[Betta06]

The IAL didn’t come oh darn it! Must’ve not have gotten in town yet. I hope tomorrow so I can nip fin rot in the butt. I got the heater to hit 80F finally it’s really cold here so the poor heater has to work a bit harder.

Today first day of no aq salt and fin rot hasn’t shown any new symptoms woohoo! The bloody tips came and went on Friday and hasn’t shown up since. Deterioration completely stopped (all it took was just the tips) just the white is all that’s left but I know that isn’t regrowth as it’s part of fin rot. What’s interesting is wc the white is gone hours later it’s back..but it doesn’t get farther than that. The infection must still have a bit of a hold on his fins but everything is still in the mild stage. It’s really amazing I joined y’all just 4 days ago and already his fin rot is getting better. Don’t know what I would have done without your help, Rose. I’ll keep doing wc till I see regrowth with the help of tannins. Got it, I’ll make it fairly dark. Some people say color of tea I could make it slightly darker than that. I saw people on YouTube just leave the leaf in till it fully falls apart. Im not sure if I want to do that, I could though.

You know, he doesn’t ever flare at his reflection sometimes he pays attention to it but doesn’t do much else with it. He doesn’t even glass surf to his reflection. He just swims by without an issue. Excited to see me so he swims very fast to meet me at the front of his tank. Then he’ll just stare at the surface and look at me stare back at the surface of the water as if to say “ok drop the food please.” I’ll make my own garlic juice we always have fresh garlic lying around in our herb drawer. I sanded down his castle and that green plant (it’s plastic soon silk), he really likes that plant. I’ll need to find something similar to it. I may be posting a journal of Jalen and Rocky’s adventures in the journal section of this forum. Of course I’ll post here about fin rot and it’s slow dying phase. I don’t know what to call it, it seems to be slowly backing off. No blood, open wounds, blackened tips or white getting worse (this just sits on the edge of his fins and that’s all it appears to be doing).

 

[Betta06]

Hmm so the dorsal tip that was white rotted or fell off leaving black. Didn’t look red in the light so can’t say it’s blood. I think the no salt was bad…not like I was experimenting what would happen. I didn’t wanna overuse salt. So I guess back to day 1? He’s still not worse off. It was only 24 hours no salt, wc happened daily since Friday. I hadn’t skipped a day yet. As for the white tip rotted off turn black I don’t know if that was going to happen or not heck I don’t know if it fell off because of the white. Im assuming fell off because no blood Im sure I don’t need a flashlight to see it red as I didn’t before. Fin rot changing up the rules. I know that tip was there yesterday. I remember it. Did he maybe bite it off..? It seems a little bit quick to be just rotting off overnight. There is a dark spot where it became detached from the fin. It does reach to where he can bite his tail or it did…

I don’t know what to think at this point. All I remember was it was there overnight it’s gone leaving a dark spot where it use to be. What in the heck is fin rot doing? Or maybe it’s a bite I don’t know..
other than that, no new symptoms, blood or another spot deteriorating. Overthinking another one will after what I saw. I did my 25-30% at least 30 this morning I didn’t add salt. I wonder if I should restart the 10 day salt. Jalen and Rocky both loved the garlic laced pellets. Y’all let me know what I should do. Fin rot seems to be changing the rules here.

 

[Betta06]

After 2 days no salt it doesn’t seem that bad at all. I guess it what rotted off was going to happen. Fin rot is definitely slow with daily wc. Still waiting on those IAL. I’ll need to check where it is I thought it would show Monday.

Ive been drawing people’s bettas to pass the time in between his 3 feedings through the day. Taking care of my bearded dragon and hamster (though she’s after Jalen as he sleeps at night). Im getting good at it.

