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Odd finrot

937 views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  baylee767 
#1 · (Edited)
I haven't been on here in awhile (Got so addicted to anime that whenever I went on my computer all I could do was watch it) But my betta (Who, despite owning for a few months now I haven't been inspired to name) Has an odd case of fin rot.

Housing
What size is your tank? 3 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 78 degrees
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an airstone or other type of aeration? yes
Is your tank heated? no
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? daily, fast once a day, 1 pellet a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? daily
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? aquasafe

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

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? the fin tips are the color of fin re-growth (white/clear) they used to be a grayish brownish color until a treatment for his fin rot I did a little while ago, but the base of his fins, and some of the fins themselves are a grayish brown color

How has your betta fish's behavior changed? It hasn't

When did you start noticing the symptoms? A few months ago

Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? yes, for 10 days I gave him 1 tsp/gallon of aquarium salt in his tank with daily 100% water changes (finished that treatment a week ago and then his fin tips became white but the rest of his fin stayed the same color) I moved him to a 3 gallon tank the other day and have been changing the water daily since (he was in a 2 gallon before)

Does your fish have any history of being ill? not that I know of

How old is your fish (approximately)? I don't know, but I got him 2 or 3 months ago

Or, to sum it up, he was in a 2 gallon tank and I didn't do water changes for a week. I eventually got around to treating him, but only his fin tips changed to blue and white of fin re-growth. the base of his fins is still the same color of fin rot. I've been giving him daily water changes since.

I took some photos (for some reason my camera wouldn't focus on the betta, it just focused on the plants, so the details not too great) What's going on with his fins? And how do I treat it?


EDIT: Got a much clearer photo

 
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#3 ·
Have you tried de-worming/treating him for internal parasites? In the more recent photos he looks to have dropped in condition, and his colouring is much duller.

I had a betta who looked similar to that and I ended up treating him with a levamisole-based wormer and the recovery was remarkable.

It would now be one of my first courses of action if you've ruled out issues with your water quality.

However with that said, I notice you only feed him one pellet a day. This doesn't seem like it is going to provide him with enough energy and nutrients. Depending on the size of your pellets (I use 1mm) I would bump this up to at least 3-4 a day.

Unless of course you mean you feed him pellets once a day.
 
#4 ·
I only fed him 1 pellet a day because his stomach gets big after that, but I never even thought about the nutrition. You're probably right about that... He occasionally gets frozen (not dried) blood worms, so he isn't starved of nutrition, but adding another pellet or two a day would be a good idea, you think? I'll try that.

Also, about the de-worming thing, I once gave him a treatment of hikari anti parasite pellets because his poop looked kind of suspicious and since his stomach swells up with only 1 pellet of food. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have anything due to that... But do you think it's still possible he has something? If so I'll have to buy some kind of new treatment method since that would mean the pellets didn't work. Thanks for answering!
 
#5 ·
Unless you are giving him cichlid-sized pellets, he shouldn't be bloating up after one pellet. It could be a sign that something isn't quite right in there.

I'd definitely do another anti-parasite treatment. I think there's one called Jungle Labs Parasite Clear over there that seems to be the recommended course of action when dealing with internal parasites.

It can't hurt, and if it is parasites, it's better to deal with it now rather than later.
 
#6 ·
Jungle Labs Parasite Clear
You can find it at walmart but they are fizzy tabs that are about the size of a quarter and its designed for a 10 gallon tank. They break kinda easy but I did notice that if one wasn't used right away and it had access to air, I will not fizz up if you put it in water. I had to store the one i broke apart in a zip lock bag and squeeze the air out of it.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Okay, I'll give him another treatment round. It's possible I missed a day or maybe a few and don't remember since it was long ago. Then I'll give him 3 pellets a day after that, and daily water changes, and he should likely go back to normal? I understand that Once a betta gets fin rot like he did they wont ever look exactly the same, but he should get to a better state at least.

And I'll probably order the fizz tabs since from what I can tell it works faster than the jungle/hikari pellets... And break them into pieces about 1/4 the size of a full sized tab...
 
#8 · (Edited)
Daily water changes for his treatment only. Doing daily water changes in a 3gal on a normal basis can actually harm him over helping him.. but definitely daily during treatment. I would recommend only 1 50% and 1 100% per week max.
You can have a too clean environment-you have both good and bad pathogens in the tank-by exposing the fish to all the different pathogens enable to fish to develop antibodies- that in turns helps build a strong immune response and limits stress due to too many water changes...its a balance of sorts.....healthy fish need be exposed to pathogens but at the same time maintaining water quality.....make sense......too clean and sterile like environment is not healthy.......
It could be internal parasite, but honestly, the last photo.. is a fish that is starving (could be due to parasites as well). 3-4 pellets a day spread out throughout the day (1 for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, etc), frozen food in place of a meal every couple of days will improve his health tremendously. 1 pellet is basically giving him bare nutrition just to survive on, but he isn't healthy enough to fight anything off.. that and the over doing it water changes has lowered his resistances and such. So start feeding him more, but slowly. Up it to 2 pellets a day, and in a few days to 3, etc. Don't want to shock his system with too much food.

As for fin rot.. looks more like he is fin biting. Hard to see if there is any black edging that is fraying, shredding and cottony. The base it looks as if it is his coloring.. bettas can and will change their colors from time to time, either from age, stress or water quality.
 
#10 ·
Speaking of finrot! I can't get a good picture, he won't hold still but I've recently noticed that Peta's tail fin has black edges when the rest of him is red. It's just the end one, the others all look fine. It also looks a little ragged, I don't recall noticing it when I first brought him home three weeks ago but I don't know if it's considered finrot? He lives in a 1.5 gallon tank with a heater and a filter that I run occasionally. He gets a 50%-75% water change every week (rocks and plants get a good rinsing as well). His behavior hasn't changed at all, infact he has two bubble nests on each side of the tank and he has a healthy appetite. He gets fed 2 meals a day of pellets and once or twice I'll give him a little bit of freeze dried shrimp.Water I use is bottled spring water with a betta conditioner added. Are black and tatty edges normal for a fish who overall seems perfectly healthy?
 
#11 ·
He seems to be doing better. Yesterday his belly swelled up like he had eaten a pea after his second pellet, but today it's just swelling slightly. He isn't really pooping, but his stomach swelling is going down, going from pea sized to regular betta size in a few hours. My guess is that he's absorbing enough nutrients that at the moment he doesn't need to poop? Aside from that, his color is (I think) slightly better. I'll post a pic later.
 
#12 ·


So, how do does he look? (His fins aren't that tattered, he was just turning at that moment) You can't tell in the picture, but the very base of his fins have some tiny clear patches? It's bothering me a bit... Also, you can't tell with the flash, but the bottom of his body (from stomach to tail base) is also turning lighter. He never appeared to be a marble, but do you think that could be it?
 
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