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Fin rot, gill damage

1K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  michelleh 
#1 ·
I'm new to Betta Fish care and new to the forum. My children bought a betta a month ago from a pet store. We got some bad advice on caring for him at first, and he ended up getting fin rot and his gills turned purple. I understand that clean water is the best fix, but I am having a heck of a time getting the ammonia levels down. Any advice would be helpful!

Housing
What size is your tank? 2.5 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 72F (usually - I'm having a hard time keeping this stable
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, but the heater is not adjustable. I'm using a timer to try to keep the temperature stable. I know it is a little too low still, but I have been struggling with the heater
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 1 mystery snail

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? we have tetra betta flakes (which he likes) and new life betta pellets (which he does not) i've been trying to switch him to the new life pellets, as i understand they are better - we are on day 3 of him spitting them out and not eating
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day, with one day off during the week

Maintenance

How often do you perform a water change? every other day - just switched to daily because of persistent ammonia problems
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 1 gallon (so, 40%ish?)
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? aqueon betta bowl plus

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

Ammonia: .25 (it was at 1 when i first started testing 2 weeks ago. I've had it down to .25 for over a week, but can't seem to get it to 0)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.2 (?!?)
Hardness: not sure
Alkalinity: not sure

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? fins are tattered. red tips have developed recently. gills are edged in purple
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? his behavior seems fine - he is swimming around and curious - and eats as long as I give him the tetra flakes
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 3 weeks ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? tried Bettafix for a few days, but the bottle said not to change the water, and i didn't feel comfortable with that, since i understand clean water is the best fix. I didn't see any improvement in the 3 days i used it.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? we've only had him for a month
How old is your fish (approximately)? unsure
 
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#2 ·
If its a pre-set heater leave it on so the temp stays stable. I have one I use in my 1g QT tank that keeps the temp right around 78F, the temp goes up a little when the hood is on the tank or I have the light on but I don't unplug the heater unless I'm doing a water change. As for the ammonia, its the snail. A mystery snail has a big bio load & needs 2g per snail. Remove the snail, do a 50% water change, make sure to vac the substrate really well then test the water 24 hrs later to see what the ammonia level is. Are you sure he has/had fin rot? Tattered fins could be from the filter; filters in a small volume of water are typically more trouble than they're worth. What kind of decorations and/or plants are in the tank? Fins could be getting caught on them?
 
#3 ·
If you can afford it, a tank that size can get a 25w adjustable heater. My personal favorite is a Marineland Visitherm.

For a tank that size, even though it is filtered, you still need to do 100% water change a week, as you can see by your test results your tank isn't cycled and maintaining bb in a tank that small is next to impossible. A cycled tank will show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and some nitrates. Yours hasn't even begun to cycle. Since you're struggling with ammonia I would switch your conditioner to Prime which will help with this. Make sure you stick a prefilter sponge on the intake tube of the filter, as bettas can get sucked up into them.. his fins may be a sign he's struggling with it.

It sounds like from his description he's probably struggling with fin rot due to the ammonia levels in the water and high bioload from the snail. I would treat with 100% water changes every other day to every 3 days and add 1 tsp per gallon predissolved aquarium salt for up to 10 days. Adding Stress coat at 1 ml per 1 gal would also help. This treatment would also help if he's biting or the filter has torn them.

Most fish love the NLS but he may not. You can try omega one betta buffet too.
 
#4 ·
Can you post a pic.....as posted, it might be fin damage due to the filter and not rot, however, it can turn to a secondary pretty fast.

What kind of testing product are you using and have you ran a base-line test on your source water to rule that out as the ammonia cause. Be sure and test the source water- with and without the dechlorinater and/or any chemical additives you normally use-this will rule out skewed results.

The purple on the gills-is this on the gill plate or the gill lamellae/gill filamants. If the purple color is the gill lamellae-then it could be high nitrite-but your Betta would be gasping at the surface.

IMO/E-filters are optional for this species-especially the Long fin males in smaller tanks-due to the water movement being a cause of stress and fin damage.

The snail may or may not be the cause of the ammonia-the poop isn't ammonia per se, it will create ammonia as a byproduct as it breaks down.
Since you still have ammonia after a water changes-IMO, its not the snail or the Betta that is the cause-IMO- it is either coming from the source water or a skewed result from either the testing product or additives used.

Since your Betta is overall acting fine and asymptomatic-other than the tattered fins which may be due to water movement. What I would recommend.....Turn off or remove the filter and start a clean water treatment. If you have a Tannin source-either IAL or dried Oak leaf-I would use that too.

