarium salt. Bettas are fresh water fish and should not have salt in their water. The daily water changes will dilute he salt you have added till it is all gone. Make sure that you add dechlorinator to the new water and warm it to the same temperature as the tank water before putting it in the tank.
The wood in the tank - does it have any rough edges or sharp points? Bettas' fins are delicate and can snag on rough things.
Does any of the decor have tiny spaces? Bettas will squeeze through the tiniest holes and can scrape their bodies - or heads if they try to get through and find they don't fit.
You still need a heater unless the temp is a steady 80 all night, can you tell us what the water temp is at 2 am, 3 am.4am?, too much heating and cooling of the water can stress the fish, and stress weakens the fishes immune system making it harder to fight off things like finrot, Stress can also cause fin biting.
SeanTrollope
Fish Addict
Both of them basically nailed it right in the head.
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