Sick Betta, Need Help :(

[cathapedia]

Ok so I have a male Betta that I had in a community tank (20 gallon) along with a couple of Cardinals and an algae eater.

The first sign of sickness I noticed was that part of his tail was missing (fin rot). I assumed that maybe one of the other fish had been pecking at him though, since I keep the tank pretty clean.

However, the fin rot continued to where it became obvious that it was fin rot, and he started to lose a lot of his color. He had beige patches on his body that almost looked like sores. He also stopped being active, staying at the bottom of the tank most of the time.

At this point I decided to isolate him in a 1 gallon tank so he would be able to just eat his Betta pellets and be away from the bacteria that flakes can cause. I added some aquarium salt to the tank, water conditoner of course, and some BettaFix Remedy stuff that is supposed to help cure all of the common Betta illnesses.

Now within a day of being in the new tank he started to grow cottoney patches around where the skin had been beige before. I know that cotton like patches on a betta are normally a seperate condition all together, but I couldn't figure out why they would come after I put him in a medicated secluded tank. He has seemed to become a little more active since being put in the tank by himself as well.

Is it possible that they were just there because his skin was starting to heal and grow back normally? Is there anything else I should be doing to make sure that he gets better? It breaks my heart to look at the poor guy suffering, I really want him to get better...

[leifthebunny]

The white cottony patches are a cascade effect of the fin rot. You will need to keep an eye on the tank mates of the betta, it's possible to spread.

As for betta fix, it's diluted mela fix. Some people say it's bad for a betta to have full strength mela fix, but I've never had any problems with it. You might want to double your dose of betta fix (it's actually 1/5 strength mela fix).