[Katy]

I've dealt with a lot of fin rot in several different rescue betas... My 2 most recent cases are 2 males that share a divided, heated, filtered 10gal. They are active, great eaters, and I have been fighting fin rot with them for about 2 months on and off- water changes, AQ salt, anti-bacterials, antifungals... gone thru everything at some point in time.

Sometimes I get ahead and then something happens (heater crash, whatever) and I lose ground. But thru all this they have remained extremely active. I've treated them together this entire time b/c they show the same symptoms.

However, 3 days ago I notice the crowtail (Boo) looks like his dorsal fin has been painted white with white-out. It's not cottony. And the other one does not have it. There are no spots on his body. But it has spread over his entire dorsal fin now. No change in behavior.

What is this? It does not look fungal. I don't know his exact age but I've only had him 6 months so I don't think he's very old. I've never seen one marble like that either.

Right now I am treating for possible Ich, as that's the only thing I can think of that I have not covered.

Any thoughts please?

 

[Sena Hansler]

Don't treat for what you don't know! Trust me... Whatever it is could become resiliant and that is very, very bad. Can you post a picture? I've seen "white" on a balloon molly's fins, and she was a black spotted orange mama. You know what it ended up being? Columnaris. Just...not the normal "cottony mouth" look.

 

[Katy]

Ok will try to post pic- columnaris is a good thought- I sooo don't want to go down the antibacterial road with them again... tired of colored water and it's a NPT, the plants hate it! But I will do whatever I need to do for Boo

 

[Sena Hansler]

Hmmm what kind of meds were you using? like, what brand?

 

[Katy]

Update on this, b/c it was quite weird-
I did go ahead and use API super ich cure. Had already started it, and while as a doctor I dont believe in treating what I don't know with antibiotics (antifungals, antiparasitics), once started it is better to finish the treatment to avoid resistant strains.
Result was: Boo is getting better- white fins are turning back to blue. Oddest thing is he had developed new growth on fins even when his fins turned white. And Imhy his tank mank (divided) never had white fins and only shows new growth.
Soooo... hope this is over but don't know exacty what it was. Could have been columnaris, since anti-parasite seems to have helped, but difficult to diagnose.

 

[Sena Hansler]

Can we get a picture? Or did it vanish?

Anyways, one of my angels got "white growth" on his current fins, and I knew it was columnaris, so I used Maracyn 2 to kick it's butt, 2 treatments later healthy fish

 

[Katy]

Unfortunately I did not capture this in a picture- but it literally looked like I took white-out and painted Boo's dorsal fin completely. Very weird. And now... gone! No sign. And both fish seem healthy with fin regrowth. Odd. Perhaps it was columnaris.

 

[Sena Hansler]

How fast did it leave? That sounds very odd. But the important thing is both of them are healthy!