Fin Damage

[Candi]

Ok, so our betta is in a 5 gallon tank with a heater and filter. He has a plastic plant (tested with panty hose to make sure it was safe) and a rock cave that is plenty large enough for him to swim through.

So this is the problem. About too weeks ago we notice some damage on his tail fin - we have had him for three weeks at this point with no trouble but thought it may have been the plastic plant. So we removed the plastic plant and the rock and put in some silk plants. Two days later the damage was worse, so we started giving him daily salt baths.

He stopped having fin damage but wasn't healing, and then one morning his fin was really beat up so we decided it couldn't be the plants (and since we took the original plant and rock away he had gotten rather unhappy) so we put back the original set up and continued daily salt bath treatment.

He continued to not improve and after seeing a post about someone with similar symptoms figured he must have fin rot so I got some medication and followed the instructions on the bottle - continuing daily salt baths. His tail fin healed and now, today (three days after the medication was stopped as per instructions on the bottle) his tail fin is again missing a large piece, and his bottom fin is now also damaged in the same way (previously was undamaged).

Not sure what to do. Should I start the fin rot medication again or increase salt bath frequency (it's hard because he hides when we try to transfer him into another container).

Any advice would be great, thank you.

[dr2b]

I had a problem with my betta getting his tail fin caught on the filter intake tube. I had to remove him from the tank until it began to heal, put some foam in the intake tube to drag the current down (or you can do panty hose), and do salt baths to heal him. His tail is close to being back to normal.

[Candi]

Our filter intake is below the rocks, and when we first took the plants out when I changed the water I put my hand against the rocks with the filter on to see if I could feel it and I couldn't feel anything (the filter really only aerates the water, we still have to clean the tank regularly).