Help!! Betta with fin rot!

[gemma9]

Hi all, I am completely new to this forum, but thought I would ask you all for help as I am completely stuck on what to do!

I brought a betta fish (my first time owning one) October last year and mistakenly took the red on his fins as his natural colouration. Eventually I realised that it was fin rot due to the large tears in his fins and ever since have been trying to treat it naturally. I have checked his water parameters every week which have remained consistently as followed: nitrate, nitrite and ammonia all 0 and the pH has remained 7.4 in the tank since I got him (I cycled it for 3 weeks before) and the temperature is kept at 78ºF. I originally thought that the clean water would heal him by itself, however in the last few weeks he has declined and overnight would lose 1/3 of his fin and it is all covered in blood as can be seen in the picture. Since I noticed this I moved him into a hospital tank kept at 78º and have been using aquarium salt with regular water changes and although he has regrowth in his fin, the fin rot keeps returning back more aggressive. I have now completed 3 weeks of high dosage aquarium salt treatments (2tsp per gallon) with 4 days in between but it does not appear to be working! I have heard about antibiotics that can be effective for fin rot but as I live in Australia there are no stores to purchase them from. He is still eating and seems completely normal, but I feel horrible that his fins are in such a bad way.

Sorry that it is such a long post, if anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated! Thanks so much

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Well first I must ask you to stop your salt treatment as it does not help and from what I know is a waste of money.Are there any sharp objects in his tank?(Plastic plants,sharp rocks,sharp wood,etc.)As you said it is "bleeding" so I think sharp objects possibly.

 

[gemma9]

Well first I must ask you to stop your salt treatment as it does not help and from what I know is a waste of money.Are there any sharp objects in his tank?(Plastic plants,sharp rocks,sharp wood,etc.)As you said it is "bleeding" so I think sharp objects possibly.

In his regular tank which he has not been in for a few weeks he had one of the betta suction plants (I think it was the salvia plant by zoo med) however I only kept that in his tank for the first few weeks of getting him and then I removed it after doing more research about what plants I should keep in a betta tank. This could have been the cause of some of the damage to his fins, however it has been a few months now since he has been in contact with any thing sharp. Now in that tank he has a large piece of driftwood with an anubia growing on it. The driftwood has no sharp edges, so I don't think this would be the main concern. In his medical tank he has a plastic leaf (I think it is called a betta hammock) which he loves to rest on. Do you think this could be doing him damage?

I will stop the salt water treatment right away and do water changes to remove the salt from the water, however do you know of any more effective treatments as I do not think that just clean water will now fix it?

 

[NickAu]

I think some of that is due to fin biting.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Yes I would listen to Nick as he knows more about Betta than I.And as for effective treatments I know of none.Possibly melafix but I am not sure on that,

 

[NickAu]

For fin rot I normally recommend lots of clean treated water ( I only use and recommend Easy-Life Filter Medium )

 

[Demeter32]

He doesn't look all that bad but the chunks missing on his anal fin look more due to fin biting as Nick said. Fin rot looks more like the fins are melting away, as for the "blood" that is indeed his coloration IMO.

I'd up his water change schedule to at least two times a week, 50% each time. Forget the salt at this point, if it doesn't seem to be helping at all then stop using it.

 

[gemma9]

Thanks everyone so much for his suggestions. This morning I woke up and he has lost 1/4 of his fin again as can be seen in the photos Do you think this is from him nipping at his tail or is it something else? I am going away for a few days soon and am worried that he will decline in my friends care so want to do everything I can to help and get him on his way to healing before I go away. If you know anything that could help at all, I will do whatever it takes to get him healthy again.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

No,I think Nick is right.That looks like fin biting.

 

[DutchMuch]

Im sorry I didn't see this in your messages, whats your tank size? this could easily affect why he is biting his fins, and what filter are you using?

 

[gemma9]

Im sorry I didn't see this in your messages, whats your tank size? this could easily affect why he is biting his fins, and what filter are you using?

his normal home is a 12 gallon planted aquarium with an aquaone nano flo aquarium filter, however I moved him into a 2 gallon hospital tank to attempt to treat him a few weeks ago. His hospital tank has a heater but no filter so I have been doing daily water changes to maintain the right water parameters.

 

[DutchMuch]

I would put him back in the other tank seeing as it has no other inhabitants im guessing, so a qt or hospital tank in that instance could not really make a difference but without a filter it makes it worse.
I would say move him back

 

[gemma9]

I would put him back in the other tank seeing as it has no other inhabitants im guessing
I would say move him back

That was one of the reasons I moved him out. He was living with 4 neon tetras in his previous tank, which I had before him, and I was worried that if he had fin rot, it would pass onto the tetras so I thought it would be best to remove him. I will move him back in with them again and see how he goes.

 

[DutchMuch]

OH THIS IS WHY DUH
it isn't fin rot then, neons are nipping his fins they are incompatible fish with a betta

 

[gemma9]

I have thought about that, but I have watched them and the neons will always hide away from the betta and leave him be. The one thing I noticed though was that when I moved him into the medical tank, his fins kept getting worse than what I had seen from when he was in his original aquarium. I have another tank which I will jumpstart the cycle for and I will move him into that soon, so hopefully he will recover fine in that tank.