Clean water treatment-make 50% water change with vacuum in all areas you can reach without moving anything today. Then make 50% water only for 2 days. Then 50% with vacuum on day 4. Then twice weekly....1-50% water only and 1-100%-unless you have live plants-If you have active growing live plants-don't make the 100%-make 50% twice a week.

Water temp-I would leave the heater on all the time and monitor the temp-Your goal is to maintain a somewhat stable temp in the 76-80F range.
IMO/E-the normal-yet gradual temp changes that occur within the tank at different levels, with lights on/off, day/night are generally tolerated. Its those sudden extreme temp and chemistry changes that can be harmful.

Nutrition-good quality varied diet fed in small frequent meals is best. Once you get him eating the pellets-I would continue the flakes too. Alternate the flakes and pellets and you could even add in blood worms-either freeze dried or frozen and live mosquito larva and other live food if you have access to them. The more varied the better IME....what one food is missing- the other might have.
 
#5 ·
Thanks, everyone. I'll try to snap a pic in a little bit and add it. About 2 weeks ago, I did cover the filter intake with a nylon stocking, to reduce the water flow. Do you think that is sufficient, or should I go ahead and turn the filter off? Does the filter remove ammonia? Will I have a worse problem if I turn it off?

Should I try removing the snail? And if so, what do I do with him? I know he likes it warm, too, and I don't have another heated tank for him.

I can try removing the timer. I have it off just 6 hours a day (3 hours during the night and 3 hours during the day) It is running the other 18. Our house is set to 68 when we're awake, 60 when we're not home or asleep, so the water fluctuations seemed to be pretty drastic before I put the timer on (like, it would go between 72 and 85 degrees during the course of a day). I thought the fluctuation would be worse than having the temp a little low, but maybe not? I'm reducing the amount of time it is off to 4 hours a day to see what that does as a first step.

Oldfishlady - I am using the API liquid test kit. I did test the tap water and there was no ammonia and the ph was 7 or 7.2, but now that I think about, I think I had already added the Betta Bowl Plus. I'll try to test it without any additives.

When you say to add dried oak leaf, is that something you purchase or can I use a dried leaf off my tree in the yard?

Thanks again, everyone, and I'll try to snap a pic shortly.
 
#6 ·
Oh - Shellieca - forgot to mention that we originally had some sort of plastic grass in the tank. I read that this could tear the fish's fins (and maybe that was the start of our troubles?), so I replaced it with a silk plant 2 weeks ago when I realized that we had a problem.
 
#8 ·
I wouldn't add salt with a snail & I would see if you can rehome him or get at least a 5g if you want to keep him. They have big bio load & I really suspect that is going to make it difficult for you to get 0 ammonia in that volume of water. As for the filter, if it has enough BB built up it will process out ammonia BUT if a tank is overstocked the filter may not be able to build up enough BB. You've covered the intake with pantyhose so his fins most likely are not getting damaged by that. You've taken care of plastic plants as well so . . . Good job looks like you've pretty much covered everything you can. At this point a pic, which you said you'd try to post, will help better advise.
 
#9 ·
That is what I use...naturally dried and fallen from the tree Oak leaves. I use about 20 leaves crushed/gal of premixed treatment water. You can't overdose with tannins since it is a natural product.

If you feel you need to treat with salt-I would move him to a small container-Like the small temporary container with lids some Betta are sold in. They are usually small enough to fit inside the heated tank to maintain water temp-Be sure and attach it so it doesn't sink (I use duct tape)

You also will want to premix the treatment water-I use a clean 1gal milk jug. By premixing the treatment water-this gives you more control-as well as providing the proper dosage with partial water changes. IMO/E 100% water changes shouldn't be done with/for treatments in most cases.

Premixed treatment water: Using a 1gal jug of dechlorinated water-Add salt 2-3tsp/gal and the tannin source (20 crushed/gal Oak leaves). Let this steep for at least 30min to allow the tannins to start to release and salt to dissolve. Shake well before use.

Using the premixed treatment water-Make 25% water changes every 15min for 1 hour. This will get him properly acclimated to the new chemistry and start the treatment.
He needs to stay in the small covered QT in the treatment water for the duration of the treatment period of 10 days.

Tomorrow-using the treatment water make 50% daily water changes to complete the treatment duration.
The premixed treatment water should look darker each day. The longer the tannins steep-the more tannins release-the darker the water-the more the Betta will like it.

IMO/E-the best treatment for fin damage...is clean, dechlorinated water, good nutrition and limited stress.

Personally, I would leave the snail...but that is up to you...

Make sure you are rinsing the test tube well between test and anything you use to collect the water for test. Follow the directions to the "T"-especially reading results time line.
 
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