Extreme Case of Fin Rot - Suggestions please!

[Beverllee]

I purchased a half moon betta from Petsmart back in October. In November i noticed a slit in his tail. In a few days his fins appeared to be falling off rapidly. So far his tail was the only fin affected but a few days ago I noticed his lower fin beginning to deteriorate.

He is housed alone in a 10 gallon aquarium with a filter, heater (set to 79 degrees). There are live plants but no decorations (I took them out as I did not want to risk any more tears).

I have treated him with Maracyn 2 - which had no effect. I then started using jungle fungus tabs. I went through one treatment and then began to see fin regrowth. However, about a week later i noticed that his fins were getting worse again. I did another treatment of jungle fungus - and this time I noticed he was getting worse during the treatment. I have been doing water changes throughout.

I am not sure what else I can do...He is getting worse by the day. DOes anyone have any suggestions?

[Beverllee]

Housing
What size is your tank? 10 gallon
What temperature is your tank? (79 F)
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? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? omega one Betta buffet pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day, 4 pellets

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 75-100
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? API tap water conditioner

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

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH:7.2-7-6
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Fins a ragged especially the tail
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? he is extremely active and seems happy
When did you start noticing the symptoms? November
Have you started treating your fish? If so,how? Maracyn 2, Jungul Fungus tabs
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1-2 years

[Sagat]

This is what fishehgobloop suggested to me when I had a betta with fin rot:

Originally Posted by Fishehgobloop

I would start with daily water changes adding in Aquarium Salt (I believe it's 1 teaspoon dissolved in warm water and added to the tank before the fish, make sure you let it sit so the temp is evened out), and some Stress Coat (API makes a great Stress Coat/water conditioner you can pick up a bottle for $5-$10 at a local Petsmart or PetCo).

...start with the fresh water and the stress coat and salt and wait a few days and see how he looks. If he gets worse, you may have to medicate him. Mardel makes some good medicinal products, as well as API. Maracyn-two I think would be your best bet.

Remember to only give partial doses according to your tank (which is likely to be a .5 gallon or a 1 gallon, as you said). But you can probably hold off on the medication until you see whether he gets better or worse with the proper water changes and some stress coat and AQ salt

Unfortunately, that was with the fish in a 1g tank. I'm not quite sure what changes when you're treating a fish in a 10g tank.

Hopefully that helps. (Here's the thread I learned about treating fin rot):
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=124055

[AyalaCookiejar]

Can you include a picture? I'm not sure but this does not sound like normal fin rot if its progressing that rapidly... I know some bacterial infections cause fin rot and they are fast moving. I would PM Sakura8 and Callistra and ask them to look at this thread. They are more knowledgable than I am.

Sometimes when doing treatment it helps to float them in a QT tank to make water changes easier.

[LittleBlueFishlets]

Which Jungle Fungus product did you use? There is Fungus Clear and Fungus Guard.

They contain different ingredients, and do different things. For fin rot, the *Fungus CLEAR* is the better product. Fin rot is often caused by gram negative bacteria, which *Fungus CLEAR* treats (but Guard does not).

Jungle Fungus CLEAR contains Nitrofurazone and Furazolidone. These are both effective against a wide range of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. (API's Furan 2 contains the same two active ingredients, and their label states the amount of each. Jungle's Clear product doesn't list the quantities, though.)

(Jungle Fungus Guard contains sodium chloride, potassium chloride, triethyelene glycol, EDTA, methylene blue, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, and nitromersol acriflavine. It is not an antibiotic.)

Maracyn 2 contains Minocycline, which treats gram negative bacterial infections. But you said this wasn't effective.

Also, did you remove the filter while treating? The filter absorbs medications.

[Beverllee]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for you input. I really appreciate it!

The tabs were jungle fungus clear and I did take the carbon out of the filter for the treatment period.

Hopefully the picture helps. Since he's white it's hard to see the full extent of it.

[Beverllee]

This was him before...it pains me to look at this picture

[callistra]

He looks like he's biting to me but maybe someone else has another opinion..

[LittleBlueFishlets]

The areas where the fins are torn -- do you see any discoloration (red, black, etc)? Discoloration would be a sign that he has fin rot.

If there are "U-shaped" chunks missing, with no discoloration, this could be tail biting.

[AyalaCookiejar]

I agree. I don't see any rot.

How long after changing the decor did you notice this? Has anything else in his tank changed? Tail biting can be caused by changes like that sometimes.