how's he looking?

[maggiegator]

I diagnosed my betta with fin rot, but I wanted to make sure I have it right. I went and grabbed some pictures, so hopefully this will help. Basically his tail fine looks shorter and kind of scraggly. Also, this morning he was just laying down on the bottom of the tank, and I'm not sure if that's normal. Like, he was actually laying on his side with just his head up off the ground. I'm not sure if he's just tired or if that's a sign of him not feeling well. The tank is kept at 78 degrees and it's a 10 gallon.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...P1010159-1.jpg
That's a picture of the tank. The two bottles next to it are the chemicals that are currently in the water. One is the water conditioner that came with the tank, and the other is a betta medication I picked up from the pet store. I plan to add more decorations later.

Here are some other pics of the fish. He's a delta tail male according to Petco and his name is Kovu. (:




let's play guess which is the real fish and which is the reflection. xP





so on a scale of one to ten with ten being the healthiest, how's he looking?

[masshiimarro]

hmm.. hard to tell. he could be tailbiting, or it could actually be finrot. do you see any discoloration at the tips? if there is actually any sort of dark discoloration, then yeah, i would say its finrot. new growth will look clearish at the tips.

[maggiegator]

Mm it might be tailbiting then... There definitely hasn't been any discoloration and I did notice the clear bits today so I'm glad to know that's new growth. Maybe he was just more bored of his other tank than I realized! He's in a new ten gallon tank though so maybe that'll help his frustration.

[masshiimarro]

Yeah tailbiting could be caused by stress. Glad to know hes feeling better!

[Tikibirds]

How long have you had him? If you just got him, high ammonia levels can burn away their fins too...

If its tail bitting, he could be stressed out or he could just be a chronic tail bitter. I have a blue HM who's got more points in his fins then a crowntail. I tried all sorts of stuff with him and nothing worked.

[maggiegator]

About a month, maybe a little more. It might have been ammonia... He was in a small tank before, so I'm sure it built up fairly fast. Now he's got the whole 10g to himself so hopefully that won't be as much of an issue. His tail doesn't seem to be getting any worse, anyway.