Hello 
This gonna be long so bear with me...
I have a butterfly betta who has had fin rot (I believe that's what it is) for about a year. I feel like I have tried everything and I've spent over 500 dollars on meds trying different things as well as completely rebuilding his environment to better suit him etc. I'll start from the beginning I guess.
The problem started after I moved him from a small fish bowl id clean once a week to a larger filtered tank. The tank id moved him to is a top fin escape with an internal filteration system.. the filter cartridges are expensive and mostly useless imo so I got an aquasponge and filter media which was working fine. There were fake plants and ornaments but enough space for him to swim.. he'd typically rest on the filter intake or in his house.
A few weeks later the fin nipping started and I'm assuming he got infected at that time. I have tried a lot of things to cure, kanaplex, colloidal silver 1110 ppm, melafix, maracyn and maracyn 2, fungal api, bacterial api, tannins/almondleaves for immunity, ich api, daily waterchanges(25% to 50%).
Since none of that worked, I wondered if it had something to do with his environment so I've since filled it with live plants (after cycling it, for the record his tank has always been cycled) with the addition of snails for algae because there are some diatoms. He has a lot more resting areas With little to now flow, which I thought may have been bothering him due to the space in the other setup, but alas, the rot is somehow worse.
PARAMETERS:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: under 20 ppm
Kh: 180
Gh: 30
Ph: 8
TANK DETAILS:
5 gallon Top Fin Escape
Filtration - bubble filter with air stone and internal aquaspongue and bio media
Heater - 78 F
Live plants: 2 anubias petite, anubias bartari, the octopus grass plant (can't remember the name lol), moneywart, 2 Amazon swords
Fertilizer: (all by aquarium Co op; liquid dosage for 5 gal twice a week)
root tabs
ez iron
liquid green fertilizer
Water changes:
They've fluctuated with my worry lol but rn since his disease has been bad I've been doing 25% everyday for a week
Before I did 50% twice a week
Tank mates: 4 nerites (I know it's too many lol but I ordered 1 and they sent me 4, been supplementing with calcium block and algae wafers, they don't have anything wrong with em, they eat diatoms off the drift wood everyday)
Feeding:
One last detail, my betta has also been skinny his whole life. I've wondered if he's had a parasite? I feed him 5 omega one pellets twice a day and occasional blood worms. (I make sure he eats it)
So thats it, not sure whats wrong with him. I'm not sure how to treat him for this. He doesn't appear to be nipping his fins still. I've had some regrowth and then some rot in other areas. His dorsal is getting closer to his body and its freaking me out, but idk what to do.
Any help is appreciated
Sorry for bad photo quality my good camera is not working rn
This gonna be long so bear with me...
I have a butterfly betta who has had fin rot (I believe that's what it is) for about a year. I feel like I have tried everything and I've spent over 500 dollars on meds trying different things as well as completely rebuilding his environment to better suit him etc. I'll start from the beginning I guess.
The problem started after I moved him from a small fish bowl id clean once a week to a larger filtered tank. The tank id moved him to is a top fin escape with an internal filteration system.. the filter cartridges are expensive and mostly useless imo so I got an aquasponge and filter media which was working fine. There were fake plants and ornaments but enough space for him to swim.. he'd typically rest on the filter intake or in his house.
A few weeks later the fin nipping started and I'm assuming he got infected at that time. I have tried a lot of things to cure, kanaplex, colloidal silver 1110 ppm, melafix, maracyn and maracyn 2, fungal api, bacterial api, tannins/almondleaves for immunity, ich api, daily waterchanges(25% to 50%).
Since none of that worked, I wondered if it had something to do with his environment so I've since filled it with live plants (after cycling it, for the record his tank has always been cycled) with the addition of snails for algae because there are some diatoms. He has a lot more resting areas With little to now flow, which I thought may have been bothering him due to the space in the other setup, but alas, the rot is somehow worse.
PARAMETERS:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: under 20 ppm
Kh: 180
Gh: 30
Ph: 8
TANK DETAILS:
5 gallon Top Fin Escape
Filtration - bubble filter with air stone and internal aquaspongue and bio media
Heater - 78 F
Live plants: 2 anubias petite, anubias bartari, the octopus grass plant (can't remember the name lol), moneywart, 2 Amazon swords
Fertilizer: (all by aquarium Co op; liquid dosage for 5 gal twice a week)
root tabs
ez iron
liquid green fertilizer
Water changes:
They've fluctuated with my worry lol but rn since his disease has been bad I've been doing 25% everyday for a week
Before I did 50% twice a week
Tank mates: 4 nerites (I know it's too many lol but I ordered 1 and they sent me 4, been supplementing with calcium block and algae wafers, they don't have anything wrong with em, they eat diatoms off the drift wood everyday)
Feeding:
One last detail, my betta has also been skinny his whole life. I've wondered if he's had a parasite? I feed him 5 omega one pellets twice a day and occasional blood worms. (I make sure he eats it)
So thats it, not sure whats wrong with him. I'm not sure how to treat him for this. He doesn't appear to be nipping his fins still. I've had some regrowth and then some rot in other areas. His dorsal is getting closer to his body and its freaking me out, but idk what to do.
Any help is appreciated
Sorry for bad photo quality my good camera is not working rn
