Fin Rot Treatment

[bluebettafish]

I have a few questions regarding fin rot. I believe my betta has it. I came in this morning (I wasn't in my office yesterday) and his fins are frayed (kind of dark and light around the frayed area). He also has a bit of discoloration on the side of his body. Otherwise he looks and acts like any other day. He ate this morning so seems to have good appetite.

I have something at home in case something like this came up. I believe it's bettafix? I forget. I might stop by petco just in case. Any medications that you recommend? I'm going to take him home to nurse him for the next 5 days or so...I'm going out of the country for five days next Friday. Terrible timing!

While he's being treated, I'm guessing I can feed him like usual, right? I will put him in a small bowl at home.

When he is healed and well, do you recommend that I change the water completely in his 3 gallon tank before I put him back? Just to give you some background info, he's in a 3 gallon marineland eclipse 3 with filter and heater.

Not sure why this happened...except for that weird moldy buildup I keep seeing on the suction. I changed water and checked with the strip and the water seemed fine. I also had live plants keep dying on us (probably because it wasn't enough light) and maybe I should have cleaned it up better.

[shealynn]

I found out my betta had fin rot this past wednesday, and since then I have bee using bettafix. From what I can tell it is working, and he seems more active than he did before. You're supposed to do the treatment for 7 days, and then do a complete water change I believe, and if it's still not gone then repeat the treatment.

It was recommended to me however that I give him a salt bath to eliminate it completely, I can get the link for the instructions for one that the person gave me if you would like.

[shealynn]

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=25297

Thats the link for the salt water bath just in case.

[bluebettafish]

Thank you for your speedy reply! I'm scared because I can't do the treatment for 7 days because I have to go out of town. I will talk to my coworkers and see if they can babysit him. I hope I don't lose him while I'm gone.

So far he's active and there's nothing different about him other than his fins getting frayed. I'm actually not sure if it's fin rot now because as I'm typing this he swam through the water buffer!!!! I cut a plastic bottle and put it around the opening to slow down the water. I know he likes to play there... >:( He even went into the hole one day and got into a small space by the biowheel. This might explain why his fins are damaged but he's acting just fine.

I will try to post a picture when I go home.

[bluebettafish]

OK now I know for sure he's sick. I was out for a little bit and now he's completely changed colors. He used to be black/blue but now the black part is grey/purple. he looks like a different betta now.

I gave him a salt bath and is now in a small bowl with bettafix. He's swimming around OK but he looks really bad. I found some fuzzy things at the bottom of the bowl and his fins look a little worse than it did earlier. I don't know what else to do.