Ammonia burn...?

[DragonFish]

Alright, so my mom has this Doubletail she calls Max.....bought him after winning a half gallon 'betta setup' at one of those 'guess how many marbles' things. Well I, of course, dug up an old setup I had that is approximately 2 gallons and set it up for her, modifying the filter, and adding a heater. This was done about a week or so ago and I put it on her book shelf.
Naturally, I told her about feeding and other little aspects of his care, it seemed she almost ignored me completely....feeding him way more then needed, ext. So I'd been watching him and stuff, but the past few days I'd been busy and hadn't had a chance to really look at him properly. Today she says she needs the shelf space and asked if I could take him back to my room, which I did....only to find Max is in not so good shape...

I'm pretty sure he has a mild case of fin rot. I don't have any medications, but I gave him a salt bath and put a little salt in the tank after doing a large water change. I'm thinking the ammonia was pretty high(I didn't test, I was too edger to get him into the salt bath and drain most of the tank, but it tests at 0 now)and it looks like he has what seems to be a small ammonia burn on top of his head...and close inspection reveals that it looks almost like the scales are peeling off a little bit. I'm not sure exactly WHAT it is, I'm just guessing ammonia burn....Anyone know...? Should I treat this in some special way?




The plan is 3-4 salt baths a day, daily PWCs, and(when I can get some)adding some Melafix to his tank. Anything else I should do? Any other medicines I should get?

[kelly528]

Looks sort of like a scrape from some decor... My guy scraped his head a little while ago, and was back to normal a few weeks later. In any case, I would say the key with injuries is: Warm, clean water and stress coat will work wonders... the warm water will promote healing by kick-starting your guy's metabolism/healing process. Clean water will prevent infection and stress-coat promotes tissue regrowth.

Salt is awesome, too IME... it not only prevents infection but raises electrolytes (like gatorade): good for stressed fish!

[Magdalaine]

It looks like he's losing scales... this can happen when they get really stressed, whether it's from scraping himself on the substrate in his tank or just losing them due to poor health and water conditions. Either way, salt baths galor will definitely help to stave off infection. Keep him in as clean water as possible, I have a fish that lost some scales due to stress and now has a minor fungal infection...

[BakaMandy]

Personally, I don't know if salt bath would be the best solution right now ): Just because of the open wound you know what it's like to pour salt on an a cut, it's no different for a fish.

Maybe just keep his water clean and treat him with bettafix or melafix till the wound closes? As long as it stays clean, it should heal up in no time and then you can go to salt baths :)

[DragonFish]

Hmm...there was only one rock he could have possibly scraped himself on, but he would have had to make a good deal of effort to do that(the rock is gone now anyway)....then again, he does have a fondness for wedging himself between things....

Anyway, Theres nothing sharp enough for him to scrape himself on now and I'll just keep up with the daily PWCs to keep his water clean From what I could see, my LPS doesn't carry Bettafix....I'll just have to go with Melafix.
....I would like to continue salt baths though, and there is already a light amout of salt in his tank anyway....I won't add any more to the tank and perhaps I'll lighten the salt in the bath for a little while, but thats all I can do for the fin rot until I can get back to my LPS...which could be a good week. And the fin rot isn't too horrible, so hopefully the salt baths will be able to get that cleared up.

He seems much happier now though, thats for sure I'll let you guys know if anything else happens.

[Rohland]

I would say 2 salts baths at the most should be fine. Also bettafix and melafix are the same thing I believe. Just melafix is stronger so you would like to dilute it a little bit or use a lesser dose.

[DragonFish]

Ahh, yes, now I remember reading that about bettafix and melafix...thank you for reminding me

Well I'm pleased to say I woke up to a lovely bubble nest in Max's tank and a very active, happy betta The wound even looks a ton better, I thought it would take so much longer to heal...but its doing great! I'm so happy

[AlexXx]

Beautiful fish! i cant wait till my DT crows his finnage back! Hope Max heals up nice!