Betta tail gets gray and shredded literally over night?! HELP!

[AbesMom]

I feel like I'm constantly having issues with Abe. He's kinda squirrelly, and a couple weeks ago, I woke up to him having black charred areas on his tail that looked like fin rot. I took him out of his 2.5 gallon aquarium and moved him to a half gallon where I could do daily partial water changes. All his water chemical levels are normal, and the tank has stayed in the 76-78 degree range.

I treated him with aquarium salt (1tsp/gal) and added double doses of stress coat to his usual dechlorinated water and it looked like it cleared up quickly. Since the salt is only recommended short term, I did the 10 maximum days and then slowly began to replace the water with unsalted. I had hoped to return him to his tank soon. This was about 2 days ago.

I woke up this morning to find that my cute little veil tail now looks like a crown tail. His normally blue tail is entirely shredded and full of dead looking gray bits. It was literally overnight that he went from normal to messed up. Unfortunately, he gets really mad at my camera, so I can't seem to get a clear picture.

Should I start the salt therapy again? Is it possible it's not just fin rot? If he was shredding his own fins, would they turn gray like that?

I'm a first time betta owner, and as much as I adore this little guy, I'm SO frustrated that he's constantly sick.

[sandybottom]

could be a bacterial infection. bettas get torn fins and sometimes this sets in. you can try the salt again. i might look into some erythromycin. fin rot is serious and can turn into body rot. and body rot is a horrible thing. like flesh eating disease in humans. i would expect it to be excruciating pain.

[callistra]

More info and photos please: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233