My poor fish... What am I doing wrong

[nochoramet]

My betta Haze has had finrot for the past week or so and I bought him some meds (Melafix and Stresscoat) at the LPS, they didn't have Maracyn or Maracyn 2 or aquarium salt at the LPS or Wal-Mart so I've been treating him with Melafix and Stresscoat since Thursday. His fin rot isn't getting better or worse, but I've noticed he's not very active, when normally he's hyper hyper hyper and very curious to his surroundings. Then today, actually about an hour ago, I noticed some odd coloration on him. Looking closer, I noticed he has EXTREME stress stripes on him... and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm changing the water 100% once and 50% once a week, feeding him like I do his buddy Rain, same kind of water and treatment, besides his meds. But something is wrong here. What am I doing wrong? I hate to see him so stressed. Rain is... well right as rain happy and active and flaring and colorful. Haze isn't.

[dramaqueen]

Is he still on the Melafix? Melafix made one of my fish sick. He would go straight to the bottom and hardly move until I took him out and put him in water without meds.

[nochoramet]

Yeah I've been putting a little bit in each day... He doesn't seem to like it but I don't want his fin rot to get worse. Catch 22. :(

[AngelicScars]

That sucks that you couldn't find any aquarium salt because I would just do salt baths before starting on any heavier meds.
Maybe you can change his water and get the meds out, make sure his tank is around 80-82 degrees, change the water daily until you find some aquarium salt to do salt baths?

[nochoramet]

Ok I'll try that thank you... I read somewhere about Epsom salt would that work or not? Just curious as to what options I have. Thank you so much for responding

[ChristinaRoss]

id only use salt thats meant for aquariums, some salts contain other ingredients NOT healthy for fish....

keeping his water pristine clean will help with the finrot, without meds

[nochoramet]

Ok thank you I'll do that. Thanks for the advice :)

[withluck]

Also, from what I've read, Melafix can melt betta's fins. It's mostly used for larger fish.. like goldfish. Same with "bettafix" it's basically watered ddown melafix.

Salt and clean water usually fix fin rot, if it's not too bad. Over medicating can sometimes be more harmful than helpful.

[dramaqueen]

I never had a problem with bettafix. I have had problems with Melafix, though.

[nochoramet]

Well it wasn't doing one thing or another to his fins... they weren't getting better or worse, he just was acting so pitiful, and the stress stripes kind of freaked me out he didn't even look like the same fish his purple was washed out and he looked almost brown with the dark vertical stripes on his body and through his eyes