Betta With Fin Rot, Not Responding To Treatment..
- Thread starter doggiebag
- Start date
doggiebag
Fish Crazy
well bad news, after posting something positive too........
Checked him last night when I turned his light off, 9pm, all great. Came back into room at 10pm and noticed he was sitting on bottom, very unusual for him, no clamped fins tho.....turned light on to check him and all the new growth on his tail was gone ! It was raggy and his colour was pale, he looked shocked. I immediately checked water, nothing there to cause stress, levels very low, way under 0.25, but did a 50% water change anyway, adding salt to help his tail. After staying with him and playing a while his colour was normal and he was back to his old self, just with a blown tail.
The only thing that changed yesterday was his filter.......it is an aquaflow 100 internal filter, he does go under the uptake but his fins never get sucked in, they just brush against it, plus there is a few inches of sponge before the impellor......however it has a spray bar and I had made a tube from acetate which i placed over the bar to stem the flow to a trickle at the edge of tank. Yesterday I removed it thinking it would be fine and pointed spray bar to back of tank. I am wondering if he got caught in the flow and panicked in the dark? His colour was pale and he did looked shocked and this damage happened in a hour , so it is the only thing I can think of.
Went to bed very depressed and didn't sleep thinking about him. Dreaded getting up this morning, but he is still here and the tail just looks shrivelled at the tips but no more loss. His colour is vibrant and he was begging for breakfast. So none the wiser as to what this could be. Surely not fin rot as it went in an hour and I would have thought his tail would have vanished overnight at that rate. Plus he is no longer shocked and wasn't within a few minutes of getting attention from me last night.
Anyway, will now do maybe 2 x 50% changes a day to keep the water ultra clean and keep with the salt to protect his tail as its now an open invitation to fin rot ! I knew I would curse him by posting about his progress lol Ah well, we battled it once will do it again, he's a fighter and so am I. Just wish I could get him right. I just feel I am having no luck with him, maybe Im just not ready for bettas. My wcmm are great all happy and healthy. He is happy but this tail issue is a struggle, i really thought we had done it and were over the worst, all that lovely regrowth gone in an instant.
EDITED TO ADD:
OMG!!! I just tested his water, its 8am, 10 hours after doing a 50% change with a previous reading of less than 0.25 nitrite and it is now at 5 !!!!!!!! it has never spiked this high. I don't get it, it looks like Im at the nitrite spike of a cycle BUT I have never had levels of ammonia other than traces, never even got to 0.25, so is it possible it just went straight to the nitrite spike!? It has been going around 16 day with a new filter.......anyway done an immediate 90% change, and will monitor every few hours and change as required. great if its cycling but confusing if its not.
Okay done the 90% wc and tested again at 12pm, was at .25 nitirite so did another 70% change, will tests again in a few hours.......kind of looks like im going through the nitrite spike, which is good, means im cycling, but not sure why I never see much ammonia, unless a single betta doesn't produce enough to show more than a trace...........on day 16 so I guess the nitrite makes sense in that way.......
my filter refused to work after wc, unplugged and plugged back in 6 times then it worked, will have to keep an eye on it, cleaned the impeller just in case.......
betta looking vibrant still, no more loss of tail, will keep adding salt per wc and see how he goes.......more wc coming later today me thinks. it is not the water causing the nitrites as the wcmm tank is fine, virtually no notrites. The snail tank spiked at 1 today but their ammonia has been running at 0.75 so would expect that, changing them lots too now.
Checked him last night when I turned his light off, 9pm, all great. Came back into room at 10pm and noticed he was sitting on bottom, very unusual for him, no clamped fins tho.....turned light on to check him and all the new growth on his tail was gone ! It was raggy and his colour was pale, he looked shocked. I immediately checked water, nothing there to cause stress, levels very low, way under 0.25, but did a 50% water change anyway, adding salt to help his tail. After staying with him and playing a while his colour was normal and he was back to his old self, just with a blown tail.
The only thing that changed yesterday was his filter.......it is an aquaflow 100 internal filter, he does go under the uptake but his fins never get sucked in, they just brush against it, plus there is a few inches of sponge before the impellor......however it has a spray bar and I had made a tube from acetate which i placed over the bar to stem the flow to a trickle at the edge of tank. Yesterday I removed it thinking it would be fine and pointed spray bar to back of tank. I am wondering if he got caught in the flow and panicked in the dark? His colour was pale and he did looked shocked and this damage happened in a hour , so it is the only thing I can think of.
Went to bed very depressed and didn't sleep thinking about him. Dreaded getting up this morning, but he is still here and the tail just looks shrivelled at the tips but no more loss. His colour is vibrant and he was begging for breakfast. So none the wiser as to what this could be. Surely not fin rot as it went in an hour and I would have thought his tail would have vanished overnight at that rate. Plus he is no longer shocked and wasn't within a few minutes of getting attention from me last night.
