Does He Look Like His Tail Is Healing Or Getting Worse?

[fishtanksmomma]

This is my daughter fish "Fishtank." I'm pretty sure he had fin rot when we first got him. If not, it definitely developed at some point. I've bee. treating him for a few weeks now (may 3-4) with daily water changes and about 10 days worth of antitbiotics. I had him in a small quartine tank and planned on doing a fishless cycle of his new, larger tank. However, because I almost killed him with Melafix and Pimafix, I moved him to his uncycled tank and am now doing a fish-in cycle. I hope keeping on top of his water conditions and hopefully completimg this cycle with him alive will keep the fin rot from progressing and eventually heal it completely. I think he's showing some signs of improvement, but I never had a fish before so I'm learning as I go. Any suggestions or words of wisdom are welcomed. Thanks.

This first picture is when we first got him.

The second one is about a month ago. You can see regrowth on his tail.

This 3rd one I took today. His tail looks longer but his top fin (not sure what it's called) seems shorter but also seems to show signs of regrowth.

This fourth one was also taken today. Here you can see the reddish tinge to his tail and fin.

 

[pablothebetta]

I suppose the ends do look a little tatty, but that might just be the regrowth. Regrowth, I'm sure I've read, is often white/translucent type colour which I guess is similar to his natural colourings.

It looks to me like the fins have grown though, when you compare the 'middle section' of the rear fin on the 1st picture to that on the last. He sure is a stunner

 

[KrystaK]

I agree, he look's like he's doing pretty well
His coloring may be Butterfly, which would explain why his regrowth is all white (As the edges of Butterfly Betta fin's are white)
Keep on top of his water changes, that is all important to keeping him healthy

 

[fishtanksmomma]

Thanks. I must be doing something right since I haven't killed him yet. I'm just not sure if he's healing. His tail looks much better but then the top and bottom fins are raggedy. I guess time will tell.

 

[LucyB]

Looks like it is getting better to me... Nice betta!

 

[fishtanksmomma]

I tested his water this morning and got:

Ph: 6.8
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: between 2.0-5.0 ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

I did approximately 75% water change, let it run through the filter for an hour or so and retested. Got this:

ph: 6.8
Ammonia: .25ppm
NitrIte: 2.0 ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

So I just did another 75% water change. Shouldn't I have seen a bigger difference in the numbers? I'm not sure how accurate the NitrIte readings are. That seems to be the one I have most difficulty seeing the differences in color. I'm going to retest again in about 20 minutes. Iam I doing this right?

I agree, he look's like he's doing pretty well
His coloring may be Butterfly, which would explain why his regrowth is all white (As the edges of Butterfly Betta fin's are white)
Keep on top of his water changes, that is all important to keeping him healthy

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Check your tapwater for ammonia, looks like you may have some in there. If so, you need to start using a product like Seachem Prime which is a dechlorinator that temporarily neutralises ammonia to give your filter bacteria time to deal with it without hurting your fish. At those levels your nitrite will be quite hard to get down without very big water changes. Go ahead and remove as much water as you can while still allowing your fish to swim upright and refill with temperature matched dechlorinated water.

Also, out of curiosity, how did you know the melafix/pimafix were hurting him?

 

[fishtanksmomma]

OK thanks. I'm going to test my tap water tonight. It's just a guess about the Melafix & Pimafix. I added the appropriate dose to his tank and within 5 minutes, he was lethargic; laying on his plant and not moving, gasping for air, and pale in color. I never saw him like that before. After about an hour, I thought he was going to die and figured there would be no harm in putting him in his larger uncycled tank. Almost immediately he improved. After 10 minutes he was back to his normal self.

Check your tapwater for ammonia, looks like you may have some in there. If so, you need to start using a product like Seachem Prime which is a dechlorinator that temporarily neutralises ammonia to give your filter bacteria time to deal with it without hurting your fish. At those levels your nitrite will be quite hard to get down without very big water changes. Go ahead and remove as much water as you can while still allowing your fish to swim upright and refill with temperature matched dechlorinated water.

Also, out of curiosity, how did you know the melafix/pimafix were hurting him?

 

[fishtanksmomma]

I just tested my tap water and the ammonia reading was 0.50ppm. The LPS gave me API Stress Coat to pretreat my water. It is supposed to remove ammonia from tap water but I'm going to try the Prime.

I retested the aquarium water and got:

Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: between 0-.25ppm (almost 0 but not quite)
Nitrate: 5.0ppm

After these last tests, I added the appropriate amount of ammonia remover for the tank so I'm hoping that will help.

Check your tapwater for ammonia, looks like you may have some in there. If so, you need to start using a product like Seachem Prime which is a dechlorinator that temporarily neutralises ammonia to give your filter bacteria time to deal with it without hurting your fish. At those levels your nitrite will be quite hard to get down without very big water changes. Go ahead and remove as much water as you can while still allowing your fish to swim upright and refill with temperature matched dechlorinated water.

Also, out of curiosity, how did you know the melafix/pimafix were hurting him?

 

[fishtanksmomma]

Check your tapwater for ammonia, looks like you may have some in there. If so, you need to start using a product like Seachem Prime which is a dechlorinator that temporarily neutralises ammonia to give your filter bacteria time to deal with it without hurting your fish. At those levels your nitrite will be quite hard to get down without very big water changes. Go ahead and remove as much water as you can while still allowing your fish to swim upright and refill with temperature matched dechlorinated water.

Also, out of curiosity, how did you know the melafix/pimafix were hurting him?

