Betta fin rot help

[Zoes881]

Hi everyone

My betta Picasso has fin rot and A) I don't know why he has it, and B) I don't know how to help him.

He is in an heated 5 gallon aquarium and his water parameters are perfect (ammonia-0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate-5, and pH 7.4).

The detritus worms in my tank are suddenly starting to show themselves again on the glass, which I know means that something is wrong with the water. Everything looks normal though. The only thing that may be causing this is that I added some plant fertilizer to my tank 2 weeks ago. It is the aquarium co-op easy green fertilizer.

There is nothing sharp in the tank and I don't know why it is progressing for the worse. 2 days ago I added 2 tsp of aquarium salt, and I did a 50% water change and added 1/2tsp of aquarium salt last night.

Any advice is helpful. Thank you!

 

[hansgruber7]

It's hard to say. Usually fin rot is a water quality issue, but it appears your water is ok. I assume the temperature is normal and he has no tank mates? Sometimes it just happens and there's not much you can do about it. Do you have a full tank shot? Are you using the API testing kit or something else? Some testing strips are not very accurate. Wish I could be more helpful but it's really not obvious what it could be.

 

[Colin_T]

Poor water quality, dirty tanks/ substrate, and dirty filters cause fin rot.

If the detritus worms are crawling up the glass, there is something wrong with the tank.

You need to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks. Add some salt and don't add anything else.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of water. Keep the salt in there for 2-4 weeks. When you do the water changes, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank so the salinity (salt level) in the tank remains stable.

If there's no improvement after a week of water changes and salt, post some more pictures and you might need to use a broad spectrum medication or anti-biotics. Anti-biotics should be used as a last resort so try salt first and then a broad spectrum medication if the salt doesn't work.

 

[Zoes881]

Poor water quality, dirty tanks/ substrate, and dirty filters cause fin rot.

If the detritus worms are crawling up the glass, there is something wrong with the tank.

You need to do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks. Add some salt and don't add anything else.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of water. Keep the salt in there for 2-4 weeks. When you do the water changes, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank so the salinity (salt level) in the tank remains stable.

If there's no improvement after a week of water changes and salt, post some more pictures and you might need to use a broad spectrum medication or anti-biotics. Anti-biotics should be used as a last resort so try salt first and then a broad spectrum medication if the salt doesn't work.

My water parameters are normal so doing daily water changes seems unnecessary. Would the plant fertilizer cause a detritus worm spike due to high amounts of minerals? Also, I should point out that the amount of oxygen in my tank isn’t very high due to low surface agitation so maybe that could be a reason why they came out.

 

[Zoes881]

It's hard to say. Usually fin rot is a water quality issue, but it appears your water is ok. I assume the temperature is normal and he has no tank mates? Sometimes it just happens and there's not much you can do about it. Do you have a full tank shot? Are you using the API testing kit or something else? Some testing strips are not very accurate. Wish I could be more helpful but it's really not obvious what it could be.

Here is a picture of my tank. The temp is 79 degrees, he has no tank mates, and I use the api testing kit.

 

[Essjay]

Water changes are not just for ammonia etc; they also remove a lot of things we can't measure and disease organisms. Water changes are often all that's needed.
Detritus worms usually grow in large numbers if there is uneaten food in the substrate, so a thorough daily cleaning of the substrate during the water changes helps to remove them and their food supply.

 

[Zoes881]

Water changes are not just for ammonia etc; they also remove a lot of things we can't measure and disease organisms. Water changes are often all that's needed.
Detritus worms usually grow in large numbers if there is uneaten food in the substrate, so a thorough daily cleaning of the substrate during the water changes helps to remove them and their food supply.

I’m just confused about why this happened in the first place. I always do weekly 30% water changes and he was totally fine until now. He also eats everything that I give him so I know there isn’t any uneaten food.

 

[hansgruber7]

Sometimes it can just happen and there isn't much you can do about it if your water is pristine. Water changes and some cleaning out of the filter in tank water can't hurt though. The testing kits don't pick up everything that matters.