Simple fin rips or worse!? (Info included)

[Hadoken Kitty]

Housing
What size is your tank? 20G
What temperature is your tank? 82*F
Does your tank have a filter? Y
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? N
Is your tank heated? Y
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? RAM Cichlid, Bristlenose Pleco, and Blue Mystery Snail.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Frozen Blood Worms and Frozen Brine Shrimp
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1-2x Daily with one day of fasting per week.

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Conditioner and occasionally a plant booster (but not usually until a day or so after everything is settled).

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

Ammonia: 0.50 ppm
Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm
pH: 7.4
Hardness: N/A
Alkalinity: N/A

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His fins have torn. He has stress stripes now that he is in his hospital tank.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not at all, until he was moved into the 1G hospital tank. Then he began more fidgety, but now he is calm again.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Earlier today. I have been monitoring him all day today.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? He is in an isolated, 1G hospital tank at the moment.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No.
How old is your fish (approximately)? Not sure. Possibly 3.6 months?

I didn't feed him for three days. I tried. I was trying to get him to eat pellets. I started logging it in my journal, but on the second day I gave him one feeding of blood worms, because I was wording about under-feeding him. He hasn't had these tears or anything until I've started trying to get him to eat pellets....

What gets me is that none of the other fish are being affected. No change in color, fins, attitude, or anything. Everyone is acting as they usually do. I think it should be important to add that I've never seen either fish nip at each other. They often swim right next to each other and just sit there, by one another. I don't think that the cichlid did this, but I won't count it out. Though I do think a tear or something would be more probable (based on their constant interactions).

I know that the water levels are funky. I'm about to do a 50% water change. I wanted to get this uploaded and get some help ASAP. I can usually have a clear head about situations unless it's about one of my pets. All I can do is look at his little face and watch him blow bubbles at me, and want to hug his little bowl (and cry that my baby is suffering).

[Hadoken Kitty]

I am treating as if it were fin rot. I am slowly lowering the temperature in the tank to 78*F to decrease bacterial growth and using 1 tsp of aquarium salt (for the 1G).

I'm trying to get myself to lower an anxiety and come to grips...my fish needs me to not freak out....any help would be appreciated, though. If I'm doing this correctly, confirmation would be appreciated also.

[Hadoken Kitty]

I did a 100% water change today. Conditioner and aquarium salt. His caudal fin has a black singed part on the tip of where it is worn, but non of the tears look horrid.

I am really worried about him. I woke up this morning to his dorsal fin being clamped, but then he perked up and now he's spreading them wide open. I'm hoping that he'll get better soon. He hates his 1G...he's so used to his 20G....

I did a master test on the tap water (unconditioned). Came out as follows:

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

Ammonia: 1.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm
pH: ~8.4
Hardness: N/A
Alkalinity: N/A

[Hadoken Kitty]

After looking through his pictures, I can see tears and bits missing that I never noticed before....It's getting wrose. I feel like an idiot because I threw in a fake plant to try and make up for taking him out of the 20G, instead of thinking about it ripping his fin. I removed it as soon as I thought about it. I feel like such a terrible betta mommy....I've become so attatched to him.....he isn't allowed to leave me.

[Hadoken Kitty]

Bump this, please. If there's anything else I need to do, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

[Perseusmom]

Its great you put him in QT and do keep him there till he is better. Sounds like your going what he needs right now, the only thing you might add is some Stress Coat to his water and maybe get a small silk plant for him to rest on. Keep trying to get him to eat the pellets maybe soak them in some garlic juice to temp him to eat them. Is his QT bowl heated ? Keep his water extra clean by doing water changes since clean, warm water will help him to heal and feel better. I hope this helps so keep us updated and best of luck !!!

[Hadoken Kitty]

Yes, the tank is heated. It's a really small disc one that slides under the gravel. It's been staying at about 81*F. I'll try to get some stress coat tomorrow...I don't have any right now...I added a teeny bit more aquarium salt. Ofcourse I took him out first, and I'm acclimating him back into his QT with the extra salt...I'll keep you guys updated....

His coloring is a weird purple and red...but the tips of all of his fins were purple when I bought him, so I couldn't see the rotting until I looked even closer. One of the rays on his dorsal has turned grey, which is why I upped his salt...I really hope this works...

[Hadoken Kitty]

Also, I don't have any Garlic juice, but I'll try to get some. I have a weird allergy with garlic. It makes me sneeze a ton, but if it'll get him to eat something other than blood worms and brine shrimp...

[Luimeril]

that looks more like tail biting than ripping from a fake plant. x: you can see chunks, rather than actual rips, missing in the picture.

[Hadoken Kitty]

I don't know what's going on. When I woke up this morning, I noticed it looks a little worse than last night...

I only have one fake plant in his entire 20G tank, and it is really soft.

I would agree more if I wasn't seeing long gray stripes down his dorsal. You won't see it since it didn't appear until this morning. It's hard to tell without spending extra time staring at him to make sure it isn't his normal coloring. I'm positive he has fin rot, though.

I couldn't get a good pic of him last night. Sorry that one was so bad. He wouldn't stop freaking out. 20G to 1G is a big change for a fish....