I woke up late so I need to get on the 25% wc at least. I already fed him the garlic dipped pellets so I am looking into NLS I hear that and Omega One are the best foods for bettas. I’ll have to order them online obviously no petco here. Petco/PetsMart is an hour away from my town. I’ll order them both and ditch Hikari when NLS and Omega get here. Im glad he’ll eat anything no matter how much he’s already eaten. I don’t give into his begging. Bettas are water dogs I swear lol. Im still doing everything I can to help this sweetheart out. I love this fish and we definitely created a friendship between human and betta. Despite finrot his personality never changed or behavior. Rocky doesn’t care to make a friendship lol, grumpy boy but love him too. It’s so different to see two different bettas with two complete personalities. One sweet and one grumpy.

 

[Rose of sharon]

I've had a few grumpy boys, and I have a few sweet ones, and one or two who were attitudinal, lol! One female was very sweet, and one was usually sweet, but don't get in the way of her food!!! 😀

 

[Betta06]

I officially ordered NLS and Omega. They should arrive in 2 days. I don’t do flakes too messy and a pinch is everywhere. I don’t wanna fowl his water with flakes that float under the gravel. I could never control the amount of flakes correctly lol.
Fin rot is INCREDIBLY slow and that’s slower than when I started this thread! Deterioration does show itself Im thinking fin rot is trying to take hold. It’s very slowly showing symptoms but nothing IAL can’t handle. Fin rot is losing the battle I think it’s just trying to act up to stay in the game. It’s not doing anything. No big changes in appearance or new discolored spots. Whatever was discolored was already and probably didn’t notice.
My IAL haven’t even shipped omg..welp wc it is and was gonna keep doing it till the leaves started leaching tannins anyway. Jalen is most likely used to wc daily as I wake up. Him and Rocky love watching me play Switch lol. Digimon Survive seems interesting to them.
So I noticed red in the middle of Jalen’s tail. That is NO WAY that’s blood. It’s in the middle nothing is even happening there they’re not streaks either and fin rot isn’t doing that. I think he’s developing red natural color in his tail. I never saw it in November or December. It’s faint but definitely something there so unless fin rot is bleeding in the middle of his tail though there is no deteriorating there, the red color is actually pretty.

 

[Rose of sharon]

Every betta has a red layer. There are 4 color layers in all....iridescent, black, red and yellow. So the red can poke through depending on the betta's genetic make up.

 

[Betta06]

That’s great! He must be doing tons better to develop more color. I know red on the anal connecting to the underside so there’s red there too. It’s fine freaked me out when I saw it back in November. Day 6 of daily wc no changes in fin rot but I know it’s not done. It’s waiting for me to stop wc so much lol. Im going to keep doing it till I see regrowth. I’ll check in a couple days if the leaves have moved. I’ll drop some in Rocky’s tank too.
NLS and Omega moved, says arriving tomorrow end of day. I also see the silk plants have moved! Woohoo! Took them a few days to finally see them get shipped. A 12” plant (my filter baffler) and a few 6” plants, also two live plants…A…it starts with an A and called it Anubis lol. I have 2 live plants to see if I could keep them alive. I never done live always silk. Live will go into Rocky and Jalen’s tanks.
Ok so how Jalen got his name is Im an Eagles fan NFL in case you don’t know. Jalen Hurts is the quarterback for the team so I named a betta after him. My mom named a cat after a Seahawks quarterback lol. I blame her…I just thought I’d share that. I’ll go entertain the boys for a few hours. Hope you enjoy this update.

 

[Betta06]

THERES REGROWTH!!! Omg! You can barely tell because how small the damage was. The catappa leaves arrived from what I read catappa is IAL the package says antibacterial but not antifungal…I assume antifungal is part of this deal anyway.

The anal fin is where the regrowth is. The bloody tips from last Friday (hasn’t shown up since then) already regrowing back. I never saw the clear regrowth is it possible the damage is too small that I can’t see it? I was expecting clear tissue first. Not every fin is regrowing yet only a few are. I will be putting in 10 leaves in each tank and will add more if it’s not dark enough. Tomorrow will be my last wc and then add leaves and let them do their thing. I’ve decided that I will replace when they fully dissolve (package says I can do that). Maybe I’ll do wc till the tannins show up that way fin rot doesn’t have a chance to do more damage as the leaves break down and leach out tannins in the water.

