I've been treating my betta Ares for fin rot for about five days now. I have been doing 100 percent water changes daily and using Stress Coat. I was finally able to walk to a petstore and get aquarium salt yesterday while on break from work, so I started using that too. He's temporarily in a 1/2 gallon jar (normally lives in a divided 5 gallon tank heated to 82 degrees Fahrenhei), floating in my turtle tank for warmth (it's heated to 78 degrees Fahrenheit), because seeing my other betta Percy nearby was stressing both of them out. Plus, it is much easier to do water changes this way and Alex isn't bothering him. I'm going to try to get him his own tank once he's better. He's a young betta, I just got him last month and he doesn't seem like he is in too much distress. Just very tattered fins.
I hope you have a lid on the QT....It looks like that turtle would love for him to jump out for a visit....lol.....
Are you sure he is not biting his fins.....I would reduce the water changes, add tannins along with aquarium salt 1-2tsp/gal.
Premix a 1gal jug of dechlorinated treatment water-Add the tannin source-either IAL (1lrg crushed/gal) or naturally dried and fallen from the tree Oak leaf (20 crushed/gal) Add salt 1-2tsp/gal-Let this steep for at least 30min before use-Shake well....
Using this premixed treatment water-make 25% water changes every 15min for 1 hour today. This will get him acclimated and start the treatment.
Tomorrow-using the premixed treatment water-make 50% daily water changes for the next 10 days.
Nutrition-good quality varied diet fed in small frequent meals.
You usually will start to see either clear or white fin tips when the fin start to re-grow.
You're right, Alex would love that... D: It was originally an assorted chocolate tin that I cleaned out. The plastic lid is somewhere so I'll go find it and poke some holes in it.
Okay, I'll go do that. I don't think he is biting them. I never seem him do it, but others have said that might have started the fin rot in the first place. His fins have just been getting worse and worse for a few weeks now. I'm feeding him Omega One Betta Buffet pellets. Is twice a day acceptable or should I increase the feedings?
It is approximately half a gallon. Maybe a little more. I eyeballed it by pouring water into it from a one gallon water jug. I really sure hope he is healing. I would feel horrible if he doesn't. /:
(P.S. Perry is one of the drawing I am working on right now.)
If it'll help, I'll go buy a testing kit as soon as possible.
I fear Percy is heading down the same path. His fins are nowhere near as bad and I didn't see any inital signs of damage, but I came home a few days ago and found a small chunk missing from his tail. Now, there is a little speck of red on the edge of his tail. I got him and Ares on the same day, and he always had black edging on his fins, which can be seen in my avi. I started treating him for fin rot as well. I don't understand. I kept their clean and they only had live plants in their tank so they couldn't tear fins on them. They had a filter and I did at least a 50 percent water change per week. Sigh. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
IMHO, any time you run a tank without doing weekly 100% water changes you should have a reliable drops kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
This is especially important during cycling. Cycling takes up to 2 months and you've only had him about a month so your tank has been cycling which is probably causing issues. Once a week 50% with siphon is good for a fully cycled tank. However, many more extra changes are needed during cycling to keep water clean enough to avoid disease, most commonly fin rot. You should have been testing daily for ammonia, and nitrite and doing an extra 50% change any time you saw either hit as little as .25ppm. You would have seen an ammonia spike first, then nitrites would show. Ammonia would have fallen and stuck to 0 even after a full week of no changes, followed by nitrites. At this point you would have been left with only nitrates, which could then be kept <20ppm with the once weekly change.
The only way to know where you're at with your cycle is by testing.
The tank had been running for longer than that. I had two other bettas in that tank before. Those two males are currently living with my girlfriend. One shares a divided 10 gallon with a new male and the other got his own albeitly smaller hex tank. They never had any problems when I had them in the tank, aside from a divider height issue one time, when my little DTHM jumped over to the other side, but I learned my lesson and lowered the water level.
But your advice is dutily noted. My mom is taking me to Target tomorrow to get some supplies, and Petco is in the same lot. I'll get a testing then. Are there any brands/specifics you would suggest? I must admit, rather shamefully, that I actually never tested my water before.
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