Now I'm really worried...

[brancasterr]

As some of you already know, I think my betta is getting sick. Today when I woke up I noticed his tail and such were clumped together and looked as if they were deteriorating at the ends. (Pieces falling off, etc) Is this fin rot?! What should I do? I bought some aquarium salt and some Melafix. I just want my betta to be healthy again. :(

[Romad]

Sounds like it could be fin rot. Any way you can post a picture?

What size tank is he in now?

And what are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph?

What is the tank temp. and how often do you do water changes?

[brancasterr]

I tried taking a picture but my camera sucks and the lighting in here is low right now. But I found a picture on google images:



It looks something similar to that, but not to that extent. What looks similar is the hanging skin.

He is in a 1-1.5 gallon (i'm not entirely sure) right now but I plan on getting him a bigger one once my pay check rolls in.

My water parameters have been checked over and over and nothing is wrong. The readings are about as perfect as I've seen them.

The temp is around 78-79 and I do one full water change on sundays and a 50 percent water change on wednesdays.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

IMO 1G, even 1.5G should be cleaned at least 100% twice a week. Ammonia will build up very fast in small tanks.

[brancasterr]

Here is a picture of what he looked like before(fins and tail alll nice):


and here is a (low quality) picture of what the poor little guy looks like now: I think he's lost quite a bit of color but the lighting is low.

[xxabc]

Can you get a more clear picture? Even if you have to really back up to get a clear picture, it would be much better than a closer blurry picture.

Looks like it's snatching on something... ? Not so much tailbiting. It COULD be fin-rot, although the lack of black-lining is uncommon...although still possible. What other signs besides the tail?

Here's a great website I use
http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm
See if anything on here helps you at all. I would first especially look up "Velvet", I always had trouble catching this disease.

[brancasterr]

These are the best pictures I could get. Hopefully they will help. He looks a lot less colorful in these pictures but he's actually not that pale. (I think it's the flash). Anywho, the other symptoms are not eating(I just put some in there to see if he'll eat, as you can probably see), hanging out at the bottom of top of tank, and just overall less activity.

And no his tail isn't snatching on anything, they're just severely clumped together. :(

[brancasterr]

bottom or top**

[brancasterr]

I'm wondering if I should begin treating him with the Melafix...I don't want to leave his illness untreated just for the sake of studying him more.

Here is a slightly better picture.

[Oldfishlady]

I would start doing 100% daily water changes and add aquarium salt 1tsp/gal, if you have IAL or oak leaves add this to the pre mix salt water..... use a small QT container and pre mix the salt water, you want the water temp to be a bit lower in the 76F range, bacteria thrive in warmer water and you should see improvement within 3-5 days, feed a high protein diet with fresh garlic juice to promote healing, however, if the fin rot is advanced you may want to go to a broad spectrum antibiotic