Im confused though how can fins regrow back without the clear part first? I was under the impression to see clear tissue and then color up. I literally see tips coming back on some that was rotted off.

 

[Rose of sharon]

It is possible for them to regrow back in color. For extensive damage, it usually is translucent, and then colors up afterward. I'm just glad to hear that you are seeing some improvement.

The IAL will provide tannins in a few hours of putting them in the tank. You will start seeing the brown tint. Within 24 hours, you will really see it. I usually rinse them off a bit first, and then put them in the tank. I guess I'm just very careful....

 

[Betta06]

Didn’t notice they’re mini leaves lol. Package says 10 leaves for every 12 gallons. Hmm well maybe put in 4.. don’t wanna put a lot of tannins might be toxic to have too much. I’ll rinse them in old tank water. Rocky already likes them he seems to guard them when I just wanted to move them lol. Once something goes in you can’t take it out that’s Rocky for you. He’ll allow wc because well he can’t do anything about that. Human will do wc Rocky!

Jalen will need wc first then I’ll rinse them and they’ll go in. I rather be cautious don’t want unnecessary dust in there. I hope this works I never done any type of leaves of anything before.

thanks for all the help he seems to be improving a tiny bit. I’ll be creating a journal of both my boys to share. I better do that wc before fin rot decides to come back with vengeance. I’ll update later if anything comes up.

 

[Betta06]

Welp I messed up with Rocky’s tank. His filter media the carbon I was getting most of it out (some left behind) and the bacteria was getting scraped off too! I think the tank will go through a cycle because my dumb mistake. It still has bacteria on the back just the front of the media is accidentally scraped off. I was just trying to get the carbon out I didn’t realize about the bacteria. Crap..I did well with Jalen’s how did I mess up with Rocky? I poured a cup of the old water back in the filter and another cup of the water in the tank to fix my mistake. It has the bacteria in the bucket that I use for changes. I didn’t realize I could mess up this badly. Sorry Rocky I didn’t realize. I could some of Jalen’s bacteria I didn’t though because fin rot ahhh. What do I do with Rocky? I didn’t mean to mess up with him! His tank is cloudy some bacteria is gonna get back in the filter eventually. Did I do wrong adding cups of the old water in to save the bacteria? Please help I made an accident that can hurt Rocky! I’ll do whatever it takes to save him! I could do another thread for Rocky but he’s still acting normal but obviously it can take months for a mess up to show symptoms.

How can I be so blind to what was happening to the bacteria?

 

[Rose of sharon]

It's ok....even if you killed off some beneficial bacteria, it will grow back. You will just need to test your water parameters in Rocky's tank often, and maybe do some small, frequent water changes until it all settles down.

For the cartridges (I assume that is the type of filter media that you have?), I usually just rinse them off in dirty tank water when they need it. If you see cloudy water, it will settle after a few hours. If it is a bacterial bloom, that, too, will right itself once enough bacteria grows back.

The majority of the bb lives on the filter media and on surfaces in the tank, not so much in the water.

You haven't done anything that can't be fixed with a little time, some careful observation, and maybe some water changes.

 

[Betta06]

Thank you so much! I will test Rocky’s water so far ammonia is 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 20. I was gonna do a water change in Rocky’s tank today (Saturday for Rocky, Friday for Jalen). Most of the carbon (small number of it is stuck and didn’t wanna rip up the media) is out of his cartridge it shouldn’t affect the IAL. Im expecting a small ammonia spike because accidentally killed some bb. The cloudy already went away in a few hours. I do use old tank water to rinse it so I’ll let it collect back before another clean up of the cartridge. Not all the bb is killed there’s some on the back of the cartridge as well as you said surfaces so not completely like new tank syndrome round 2. I can’t use my pure ammonia (how I cycled the first time) because well yeah Rocky is in there. I am hoping it doesn’t completely crash if anything a mini cycle. It doesn’t look like it started everything is where it should be. Rocky doesn’t seem bothered at all so maybe it’s ok. I’ll watch him.

