Have you ever seen this?

[Sassington]

Okay, so this is not so much of an emergency or anything but I just wondered if anyone's ever seen this type of thing.. I've posted something similar in the past but my guy's condition got better on it's own. Just seems a lot worse this time around. I've also googled pics of fin rot but this doesn't really look the same I guess - the pics I've found show mostly fins parts already missing - not so much "during" the event taking place, if that makes sense.

I wasn't going to post up the fill-in form describing habitat and water conditions since my guy seems really fine - all water levels are near perfect, heated 3g tank, and this seemed to come on pretty quickly - he's very fiesty, flares at everything, and he's a bubblenest makin' machine... again, I just wanted to know if the experts here know what this could be.

The pictures show what I'm worried about but some of the tips of his fins in the pictures look black, and they're not actually black, but more gray/ashy - like smoldering wood from a log... weird, huh? And, the worst part is, some parts of his fin are missing - looks like he's been tailbiting but he hasn't been a tailbiter - it actually seems the missing sections have been where the fins have turned ashy and fallen off... does it look like it could be fin rot to you pros?

If you look at my avatar to the left, you can see his fins were pretty uniform in shape and now it just look like a hot mess... I'm thinking it's fin rot but just need confirmation... the only tank I could put him in is a 1g - would be easier for dosing and treatment.

Thanks for any input!

[Pataflafla]

you could treat it as a rot with 1 tsp/gal aquarium salt if you're worried.

[Sassington]

I did find one site that showed better pictures of fin rot that look similar to my betta's condition so I guess I'll treat it as FR unless I hear differently from you all :)

[Pitluvs]

Is it progressing quickly? Or slowly? Looks like the mystery disease blue bettas are coming down with. But if it's slow acting, I'm not sure what it is!

[Pataflafla]

I was going to suggest that mystery one, but it didn't seem like it was going too fast from the pictures.

Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. I would definitely be very tentative with treatment if it's a quick rot though. If 1 tsp/gal doesn't have any affect within 2-3 days, then either up the does or switch to a medication.

[Sassington]

Got it :) I'm working on setting up his 1g tank now to make it easier on us both with dosing and water changes over the next couple of days..

Question though, how much stress coat do I use for a 1g tank?

[Sassington]

Originally Posted by Pitluvs

Is it progressing quickly? Or slowly? Looks like the mystery disease blue bettas are coming down with. But if it's slow acting, I'm not sure what it is!

I can't really tell you how fast it's progressing - I haven't exactly inspected him closely over the past few days like I have tonight. I have been feeding him like usual but that's usually as I'm walking out the door for work.. I did not see this at all during his water change on Tuesday... I don't really have a decent answer :/

[Silverfang]

looks like he had tail biting that got a bit infected, don't worry, I have a brat who gave me the same trouble. Clean water, might need to do a bit of salt treatment.

However if the darkness spreads rapidly then it could be the mystery disease. If he's had a bit of black on his fins for 24 hours I wouldn't worry about the mystery disease.

[Tikibirds]

I was gonna say it kinda looks like tail bitting that got fin rot, but it also kinda looks like the weirdo mystery disease but from what I heard about that, it moves very quickly and kills in a few hours. it seems to start with the fins and rapidly progressed to the body. The affected parts turn rust colored, almost like they are burnt. No on seems to know much about it, and only one site has calls it fur coat disease. It seems all info was copied from this one site and no body seems to know for certain what it is. It also seems to only affect blue bettas.

These are pics from the mystery disease.




and the thread about it
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....ystery+disease

[Sassington]

Thanks Tikibirds for the info and link - the top pic you posted there looks exactly like what my guy has but not nearly as advanced as the pics... weird kind of ashy/burned look to the tips of his tailfins..

Today will be day two of the AQ salt treatments and I'm not sure how long I'm supposed to do the 100% water changes/AQ salt baths... but I'll go back to the FR treatment thread here and find out - since there's no info on how to treat the mystery disease, the FR treatment is all I have to go on at this point..

The areas of concern seems to have gotten much better with treatment - looks like most the affected areas have fallen off at this point - I took some pictures with the flash on and off - there are still some stringy areas here and there but for the most part, it looks like it's disappearing - I just hope it continues to get better and his fins grow back soon - not sure how long that takes... and hopefully I've caught it early enough ;) I hadn't noticed how much red he has in him until now...