Help

[robotsintherain]

About two weeks ago Flare got a rip in his fin and then when it was almost all healed up he ripped a couple more and based on how the rips looked I figured it must have been a certain plant and took it out right away. Then today I saw him like this...

Do you think it's fin rot or something else? And what should I do to help him?
He has a heated, filtered 10 gallon tank that I was doing weekly changes on if that helps. He's also still swimming around but not as much and he hasn't been eating as much.

Thanks in advance

 

[Lyra0727]

It does look like fin rot. I would do a water change.. usually that is what causes it to occur. With clean water your betta should be able to fight the fin rot but if you want you could probably get Melafix for fin rot but I dont know if many would recromend it.

So wait for others opinions just in case since my betta had the same thing and didnt make it.. But I didnt catch it soon enough like you did. Good luck!

 

[robotsintherain]

I just did a water change
Is fin rot usually this fast though? Yesterday his fins looked fine and today... well.
Thanks for the advice

 

[fuzzynicki]

I can't offer any other advice I'm afraid,- I'd just treat for finrot and hope that you've caught it in time. I hope that he will be better again soon. Everything crossed.

 

[robotsintherain]

I checked in on him again and the place where it looks like there is a hole in his fin is just gone now Like this 2 mm or so of space between the two parts of the fin. Just feel awful right now, he's still swimming around but far less than normal and he didn't eat again.

 

[mattbleasby]

Hey mate, Sorry to hear about this, I hope he recovers back to normal as hes a beauty.

Are you treating for fin rot?

Are you upping your water changes. Id do 50% every two days with this. and if it gets worse maybe every day... Not an expert on fin rot though.

Is he alone in his tank or does he have tank mates?

Got any latest pictures for us too look at?

Hope hes better soon mate

 

[Paradise3]

Is he eating his tail? Some betta's tend to do this and I don't know why. It does look like fin rot but water changes should be starting to help by now and if they aren't, I'm wondering if he's eating his tail like betta's tend to sometimes.

Cheers,
Paradise<3!

 

[robotsintherain]

I just did the one water change so far since this is the first day where he looked like this, it was only about 25% though. I havn't treated for fin rot yet since I don't really know which treatment to use, there are so many different suggestions from other sites and I don't know which ones are actually good. He's the only fish in his tank and doesn't have any plants that would have been around other fish. I'll try and get a good picture soon.
I havn't seen him eating his tail yet, it's possible though. But within the day he lost a strip from his fin and this morning it was just a hole in his fin.

Just went and took a couple pictures, he kept swimming away from me though usually he swims towards me

His tail looks the same as the earlier picture.

 

[Randomitity]

He might be rubbing up against things wrong and ruining his fins I had to take out my air stone because of my king betta doing that

 

[loraxchick]

i dont think this is a case of tail biting.
do you see any pinhole sized holes in the fins or are the membranes getting very thin? keep up on the waterchanges and try to feed a couple of frozen bloodworms if you have some.
Finrot can make fairly large chunks of fin go missing overnight. If daily 40% waterchanges dont begin to show improvement in a week, get some meds. Are you in US or UK (or elsewhere) so we can recommend meds if the truly are needed? 90% of finrot can be "cured" with clean water.
keep us posted
cheers

 

[fuzzynicki]

If your not sure which meds to use then ask at your lfs. They should be able to give you the advice you need. You really are better off starting meds asap rather than leaving it until it's too late. Hope you get it sorted soon.

 

[robotsintherain]

There aren't any holes in his fins, but the edges of his fins are kind of thin. I fed him some blood worms and he FINALLY ate something so that is pretty good, he is also still swimming around a decent amount, but still not as much as usual. I live in Canada, if you have any suggestions for meds I can get here that would be great.
Do you think using aquarium salt would help him out at all or just not do much of anything?

Here's an updated picture

He's looking pretty much the same as yesterday, but I'm about to go do a water change, hopefully that will help out a bit.
Oh also I went to the pet store yesterday to get the water checked and everything was fine except for either the nitrate or nitrite was slightly over what it should be.
Just for a comparison of before:

Edit: I just changed about 40%-50% of his water and he's swimming around a bit more than he was before the change. He also flared up at the filter a couple of times after the change which he did pretty often before his fins fell apart. I also realized why my water may not have been as good as it should be, I don't think I had been using the gravel vacuumn properly. Hopefully the conditions can get better now and I will keep up with the water changes for a week so hopefully he will get better
I'll keep you all posted on any changes.

 

[mattbleasby]

Im sure it will all work out mate. I was actually thinking about this erlier while bored at work. Wondering how he was doing. Sad much!

 

[robotsintherain]

I sure hope so, there wasn't too much damage luckily so hopefully he will pull through
No kidding, I was so crushed when I saw him all damaged yesterday I just started crying because I felt like I failed the little guy.

 

[mattbleasby]

Theres nothing wrong with that mate, I have offen been gutted and its ruined my week when i have lost a main fish. There companions in a sense. And you enjoy there little behaviors. The way i see it if you dont get upset if your fish are in trouble or fatal. Then you shouldnt be keeping fish.