Betta Fish Forum banner

Fin Rot as normal.

687 views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Myates 
#1 ·
Housing
What size is your tank? 10 Gal
What temperature is your tank? 78-80 Degree's
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
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Pleco, Mollie, Black Mystery Snail

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? 3 crushed Tetra Betta pellets, plus a few fish flakes for the other fish. Fast 1 a week
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once, and Twice alternating, fast Thursday

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly/Monthly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 33% Weekly 100% Monthly
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Stress Coat/Conditioner

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

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
pH:7.0
Hardness: 75 (GH)
Alkalinity: 120

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Tail Rot
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Staying more towards the top of the tank, hiding in the bamboo leafs.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? He's had tail rot, since I got him, he had a case of tail biting when he had ick, but more tail is gone.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Yes/No I stress coat his water. Thinking about salting him for a while after tomorrow.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Tail rot, and Ick, Fin Biting.
How old is your fish (approximately)? Walmart rescue, Mature though.

I've had a pretty rough time with him, and his tail. Since I got the other Betta who is in perfect health, and my little girl is in perfect health. I just feel bad seeing his with out the larger tail he used to have. Makes me feel bad.

I don't know if theres something I am doing wrong or anything, Whenever I salt him, I put 1 table spoon of water in 1 gal, then I move him into the water, I keep the temps the same, if not a 1 degree difference. Usually let him be for 30 minutes then move him back into his tank.

When he had ick, I did dump 10 tps into the tank and let him sit in it, the fin rot, ick, and tail biting stopped. Granted I only did 50% W/C daily. Then after the ick I boiled everything.

The only thing I changed before the rot got worse, was I had another mollie, and 4 black skirt tetra's in the tank. He got along with those well, and his tail was still growing back at that time.
 
See less See more
#3 ·
When I use salt for treatment

I use 1 tsp = 1 teaspoon kosher salt / gallon water.


  • 2 (tsp) teaspoons = 1 (tbsp) tablespoon.

I'm not sure if you're using tsp or tbsp measurements

If you've treating for injuries or fin rot dipping them in salt water for 30 minutes isn't going to do much.

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to leave the betta in the dissolved salt water solution until you see a improvement.

I can't tell if the ratio you're using is too high or not.

Also if you're treating with AQ salt for more than 10 days. You have to give the betta time to flush that salt they've accumulated out of their body & that recovery time, is roughly 2 weeks or more.

My girl who got caught in a decoration was being treated for about 8 days in 1tsp k salt water.

After removing her, I gave 2 more days of k salt water treatment before I stopped. Now she's in regular conditioned water.

Try to take a picture of your betta every day so you can sort of monitor the progress of his fins.

Check your spelling whenever you're typing out measurements.
 
#4 ·
You should not have a molly or a pleco in a 10 gallon tank unfortunately. If it is a common pleco you are going to need a very big tank as they grow to/over a foot long and are massive waste producers. Your molly also needs very alkaline/brackish water which is at odds with the needs of your pleco and betta.

I would take a gander and say you are seeing fin rot because of your ammonia reading. Anything over 0ppm can be harmful to fish and a constant reading of .25ppm or above is definitely enough to cause fin rot. You need to up your water changes until you are getting a consistent reading of 0ppm. Otherwise you will continue running into problems with your betta's health.

Also I'm not sure if plecos are sensitive to salt or not so I would check on that before adding any.
 
#5 ·
You would want to use a hospital tank with the AQ salt, only for the fact that you will be doing daily 100% water changes, along with making sure he is out of the salt in 10 days..

Another tip is you don't want to be doing the 100% monthly, high risk as resetting any cycle you have going. Which will cause all sorts of chemistry spikes (which most likely is happening), and that in turn can easily kill your fish.

Best bet for you right now is to remove your betta if you decide to use AQ salt- without pictures we can't be sure he has fin rot and not a case of more biting.

Being in salt for an hour does nothing for him.. he has to be in it constantly for no longer then 10 days.
I really hope you have done all you can to remove the salt from the home tank- that's just a death sentence for them at this point.

Highly suggest returning the pleco and molly and picking up some platies or swordtails that are friendly and can live just fine in a 10 gallon community.

A pleco, snail, mollies and blackskirts with a betta is just asking for trouble- plecos need large tanks, mollies need brackish, blackskirts are tetras and notorious for going after a betta's fins. If you wish, there is a compatibility section on the forums that can help you find the right fish to complement the betta and your tank size so you can avoid health issues.

For now I highly suggest doing 50% water changes per week on your home tank, make sure to vacuum each week (vacuum to get the 50% out..).. no more 100%s.
Once you get your tank stocked properly you can look into some of those very easy plants that don't need the high lights, nor proper substrate- they will help keep the tank clean and the chemistry on a good level.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top