My wife bought a fish when I was deployed last year, so he is about a year to 2 years old. He came down with fin rot, notice this because he started to lose some of his pectoral fins. So she started to do 100 percent water changes and use 2 tsp of salt per gallon. She started this on Sunday. Well, she got sick on Tuesday, so I thought I would be nice and take care of the fish for her. Except I suffered a bit of a head injury so I have the tendency to forget things. I believe I forgot to add stress coat to the water, but I am not for sure if I actually forgot or not. So I am not for sure if the fish is actually burned or if something else I need to be aware about.
He looks like he has be burned though.
I quickly did a water change once I saw the first red burned (spot?) and made sure to add stress coat this time.
As of right now, I still added 2 tsp of salt for each gallon, and that hasn't seemed to bother him much. He still moves around, goes to the top to breath, and eats. His right pectoral fin has healed in a lot, and his tail fin doesn't look as shaggy as it was on Sunday. So the question is, if I burned him, do I continue with the salt treatment for the fin rot is the salt doesn't seem to bother him? I read to add decaffinated green tea and am actually going to get him some today, that is, if it is actually a burn. If it is something else, then I known I need to get some antibiotics and antifungal meds. I feel really bad, as I am most certain I burned him. Please help!
As of right now
Tank: 5 gallons, five live plants, sand. thermometer
Tank mates: Snail (not in tank at this time, took him out on Sunday due to salt treatment. Snails are more capable of adjusting to a 70 degree enivorment (from what I read), so we felt it would be better to treat fish in tank with heater, since he is tropical
Temperature: 80 degrees.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites and Nitrates: 0
Ph: 7.2
First - THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE & glad you came home. Now for the Betta, looking at the pics I'm not seeing what you are calling burns. Do you know how long the tank has been set up? Salt is not a necissity to treat fin rot but it can help, I typically just use fresh, clean, temp matched, Prime water conditioner water. If he does have burns the frequent water changes should be sufficient to help heal them up.
First - THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE & glad you came home. Now for the Betta, looking at the pics I'm not seeing what you are calling burns. Do you know how long the tank has been set up? Salt is not a necissity to treat fin rot but it can help, I typically just use fresh, clean, temp matched, Prime water conditioner water. If he does have burns the frequent water changes should be sufficient to help heal them up.
We've had the tank set up for over a year. Changed the rocks to sand two months ago, and added two new plants four and a half weeks ago.
When he came down with fin rot, we figure just use aquarium salt for ten days to see if that worked before we started any type of antibiotics. So we were doing a hundred percent water changes starting last Sunday. Tuesday is when I changed it, but then he got red spots that weren't open or bleeding on his back area. Immediately did another water change, this time really making sure I used stress coat. He still has the red spots, they look like tiger strips going from top to bottom and around his face. Wife changed the water (100 percent) yesterday, and since he still had a bit of fin rot on his disoral and left pectoral (some of the right had healed up, and more looks like it has healed today) she decided that since the salt treatment didn't hurt him on Tuesday after the mistake, to continue it. She was worried that with his new condition, if he lost any more fin growth that he would be to stress and weak to try and swim to the top.
She's not for sure what happened, I did tell her that it was probably my fault, amd odds are I forgot the stress coat. She was the one to suggest ammonia burns since it appeared very suddenly (within five minutes) and all over. She also suggest this form. Since I felt responible, I decided to post to make sure what we think is true, and if we should get antibiotics or just use green tea.
The fish is suppose to be all navy blue. What looks like white spotted markings is actually a light red color and wasn't there until Tuesday.
If I do water changes, should I continue the 100 percent daily until the fin rot is completely healed, or cut back to 25 or 50 percent changes to not stress him out until the markings are gone? Once the fin rot is gone, if I am doing 100 percent, should I continue that until the spots are gone?
Did you make sure to dissove the salt in water before adding it? I do know I sometimes might forget myself, but to prevent burns, it's best to make sure it's fully dissolved before adding it :)
Do the spots look like missing scales, by any chance?
Yes we dissolve the salt in the five gallon bucket that we use before placing it in the tank. Then we make sure the temperature is back to the temperature that the fish is use to. Because we are afraid that the fish water in the tank we sit him in while we change gets cold, we fill up a 1/4 of what we have orginally in the tank with water from the new tank. Wait a half hour, then fill up with another 1/4 so that he has half old water and half new water, wait another 30 minutes then we add him to the new water.
Did you make sure to dissove the salt in water before adding it? I do know I sometimes might forget myself, but to prevent burns, it's best to make sure it's fully dissolved before adding it :)
Do the spots look like missing scales, by any chance?
Does not look like he is missing scales, there was a severe red mark next to his dorsal fin on tuesday, but its since turn to a lighter color. I still can make out scale shape under that red spot, so its still on the scales alone.
oh! It could be ammonia burns. Have you tested your ammonia levels?
I'm trying to figure out all the things that this could be. If anything, contacting Sakura or OFL could also be beneficial.
Not for sure how to contact people. I'm a bit pf a newbie on forums. At the time this happen, I didn't test, my reaction was get him out of the new water, put him in what I knew was good water (with the snail) and quickly change the water again. Had him on heating pad with snail so that he didn't go from one rapid heat to another and back. When I tested the new water, it was zero, and tested again today it was zero. I used the liquid API master kit to test the water.
Put in green tea bag, he still slighty less active then normal, but he has started blowing bubbles around tea bag. The water hasn't changed green and its been in for 30 minutes. Should I add another one to the one I already have in there? Or should I just have the one? Is it safe to just lay the bag in the tank or should I take it out? If I should take it out, after about how long?
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