how long does it take...

[Ezzie]

For a fish with finrot to start showing some signs of regrowth?

Partrick has finrot and for the last 4-5 days i have been treating this with 50% water changes every two days (im fairly time consumed with work) with AQ salts and stress coat as well as a 100% full clean (the rocks, tank and plants too) and redosed with AQ salts and stress coat however im not seeing any signs of regrowth on the fins (no white edging)

How long does it usually take for fins to start to show some signs of healing?

Should i be bumping this up to 50% a day? (its more complicated because my tap water is reading as .25ppm of ammonia)

Here is the origional post (with pictures): http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=123938

[Laki]

How big is the hospital tank he is in?
When my fish get sick, they go to a .5 g hospital tank. For aquarium salt I would definitely clean 100% daily for a maximum of 10 days.
It can depend on the fish as well. My old VT Lakitu used to bite every time new growth appeared. My current VT Lude does not bite anymore. He bit months ago (before dividing the tank) and it took maybe close to a week to start re-growth. After that, as long as water is kept clean and warm, the length grows daily. Lude's tail is completely grown back in now but the color did not return. Lakitu's did so hopefully your fish's color will come back in regrowth :)

Patience is key with it.

[Ezzie]

He is in his regular tank, which is 3gal. I do have a smaller plastic critter keeper but its housing some crickets that i feed to my other animals.
Should i use the critter keeper instead? It would certainly make cleaning easier.

I up the cleaning to 100% daily then, and a 100% with full cleaning of everything in the tank itself. Progress seems slow with him but at least he has brightened up in colour since adding the salts!

[Ezzie]

I also dont know if my heater will fit into the smaller tank :S i can try and see though.

[callistra]

Hey again. The 3 gallons is fine. I would not put them in a half gallon for fin rot because ammonia builds too fast and it's hard to regrow fins when you're seeing traces of ammonia... Are you using Prime or AmQuel Plus for the tap ammonia?

Is it at least no longer regressing? Sometimes salt isn't effective. If the rot does not appear to be at least controlled by a week I would consider an antibiotic instead. I like Kanaplex by Seachem - 2 week treatment or Maracyn Plus or Furan 2.

[Ezzie]

This is his fins taken just now, is that the white edging that happens when it's healing or..? It was taken with flash

[callistra]

That's more rot... it's getting close to his body now.. I would switch to actual antibiotics and discontinue aq. Do 100% change to remove the aq and try to find Kanaplex by Seachem, or Maracyn Plus or Furan 2 by API.

[Ezzie]

-sigh- this fish will be the death of me i swear. NO ONE else has problems but him! ugh! I
m starting to suspect its something in his tank making his water bad because i tested my other fighters tanks and he was .0ppm, maybe a TINY bit over that, same water treatment and all. I
dont understand how one tank can be so high and have a thousand problems when the others hardly bring up a reading with the test!!?

It also seems the more i mess with the water the more his fins are getting worse... Ill have a look today for the things you menctioned..

[Ezzie]

Also, the rot on his top fin and bottom fin as far as i can see havnt gotten any worse, just his tail, could he bitten it and thats taken more chunks out?

[callistra]

The graying is pure rot. Sorry. He may be biting but you got yourself a good infection going too.