As for Jalen, he seems to enjoy his IAL. Fin rot at bay. It does act up a tiny bit but nothing major. I guess that’s all for now the boys are resting right now as it’s nighttime.

 

[Betta06]

Well Im still watching but still no stress stripe not that Im waiting for that. To be on the safe side, a water change won’t hurt. Rocky would show a stress stripe if anything is wrong much like Jalen. I know he’d care if his water is wrong.

update on the IAL I only put 4 in like I said don’t want toxic water but they hadn’t released any tannins the package says they’ll sink after 1-2 days. Well it did that but the water isn’t even slightly yellow. Did I get ripped off and these aren’t the leaves it says they are? Oh man I hope it’s not that! I waited for these for almost a week. Crap man…I guess water changes to keep fin rot away.
yeah gonna have a great talk with my mom saying I gotta pay for the RIGHT leaves. I imagine how that talk goes ahhh. My mom is a complicated person I can’t explain it. It’s hard to explain things to her. Im gonna have to try if I don’t see tannins soon.

 

[Feanor]

I‘m sure, you got the right leaves.
Shoot a photo, if in doubt.

4 small maybe just won‘t do much colorwise in a 10 Gallon tank.

You can still order the regular size or use plain, unscented Rooibos Tea.

It will be good if the tank gets tanned!

 

[Betta06]

these are the leaves. They are already in the water and are starting to break down I’ll put more.

 

[Betta06]

I don’t know how many to put really..so I stuck an extra two that makes six altogether. I don’t know if the carbon is doing anything I really couldn’t get every piece out so this sucks. I mean most of the pieces came out but the cartridge is wet (obviously) and it was really really hard to get it all out and I wish I could have. It’s the same for Jalen’s tank only most of the carbon is gone.

Fin rot still has no change. I feel like I’ll be doing wc for a long time because the carbon probably taking the tannins out. I don’t wanna replace it, it still has good bb on it. New tank syndrome will be worse than fin rot. I’ll do what I gotta do I guess. I thought buying the leaves would be great dump the carbon out. It didn’t go exactly as I planned. I feel defeated because the stupid carbon wouldn’t all come out some was stuck. I didn’t wanna tear the cartridge apart to get all of it out. I tried it wasn’t working I felt I would end up tearing it to pieces to get all out then no cartridge because it’s all ripped up. I just didn’t know what to do. On the bright side, fin rot is done doing whatever it was trying to do.

Here’s happy boy Jalen showing off his happy dark colors.

 

[Rose of sharon]

You could try boiling a few leaves in some treated tank water to see if the tannins will release more that way.

Below is a pick of my boy Flash's tank, so you can see how brown the water is for an example.

And like @Feanor suggested, if you can get some organic rooibos tea, that works really well, too. And I know a couple of guys who use dark water extract in their black water tanks. I've never used it before, but they do swear by it.

 

[Betta06]

Aw Flash is adorable btw. I will do that as my mom is out tomorrow though I was invited to go. I don’t think I can skip out on wc just yet though fin rot has been stopped in its tracks. The white however is still there but not doing anything worse. It makes me think fin rot is still around so I can’t stop yet.

I saw Jalen play with his leaves after lights out. He tends to stay up late and watch anime. Ive seen him and Rocky watch tv. They sleep eventually. It does say the leaves can be boiled 5-10 minutes. I’ll update how it is later.

 

[Betta06]

It’s over it’s finally over! I showed a flashlight on Jalen. No black or red or anything! Just white…not sure if that’s healing but I remember the white coming January 25th with fin rot. It could be, but I doubt it’s healing and just part of fin rot. It won’t go away though even with all these wc.

Another question, when do I stop daily wc? I don’t know if it’s waiting for me to slack on wc or not. I want to absolutely be sure it won’t come back if I stop. So how do I know Im good to go back to weekly wc? Im keeping 25% wc weekly. Ive done daily wc 8 days now and today I see beautiful color on fins just white which invisible when you shine a light on him. I beat fin rot no colors today just original fin color. The beast has fallen haha. I’ll boil leaves soon.