The back story: My betta Sparky is a male veil tail. When I brought him home several months ago, I noticed some blackish edges to his fins. I was concerned that it was fin rot, but after a few weeks in warm, clean water it had mostly cleared up. He was living in a 5.5 gallon, but when my filtered, planted 10 gallon was finished cycling I moved him in there and he seemed to love it. For another few weeks everything seemed to be fine- I was doing 25% water changes every week and ammonia/nitrite levels were at 0 and nitrates were also very low. Then one day I noticed the black edging came back on his tail, and some very dramatic splits appeared. After reading up on this I began giving him salt baths several times a day, and upped the size/frequency of my water changes to 30% twice a week. I thought he was showing some improvement, so when I went out of town for three days I did not ask the person feeding him for me to continue the treatments.
Apparently this was a huge mistake- When I came back, his dorsal fin was more than half way gone! Can the fin rot have progressed this fast?! There was never any black on his dorsal fin, and as I was saying before the black on his tail had been receding. Is it possible he got caught in the filter and tore it off? Anyway, I immediately removed him from the tank and into a 1 gal hospital tank with a dosage of salt and daily 100% water changes. After several days the fin was still worsening and whitish stuff appeared on the edges (not clear like new growth) so I switched to the 5 gal and began Jungle Fungus Clear. That was four days ago and today his fin is looking even smaller so I added the second dose. I am very concerned and want to do everything I can to get him well again. I need to know what my next steps should be and would appreciate any advice.
I read in a sticky about combining tetracycline and fungus clear for advanced cases, which this does seem to be. Would I just do a regular dosage of both, or half and half? Is there something else I should try instead? I feel really terrible that he is in this state :( I thought I was doing everything right but apparently I went wrong somewhere. I will do anything I can to help him get well again and stay that way :(
Edit: some additional details I forgot to mention-
His behavior has not at all changed, still has a great appetite. He eats 2 or 3 pellets every day, and bloodworms every few days as a treat. Aside from his fins, the rest of his appearance has not changed. Since medicating, the black on his tail has receded again, but the dorsal fin is still worsening and has that whitish stuff on the edges.
I have not tested water parameters since adding the medication as I read this can throw off the tests.
Temperature in the current, medicated 5 gallon remains around 76 degrees.
I use Prime to condition the water for all changes.
Currently I have no form of Aeration, and no filter in the tank.
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