please help, im worried its fin rot

[nesscat]

im worried that my beta has, or is showing signs, of fin rot. i tried getting a good picture of him but he was in an energetic mood. ill try to get a better picture later. I feed him pellets, he has a one gallon tank, i took out about 1/3 of his water and replaced it with new water about 2 days ago.
Sometimes Ill give him little bits of sun dried brine shrimp. He doesnt seem unhealthy and as far as i can tell his water looks clear. He was a recent birthday present and had a 1/2 gallon tank before i changed it to a 1 gallon. from the picture you can see he has a filter in the middle and a light for his tank. There was a lot of confusion on what kind of water to use for him, so he has been moved around more than he should have.
My tap water that I use i know for sure has a pH of 7.2, and is very hard. Im getting a new pH kit soon to check again and make sure.

He eats in the morning and at night, i try to use one day of the week to not feed him. I dont know how old he is, but he looks pretty small to me. My friend bought him at Wal-mart, and i dont remember seeing the torns in his fins when i first saw him. There was a sharp plant in his old tank that i believe made the first torn in his top fin, and I recently had gotten him another, round plant, to see if he would like that but as soon as i saw he had another torn on his tail fin i took the plant out. Ive seen a tiny white/yellow spot on his tail fin, so i dont know if fin rot is getting to him or not.







ill try to get a picture of him when he's floating, but i usually seem to catch him when he's swimming around like a mad fish.

any help is appreciated.

[Luchi]

Well since his tank is so small you should do 100% water changes because the ammonia in small tanks builds up rapidly. That could be causing the finrot. Also, if your water is hard are you putting a water conditioner in the water before you put your fish back in?

The fish from wal-mart usually come home with problems so he may have already had it somewhat when you got him. Water changes frequently and a little aquarium salt could solve the problem quickly. He may need meds also depending on how bad the finrot is.

[3bangdoos]

Our betta had fin rot (just the beginning) when we got him and over 2 cycles of Maracyn 2, we've managed to stem the rot and actually see his fins get back the color and grow!
My advice would be to preferably move him to a larger tank (at least 2.5 gallons) and maintain the temp at 76F. Feed him pellets but you could let him indulge in freeze dried blood worms once a week to get his protein levels up.
As many members on this board had advised, we added Stress Coat in his water and it's really helped heal the torn fins.
I would recommend not using tap water at least if you're starting him on his meds; instead use the betta water you get in pet stores. I thinks its about 4 bucks for 2 gallons and should see you through 2 changes.