New Fish Missing Fins

[Amehzes]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1.6 gal
What temperature is your tank? 80.7
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? - Aqueon Betta Food
How often do you feed your betta fish? twice a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? I just got her so twice
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? I use spring water, and Aqueon Betta Bowl Plus

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? It hasn't changed since Ive gotten her
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? It hasn't
When did you start noticing the symptoms? When I got her.
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? I bought Quick Cure, but I haven't used it
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? I got her yesterday, and shes small. I don't have a clue, haha.

Basically, I went to a Super Walmart yesterday morning, saw their disease ridden collection of fish, and decided that I wanted to save one. There was a small female who was just too cute to pass up. The problem is, shes missing small amounts of her anal fin, a little part of one of her pelvic fins, a small bit of her pectoral fin, and 95% of her caudal fin. I'm not sure what caused it so I don't know how to treat it. When I got her, the cup was filled with lots of black specs, which sort of looked like ash, and a little bit of algae. She also may have a little black spec on her 'egg spot' (I don't know the technical name). Besides her missing fins, she seems perfectly healthy, is always curious (and hungry!), and loves looking at people. Right now I'm keeping her in a quarantine tank- 1.6 gallons, no gravel, no filter. Just a heater and some decor, plus a cup to hide in. She'll get a water change soon, but she's only been in this water for less than a day.

Ill post pictures if needed, though they aren't very good. Any ideas?

[Oldfishlady]

Since she is otherwise acting like a normal healthy fish and eating well....lots of clean fresh dechloranated water from daily water changes and time...if you want to use bottled water I would recommend that you at least mix it 50/50 with tap water for the minerals that are really important for long term health and healing especially for fins....or just use your tap alone along with dechlorinater that should be used with bottled water anyway since it may just be filtered tap water to start......

Look forward to some pics...

[Amehzes]

I buy the wal mart brand gallon jug of spring water, and use the betta condition which says it has elements for betta's health (not sure what that means though..) But if tap water helps, I've got plenty of that

As a side question, which dechlorinater works best? Or are they all sort of the same? And what is the best way to do so? Some people say leaving it out for 24hrs and some just use the bottle stuff. Ive just always used conditioner and spring..

Pictures! Hard to see but..





If the pictures dont work, here are the links:

Pic 1

Pic 2

The focus of these is the tail fin, since my camera wont pick up any other fin. Not to mention shes too hard to photograph.

[Oldfishlady]

You want a dechlorinator that covers-chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals...Prime, API are a couple of good ones...they work on contact-the water is safe for the fish once the dechlorinator is mixed in the water...no need to wait.....

When you make the switch to tap water be sure and do this slowly just in case there is a big pH difference....just add small amounts of the dechlorinated tap water to the Betta over 30 min...just like you do when you acclimate a new fish to your source water....

[Amehzes]

Okay, thank you Ill be sure to do that.

Any ideas on her mystery fin problem? Will they grow back?

[Oldfishlady]

Most likely due to coming from poor water quality she is suffering from ammonia burns with secondary fin rot-usually once water quality has been improved as well as nutrition the fish immune response will kick it and take care of itself.....usually fin grow back-depending on the amount of damage, age of fish and a few other factors...fin will re-grow without issue, however, sometimes they may never return to their full glory.....you should start to see re-growth in 2-4 days and full re-growth can take a month or so.....