[briemonique]

So this is my very first betta that I have ever had to take care of,so I'm unsure of any illness or habbits of a betta fish.My fish is male and I've had him for 7 months,I bought him from Petco.He still is hyper and flits about in his tank,so his fins don't seem to bother him.His tank sits in front of a window so he gets natural light in the day.I feed him 1-2 freeze dried bloodworms a day and I have been treating his fins with Melafix,doing as it says on the bottle.I'm just wondering if anyone can help me figure out what is wrong with him and how I can treat him.

When I first got him

His tail now

His top fin (sorry the pictures aren't all that good)
(next to the suction cup of his hammock)

His bottom fin

 

[obiordi]

Hello,

Melafix is known to make breathing (labyrinth organ) harder on the fish. This is fin rot. I suggest getting some Aquarium salt (this helps stress and helps medications to work more) and then picking up some Bettafix Remedy. You can buy this at Petco. It works extremely well and fixes fin rot noticeably in 1-3 days. Your little guy has a bad case of it, and if you don't treat it now it will spread to his body (scales) and that is very difficult to treat when it gets to that point.

 

[briemonique]

Thank you very much,also how would I know if it has spread to his scales?Would they start to fall off or change colors?

 

[VivianKJean]

DO NOT GET BETTAFIX! it is just as bad for a bettas as Mellafix.

The best cure for fin rot is to do 100% daily water changes and keep the water at 80F. You can add some Stresscoat to the water as well to help with regrowth.

in general, NEVER use any of those medicines ending in Fix