Fin rot or something else?

[chix0r]

Housing
What size is your tank? 3 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 79 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Live java ferns

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Omega One Betta Buffet Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 pellets twice a day, fasting one day a week

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Twice a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Aqueon water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: < .02 ppm
pH: 7.8


I think my betta has fin rot. He keeps getting red spots on his fins, his gills are red on the inside, and his fins look shredded/have slices taken out of them in places. I've been treating him for two months. I take him out of his tank and put him in a hospital tank with 100% water changes. He always looks better after a couple days, and after about a week I put him back in his tank, and a couple days later he has red spots again.

I've tried treating him with Maracyn II and Tetracycline, and the spots just keep coming back. I took out the sand in his tank and put in gravel. I wiped the whole thing down with vinegar. I took off all the leaves on his plants that were brown at all.

What else can I try? Should I just keep him in the hospital tank longer this time? Or could something else be causing the problems?

[registereduser]

OH he is glorious! Looks a lot like my Irving.

So the red spots go away after treatment? Are you sure his fins aren't getting some colors?

[chix0r]

I wish that were the case! They always go away, and then they come back, sometimes even while he's still in the hospital tank. I can clearly see the fins getting eaten away where the red appears. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but his dorsal fin used to be pointed, and now it has a big "V" eaten right out of the center of it.

[registereduser]

wow, maybe it's some kind of parasite or fungus. I hope someone comes along with some different med suggestions. Have you tried just plain aquarium salt or epsom salts?

[chix0r]

I treated him for 7 days with 1 tsp/gal of AQ salt the first time, but I didn't want to overdo it, so I haven't used any since then.

He's acting completely normally otherwise - still eating, not lethargic, no clamped fins.

[TheCheese909]

Do the red spots look like blisters? If so that's normalish, mine get that from time to time and they go away. As far as i know they are from healing rips and tears, i haven't heard of it being lethal or anything yet.

As for the V in his dorsal.. does he flare alot? I have a HM who flared so much he split his dorsal fin in half and the way it healed he's now got a large V shape cut into it.

If you're still worried you're able to do aquarium salt treatments for up to 10 days. I don't think he has fin rot since it doesn't look as though his fins are rotting, they usually turn black and start to fray.

He could be having problems with ammonia, it may be a problem with your water.. The symptoms of possible ammonia poisoning are purple/reddish gills, red streaks across the body, lethargy and bottom sitting. Does he have any of these problems?

[chix0r]

No, they don't look like blisters. It doesn't show up very accurately in pictures, but the edges turn bright red, and it almost looks like he's bleeding. It's terrible.

He does flare a lot. I guess it's possible he flares and rips his fins. But I had him for about 7 months before the red spots started appearing, and he isn't flaring any more than he ever was.

It's happened all over on all of his fins. Sometimes he'll get a hole right in the center of one. And the big chunk on his dorsal fin didn't happen all at once. It started as a little hole on the tip, and it kept getting bigger and bigger. The center vein was even intact for a while, with a big hole around it, and then that got eaten through, too. He was in his hospital tank with 100% water changes the whole time.

I have one of those little suction cup ammonia readers in the tank, and it says the ammonia is at < .02 ppm. His gills are red and the edge of his body near his fins has kind of a pink outline, but that could just be his coloring. He doesn't seem to be lethargic or rest any more than usual.