One more question. Sorry if this sounds dumb; I don't really understand the science behind the nitrogen cycle. What I read was that the ammonia peaks first then lowers. Ater that the Nitrites will peak and the lower, and finally Nitrates. Since my tap wat already has ammonia in it, will thos help the tank to cycle faster?

Also, I had already pretreated the water for tonights water change with API Stress Coat. Can I add the Prime to it as well or should I add the ammonia remover and use the Prime in the next batch of water I prepare?

Sorry, I know that was two questions.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

lol no worries, I was just curious about the melafix because I've used it on my tank with no problems! Who knows! If you use both at the same time it's best to have an airstone in there to keep the oxygen levels up.

I think you've got it right with the nitrogen cycle, the nitrates don't drop on their own though. They are only reduced by doing water changes (or having lots of live plants helps too). So just to summarise since you're not too sure: Ammonia eating bacteria convert the ammonia into nitrite, nitrite eating bacteria convert nitrite into nitrate, water changes remove nitrate.

Your water having ammonia in it does not speed up the cycle as bacteria only grows at a set rate. The only way to speed it up is to add bacteria (say from filter media from another cycled tank) and make conditions perfect for the bacteria to grow in (by having a pH of 8.0 and keeping the temp at 30 degrees, but you can't do those things with a fish in cycle).

I am not that confident about adding the Prime to your already treated water so to be safe I would say not to add it as well. I know it's safe to slightly overdose on Prime but I have no idea when it comes to mixing dechlorinators. You could just use it next time or make up a fresh batch of water for this time. I know a lot of people think that you need to let water "rest" for a while before adding it to the tank but that's not actually needed as long as you roughly match the water temperature by mixing a little hot water from your tap in the bucket you're using (just use your hand as a guide). A little cooler is absolutely fine (and some fish actually like it!) but try to avoid it being warmer than the tank water. If you are doing a smaller water change (say...maybe less than 40%?) then you can just add cold water from the tap without causing any harm.

This is more info than you asked for but you can always just add the new water to the tank (filter turned off!) and then dose the whole tank with dechlorinator (enough for the whole tank, not just the amount of water changed), wait a couple of minutes and then turn the filter back on. It's a personal preference really, I find it removes a few steps during water changes for me

 

[fishtanksmomma]

lol no worries, I was just curious about the melafix because I've used it on my tank with no problems! Who knows! If you use both at the same time it's best to have an airstone in there to keep the oxygen levels up.

I think you've got it right with the nitrogen cycle, the nitrates don't drop on their own though. They are only reduced by doing water changes (or having lots of live plants helps too). So just to summarise since you're not too sure: Ammonia eating bacteria convert the ammonia into nitrite, nitrite eating bacteria convert nitrite into nitrate, water changes remove nitrate.

Your water having ammonia in it does not speed up the cycle as bacteria only grows at a set rate. The only way to speed it up is to add bacteria (say from filter media from another cycled tank) and make conditions perfect for the bacteria to grow in (by having a pH of 8.0 and keeping the temp at 30 degrees, but you can't do those things with a fish in cycle).

I am not that confident about adding the Prime to your already treated water so to be safe I would say not to add it as well. I know it's safe to slightly overdose on Prime but I have no idea when it comes to mixing dechlorinators. You could just use it next time or make up a fresh batch of water for this time. I know a lot of people think that you need to let water "rest" for a while before adding it to the tank but that's not actually needed as long as you roughly match the water temperature by mixing a little hot water from your tap in the bucket you're using (just use your hand as a guide). A little cooler is absolutely fine (and some fish actually like it!) but try to avoid it being warmer than the tank water. If you are doing a smaller water change (say...maybe less than 40%?) then you can just add cold water from the tap without causing any harm.

This is more info than you asked for but you can always just add the new water to the tank (filter turned off!) and then dose the whole tank with dechlorinator (enough for the whole tank, not just the amount of water changed), wait a couple of minutes and then turn the filter back on. It's a personal preference really, I find it removes a few steps during water changes for me

Thanks so much. I understand the cycling much better now. And the more info the better! This is complex stuff. One more question, if you don't mind. I tested the water today and got:

Ammonia: 0.50ppm
Nitrite: 0.50ppm
Nitrate: 5.0ppm

I did a 95% water change (maybe slightly more) and treated the water with Prime. I retested abou 2 hours later. Everything was down to 0 except the ammonia, which was at 0.25ppm. Shouldn't it have been close to 0? Should I add the ammonia remover to the tank? My tap water tested for ammonia at 0.50ppm prior to treating it.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

It's possible that your test kit was reading the ammonium which is what Prime converts ammonia in to. To test the theory you could add new water to your tank, test it, then add enough Prime to treat the whole tank. Maybe give it a little swirl around and leave a few minutes before switching the filter back on, just to be safe.

 

[fishtanksmomma]

It's possible that your test kit was reading the ammonium which is what Prime converts ammonia in to. To test the theory you could add new water to your tank, test it, then add enough Prime to treat the whole tank. Maybe give it a little swirl around and leave a few minutes before switching the filter back on, just to be safe.

I purchased an active filter online, so Im hoping to speed up the process. In the few short days that I've been testing the tank water and doing water changes twice a day, I've noticed thay his tail seems less red/brown on the ends and the clear regrowth is turning an irridescent opal color. I'm hoping this means he's on the way to a full recovery. His new regrowth seems to curl a tiny bit most on the bottom & top fins. Is that normal?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah the curling does sometimes happen.