Please help Keller!

[cp6445]

Please help! I was gone Sat thru today, fed Keller as normal (2x per day) sat, had to skip sunday, someone else fed him once on mon, had to skip tues, home now... And Keller has horrible fin rot (I think)-his fins are all noticibly frayed, with a chunk missing!

He does not know he is terribly sick and worrying me horribly, as he has been doing his wiggle dance and chasing my finger ever since I got home.

I have done a 100% water change immediately, and treated with one dose of tetracycline.

My questions:
1. Does fin rot come on this quickly? Another cause I guess could be self-biting- I've not seen him exhibit this behavior but he is extremely active so potentially I guess he could have been bored in my absence and torn himself-How can I tell the difference?

2. Any thoughts on antibiotic of choice (tetracycline, erythro, etc)- What are people's experience with salt in water? I'm afraid to go with conservative treatment at this point since it seemed to progress so quickly-

3. Hoping for the best, how soon should I expect to see some improvement, assuming I treat him aggressively?

see info below:
Housing
What size is your tank? 10gal
What temperature is your tank? 78-80 with a heater
Does your tank have a filter? yes
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? freeze dried blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, and bettaMin flakes- he will not do pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? 1-2x/day with a fasting day, but see above schedule for recent while i was gone

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 25% every 5-7 days
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? water conditioner, can't remember type

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
yes but only with strips
Ammonia: old water was b/t safe and stress
Nitrite: new is safe, couldnt test old
Nitrate: same as above
pH: 6.1
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? yes, ripped up fins but no redness or streaking or white spots
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? hasn't
When did you start noticing the symptoms? today
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? yes, see above
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no, except probably a litte fin rot when i rescued him from pet superstore
How old is your fish (approximately)? not sure- had for 4 months

Thanks!

[Laki]

My best guess would be tail nipping. My Lakitu did it suddenly one day too, I thought it was rot and treated him for fin rot but he was just a biter. Do you have pics?? Please get pics. Meanwhile, is the edges of his tail black? If not, and judging by the "chunk" I would still guess nipping.
I have had successful salt treatments on Lakitu and Ludendorff.

I would change the diet to consist of a higher quality food. Omega One buffet (pellets are best, flakes if he's picky) is high in protein and goodness :) THere are some other which people feed too. And switch the free dried for frozen. Free dried may cause bloat and other issues later on. Not necessarily and some people swear by them but I would switch.
Indian Almond Leaves. Go on ebay, search for them from either Amy or Aquatic Magic and buy some. The leaves relsease a tannin in the water which helps strengthen and immunify (new word) your fish. Breeders use IAL as does people who raise them to fight. It really is a miracle thing. They're dirt cheap too. The tannins act as an antibiotic and help keep them healthy!
Reminder, please get a pic so we can rightfully assess your fishy :)

[cp6445]

Interesting about the IAL! Will have to get some-I do need to get some better quality food- he's so picky- i've tried several different pellets, indluding soaking them. Will try the Omega flakes.

I will try to post a pick once he goes to sleep tonight, will sneak up on him. When I'm close to the aquarium he won't stop moving for a picture- I've never been able to post his pic on my profile- i'm not quick enough. But I can hopefully catch him tonight when he's fanned out asleep.

Hard to tell if the edges are black- I don't think so- his fins are pretty dark blue/purply in general so hard to tell, but they don't seem to be any different color than usual.

Thanks!

[Laki]

If you're taking him out and putting him in a small q-tank for daily salt treatment cleanings then you might be able to get some pictures. I suggest finding some natural light from a window for the picture because a flash might ruin the image when we're looking for black edges if he is indeed a dark color anyway!

[Myates]

Sounds as if he is fin biting- which happens and could of been caused because his routine with you has changed. I have one that when I went into surgery for the first time and wasn't around (he is at my desk), and only there when I could be to feed them, he started tail biting (my latest go-around with surgery I moved him close to where I was at during recovery). After I got back to schedule the first time he stopped biting.. so sometimes even a change of schedule can cause them to do such things. So don't give up hope just yet- he may stop.
And they tend to do it when no one is watching, I don't think many people have actually caught them doing it.

Laki has you covered on how to help his fins grow back.. good luck with everything.
I would stop salt treatment as it's unnecessary stress on him..
Also freeze dried doesn't cause bloating, and doesn't swell up inside their stomachs- one of those myths that I used to believe, but had found out by experts that it isn't true.

[Laki]

I thought freeze dried was lacking the same quantities of protein as found in frozen? I also thought that where they were dried and puffy they weren't good?? Excuse my comment then! I seem to have been ill informed :)

[Myates]

I was ill informed too at first..

"(freeze dried & bloating) digestion doesn't work this way for one and usually when a fish bloats with food it is related to ingredients (poor quality-high in grain & grain byproducts) that is causing a pathogenic bacteria gases in the gut to multiply- that in turn expand the gut appearance..... and with the FD foods it is usually due to overfeeding-but these are often empty calories and poor nutrition as the reason they shouldn't be used as the staple diet and oddly enough frozen foods can even be poor nutrition due to cells that break in the freezing process-but this can vary with the company processing...some better than others...." -OFL

So yes, FD isn't that nutritious, but it does have a lot of protein and used as treats or a meal replacement once or twice a week isn't going to damage the fish.

[cp6445]

Either way on the freeze-dried worms, I need to change my flakes to something healthier. Although this morning he is so glad to see me he ate pellets lol, which Keller usually spits out.

I'm not doing salt treatments right now. But I will need to wait til this evening when I rechange his water to get a pic, because the tetracycline discolors the water too much to get any good picture.

He may be fin-biting- His fins don't look any worse this morning. I will likely do the 4 doses of tetracycline with water changes as instructed and then stop and observe for worsening or non-improvement of symptoms.

Myates hope you are ok, you seem to be having a lot of surgeries:) Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the help- I will try to post a picture when I change his water this evening.

[Myates]

lol thanks.. I have been having them lately.. eventually will get it all sorted out :)

If you are looking for flakes, the best one I have found out there, judging by ingredients, protein, etc are NutraFin Max Color Enhancing flakes, and BettaMin Tropical Medley by Tetra. If you could get either of those then that would be a good brand to give him. Glad he is eating pellets! Sometimes they don't taste all that appealing to them- a couple of the better brands, that a lot of picky bettas prefer are the New Life Spectrum betta pellets, and Omega One Betta Buffet.. I prefer Omega One, but NLS is very very popular as well.

Good luck!

[Marlboroack]

Maybe he is eating himself.. Change your Betta food. Wild type bettas do this when they lack something in their diet..