Sick Betta!

[lordofthesea]

help!

my betta has omething wrong with his tail! what is it and how do i treat it!?
here's three pics of his tail
there used to be some shrimps in there, but i moved them because they were ripping his tail. it wasn't as bad as this though!!!!

stats:
tank is 20l
ammonia and nitrite 0 (also, just done a water change)
eating is fine.
tank is 25degrees.


WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO I TREAT IT!!!!

p.s. i've got melafix, pimafix and myxazin that i can treat the tank with.

 

[CeeJayy]

Are there any other tankmates in with him?
Any sharp decor, plastic plants in his tank?
What filter do you have, is it strong for the betta?

A photo of the tank could help, then we could see if theres anything that could be causing this..

His temperature could do by going up to 26.

 

[lordofthesea]

no strong current, no tankmates and nothing sharp. wilder in the trop. emergency forum reckons it's finrot. how long would his fins take to heal if this is the case?

 

[CherryDanio]

If it is finrot you need to treat it with a medication to stop it before it will heal. I think melafix treats bacterial finrot (don't quote me on that, check the bottle first) but you should only give very small doses of it to Bettas (I recently asked about it on here myself). It's also really important to keep everything really clean as you have been doing. I'm afraid I don't know how long it will take to heal completely.

 

[Honeythorn]

Melafix does not treat fin rot, it heals fins after finrot has been cleared.

Myaxzin by a company called Waterlife is what you need to get rid of fin rot. It works very well indeed in my experience.

After the finrot has completely gone, you simply keep the water very clean for around 1 week, use some carbon in the filter to get rid of any traces of medication, then take the carbon out and start using Melafix to help heal the damaged fins.

His fins may not grow back to perfect shape as they were before, but they will definitely grow back.


25 degrees is not warm enough for a betta by the way. It should be 27-29 degrees on average.


How often do you do water changes, and how much water do you take out when doing so ?


I'd also check he hasn't had his fins sucked into the filter intake. You can solve this by ziptying some very fine mesh over the intake, so that water and waste can flow through, but his fins cannot.

 

[lordofthesea]

how do i know when the finrot is gone?

How long does it take for the fins to grow back?

 

[Honeythorn]

When any black edging has completely gone ( and stayed gone ) and the fins stop shrinking/disintergrating.

I can't give you an exact timeframe for fin regrowth as there isn't one. It simply takes as long as it takes. All fish are different and it does of course depend on how bad the fin rot was. If it was a severe case and the fish had very little finnage left, then regrowth will obviuosly take much longer than if it were a mild case with only a bit of damage.

 

[lordofthesea]

well, most of the fin rays are still there - see the pic - any other ideas?

 

[backtotropical]

I agree that its probably finrot. Try Waterlife Myxazin as Honeythorn suggests.

I've always found Waterlife meds to be very good. They're the ones I always recommend.

BTT

 

[lordofthesea]

just a thought.

with the fin rays still there, wouldn't they rot away making the problem worse?

 

[backtotropical]

Once the finrot is cured, the fin rays won't rot anymore. The fin will eventually heal and be normal again.

 

[Amunet]

Well he looks like he's a gorgeous little guy!

How often are you doing water changes? If not very often, or if filtration is bad, OR if not cleaning well enough, could be due to poor water quality.
So I'd def do a water change. Maybe a few a few days in a row.

 

[loraxchick]

^^^ i second this. your water can never be too clean with finrot.