Mild finrot that won't go away :(

[ElmoFish]

I bought a new betta 3 or 4 weeks ago, and since the night I brought him home he's had mild finrot. The tips of his fins are sort of brown, and slightly ragged. I started treating him with salt baths and very regular water changes immediately, but there was no change. I decided to try Jungle Fungus Eliminator and have gone through 2 4 day treatment cycles and still no change, it's not getting any worse, but it's not getting any better either.

I have another betta whom had a more severe case of finrot when I got him, and is responding very well to JFE, and is already showing signs of regrowth.

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what I should do?

Is there something I'm missing that could be causing his symptoms?

Thanks :)

[dramaqueen]

I would try Maracyn 1 and Maracyn 2. If that still doesn't work, I'd try ampicillin.

[AngelicScars]

drama nailed it on the head. Give that a shot. Good luck!

[BBgirl]

I started treating Rusty with low doses of Melafix and things started to look up he got a salt bath a day too. As soon as the week of Melafix was over he got a 50% water change and sure enough his regrowth reversed itself. So I got a broad spectrum treatment from petco.com called BettaRevive and he did a 5 day treatment each day I changed half his water before re-dosing. After that I did a 100% water change and started the low dose Melafix again. His fins were showing good signs of regrowth first though. He is recovering well now and I have started adding even lower doses of Melafix to keep him on the road to recovery. 5 days BettaRevive and 5 days of Melafix treatments then a full water change and half the doses of the Melafix. For my 2.65 gallon tank it was 20 drops BettaRevive half water change and re-dose and so on for the 5 days then 100% water change and 10 drops Melafix for 5 days and now partial water changes daily and only 5 drops of the Melafix. There is a lot of talk about Melafix being bad for the fish as well as a bunch of great results too. I personally am one of those that see my pretty boy Rusty thriving and healing up quite nicely.

Just my own personal experience and another option. BettaRevive like most of the other meds does turn the water fairly blue which I hated because I couldn't really see my pretty baby from across the room. He was more like a silhouette but he didn't seem stressed (I was) but he didn't seem to be.

Good Luck with your little buddy.

[Kim]

Do his fins actually get worse if left untreated? I ask because I had one fish that I thought had finrot because the ends of his fins were a little ragged and discolored and it turned out to just be ammonia burn from his cup. He was my first betta and I totally over-medicated him because of this. Luckily it did him no harm. Another fish I rescued that I thought had reoccuring fin rot just turned out to be a tail biter. Both really did look like fin rot, which is why now whenever I get a betta that looks like it has fin rot I observe it for a day or two to get a better feeling for what I am dealing with unless it is VERY obvious.

Do you have a picture?

Oh, forgot to add that ammonia burn, like any other burn, will eventually crumble off and the fins will begin to regrow with time.