Anyway, will now do maybe 2 x 50% changes a day to keep the water ultra clean and keep with the salt to protect his tail as its now an open invitation to fin rot ! I knew I would curse him by posting about his progress lol Ah well, we battled it once will do it again, he's a fighter and so am I. Just wish I could get him right. I just feel I am having no luck with him, maybe Im just not ready for bettas. My wcmm are great all happy and healthy. He is happy but this tail issue is a struggle, i really thought we had done it and were over the worst, all that lovely regrowth gone in an instant.
EDITED TO ADD:
OMG!!! I just tested his water, its 8am, 10 hours after doing a 50% change with a previous reading of less than 0.25 nitrite and it is now at 5 !!!!!!!! it has never spiked this high. I don't get it, it looks like Im at the nitrite spike of a cycle BUT I have never had levels of ammonia other than traces, never even got to 0.25, so is it possible it just went straight to the nitrite spike!? It has been going around 16 day with a new filter.......anyway done an immediate 90% change, and will monitor every few hours and change as required. great if its cycling but confusing if its not.
Okay done the 90% wc and tested again at 12pm, was at .25 nitirite so did another 70% change, will tests again in a few hours.......kind of looks like im going through the nitrite spike, which is good, means im cycling, but not sure why I never see much ammonia, unless a single betta doesn't produce enough to show more than a trace...........on day 16 so I guess the nitrite makes sense in that way.......
my filter refused to work after wc, unplugged and plugged back in 6 times then it worked, will have to keep an eye on it, cleaned the impeller just in case.......
betta looking vibrant still, no more loss of tail, will keep adding salt per wc and see how he goes.......more wc coming later today me thinks. it is not the water causing the nitrites as the wcmm tank is fine, virtually no notrites. The snail tank spiked at 1 today but their ammonia has been running at 0.75 so would expect that, changing them lots too now.
The bad water quality taking it toll on him.
See hiow he goes with the salt.
Have you posted in the betta section of the forum.
Soak his food in garlic juice to boost his immune system.
See hiow he goes with the salt.
Have you posted in the betta section of the forum.
Soak his food in garlic juice to boost his immune system.
doggiebag
Fish Crazy
Thanks Wilder, will try all your suggestions.....
I am doing frequent water changes today, testing every few hours. Can't seem to get it below around 0.15 nitrite though, will keep going.
Up until today the water tests haven't been that bad, mostly under 0.25 with the odd spike every 4 days or so, he has had at least 50% per day, sometimes twice. None of the other tanks are doing this so I can only guess that it is cycling through the usual nitrite spike, even if there were only trace mounts of ammonia, is this usual? Mind you, it is small tank, 25 litres.......
I have covered the filter intake with some tights just in case it was that, and the customised tube is back on the filter spray bar................does it look like damage, or fin rot to you, it literally happened in an hour and nothing has gone since then. I even wondered if he had bitten it himself as it looked raggedy, but then why the shock? So I can only assume its damage from filter intake or water current, fin rot can't surely take it that fast them stop dead?
I am doing frequent water changes today, testing every few hours. Can't seem to get it below around 0.15 nitrite though, will keep going.
Up until today the water tests haven't been that bad, mostly under 0.25 with the odd spike every 4 days or so, he has had at least 50% per day, sometimes twice. None of the other tanks are doing this so I can only guess that it is cycling through the usual nitrite spike, even if there were only trace mounts of ammonia, is this usual? Mind you, it is small tank, 25 litres.......
I have covered the filter intake with some tights just in case it was that, and the customised tube is back on the filter spray bar................does it look like damage, or fin rot to you, it literally happened in an hour and nothing has gone since then. I even wondered if he had bitten it himself as it looked raggedy, but then why the shock? So I can only assume its damage from filter intake or water current, fin rot can't surely take it that fast them stop dead?
Black edging I think can be ammonia burns that are healing.
Also some meds can knock water stats slightly.
Fins don't heal well in bad water quality as the ammonia burns there skin and gills.
Also some meds can knock water stats slightly.
Fins don't heal well in bad water quality as the ammonia burns there skin and gills.
doggiebag
Fish Crazy
the ammonia barely even registers on the api tests, so it should be okay, his water is changed daily at least once as a matter of course. The bad nitrite spike is harder to control, going crazy, but used prime to see him overnight safely last night, along with 4 water changes yesterday and 3 more today. Im not using Prime as a matter of course, nothing replaces water changes, I just used it to see him safely through the hours I was asleep. He enjoys the water changes thankfully, loves chasing the bubbles along the siphon tube.
His fins certainly haven't lost any more, so that is good, especially as Im only treating him with fresh water and salt, haven't had to resort to meds yet. The ends look okay too only one teeny tiny black edge the rest looks clean. He only lost the new regrowth, nothing else. Hasn't touched any other fins just his tail.
The nitrite spike is scary though. Never listening to LFS again, and never doing a fish-in cycle again.....too stressful for me and fish.
His fins certainly haven't lost any more, so that is good, especially as Im only treating him with fresh water and salt, haven't had to resort to meds yet. The ends look okay too only one teeny tiny black edge the rest looks clean. He only lost the new regrowth, nothing else. Hasn't touched any other fins just his tail.
The nitrite spike is scary though. Never listening to LFS again, and never doing a fish-in cycle again.....too stressful for me and fish.
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